breakfast of champions

Houston's GOAT Simone Biles gracefully lands iconic cereal box cover

The Biles boxes will be available nationwide later this month.

Wheaties/Twitter

Houston’s Greatest of All Time can now add cereal box cover model to her already gravity-defying resume. Simone Biles will grace the cover of Wheaties boxes, the four-time Olympic gold medalist announced on social media.

Noting that she’s joining a “very unique club,” Biles told her fans in a video that she’s joining fellow sports icons Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan on the boxes, as part of the brand’s Century Collection series.

“Growing up, I looked up to Dominique Dawes and Serena Williams,” Biles told her 6.8 million Instagram followers, citing the pioneering Olympic gymnast known as “Awesome Dawesome” and fellow Black sports superstar and tennis champion.

Wheaties, in turn, called Biles a “true champion” and “legend” and informed fans that the boxes will be available nationwide later this month.

GUYS LOOOOOOK 🧡🧡🧡🧡 @wheaties My younger self is screaming!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/cIgNq1fbw2

— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) June 15, 2022

The Spring hometown hero pointed out that Wheaties has always spotlight athletes who “go above and beyond their sports and also give back to the world.” Biles is a smart choice, as evidenced by her globally scrutinized, self-imposed break during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which raised awareness on the importance of mental self care, and her public crusade against convicted predator Larry Nassar — which shed light on the plight of victims everywhere.

“It’s always important to see someone who looks like you succeeding, and to share the title of Wheaties Champion with them means the world to me,” Biles said in the video.

And succeed she has. The most decorated gymnast in history scored a bronze medal despite her struggle in 2020 and is engaged to Houston Texans safety Jonathan Owens and has been living her best life, if her social posts are any indicator. She also launched a clothing line with athleisure brand Athleta.

This isn’t Biles first cover appearance; she was recently namedTime Magazine’s Athlete of the Year. Always poised and collected, the GOAT didn’t mind gushing at the Wheaties honor, charmingly posting on Twitter: “My younger self is screaming!!!!!!”

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what's new at the zoo

Houston Zoo welcomes Kirby, a newly-born Asian elephant

The Houston Zoo Asian elephant herd increased by one last week.

Photo by Kevin Kendrick/Houston Zoo

Kirby is a healthy baby girl elephant!

The Houston Zoo is going to need a very big rattle for its latest addition. On Friday, November 15 at 3 pm, the zoo’s amiable Asian elephant matriarch Shanti, 34, gave birth to a baby girl named Kirby. This is Shanti’s seventh baby with longtime pachyderm boyfriend, Thailand, 58.

Kirby weighed 314 pounds at birth, quite a bit smaller than her older sibling Nelson, born in 2020, and slightly larger than her big sister Joy, born in 2017. Shanti’s pregnancy lasted 21 months, a common length for Asian elephants but still the second longest gestation in the mammal class after their African cousins.

Within six minutes, Kirby was on her feet, and she was walking within a half hour. The birth took place in the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat cow barn, where Shanti and Kirby will spend several more days before being sent out to public viewing.

The Houston Zoo’s elephant breeding program has been a vital part of increasing the Bornean elephant population since it began in 2007. Portions of entrance fees go toward the work of Dr. Nurzhafarina “Farina" Othman, who specializes in local education and activism in Borneo to ease the tensions between humans and elephants. Elephants have been known to decimate crops leading to conflict. Othman’s work has helped landowners in Borneo fund solutions that keep the elephant population alive. The zoo’s support was partially responsible for doubling the Bornean population in 2018.

Elephants have been a part of the Houston Zoo since it was founded. In 2017, the zoo opened the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat, a massive new enclosure with walkways for visitor viewing and pools for the elephants to frolic in and escape the Texas heat. The exhibit includes everything from fountains to a specialized puzzle tree that elephants can blow into for treats.

The zoo has also been on the cutting edge of animal medicine. In June, 40-year-old Asian elephant Tess was given the first ever mRNA vaccine for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) 1A. Baylor College of Medicine pioneered this fight against a particularly deadly disease among elephants. All in all, it has been a big year for the zoo’s biggest residents.

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