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'My parents saved me': Simone Biles tearfully opens up about being adopted on 'DWTS'

Whether she's in the ballroom or the gym, Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles continues to be an inspiration.
/ Source: TODAY

Whether she's in the ballroom or the gym, Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles continues to be an inspiration.

In fact, on Monday night's "Dancing With the Stars," she moved the audience long before she took the dance floor.

In honor of the episode's theme, "Most Memorable Year," the 20-year-old looked back on 2000 — the year she was adopted.

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"Growing up, my biological mom was suffering from drug and alcohol abuse and she was in and out of jail," Biles explained. "I never had mom to run to. I do remember always being hungry and afraid. At 3 years old, I was placed in foster care."

But even during the most difficult part of it all, Biles had hope.

"Whenever we had visits with my grandpa, I was so excited," she said through tears. "That was the person I always wanted to see walk in to the foster home."

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And he, along with his wife, wanted to make sure she always felt that sense of hope and joy, so he told her, "OK, you know how you called us Grandma and Grandpa? You can call us Mom and Dad now, if you want to."

The champion gymnast credits her parents with turning her entire life around.

"My parents saved me," Biles said. "They’ve set huge examples of how to treat other people, and they’ve been there to support me since day one. There’s nothing I could say to them to thank them enough."

Then, before taking the stage to perform a Viennese Waltz to Chris Tomlin's "Good Good Father," she added, "Even though there’s no right words, maybe a dance will say it for me."

The routine that followed had the audience — including her parents — in tears, too.