Despite leading Team USA to gold at the 2018 Gymnastics World Championships in Doha, Simone was suffering severe pain from a kidney stone. Though she'd been admitted to the hospital before the meet, she'd left without passing the stone, which she lovingly nicknamed the "Doha Pearl" due to its size. She later joked to USA Today, "I'm trying not to move every time I do something just in case [the stone] moves. Then I also hear roller coasters might help kidney stones, and I'm like my own roller coaster out there."