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“Simone Biles will not defend her Olympic title. The American gymnastics superstar withdrew from Thursday’s all-around competition to focus on her mental well-being. USA Gymnastics said in a statement on Wednesday that the 24-year-old is opting to not compete. The decision comes a day after Biles removed herself from the team final following one rotation because she felt she wasn’t mentally ready.” AP News
Many on both sides support Biles’s decision to withdraw:
“Had Biles stayed in the contest yesterday and continued to perform as far below her usual scores as she did on that first vault, she would’ve dragged down the team score much further than anything her teammates could’ve compensated for. Her choice not to compete might’ve dealt a blow to the overall score — but only if we assume that she would’ve gone on to perform as the incredible, flawless Simone Biles we’ve all come to expect. Based on what she’s told us, there’s little reason to think she was physically or mentally capable of performing that way yesterday. Nor is it fair to criticize her as if she should’ve been able to simply snap her fingers and carry on perfectly as if nothing had gone wrong, as if she could’ve done so if she’d just had the right attitude.”
Alexandra DeSanctis, National Review
“What sometimes comes across as arrogance, with braggadocious claims of being the greatest of all time — as Biles signaled with her GOAT leotard — should also be thought of as the necessary mindset needed to compete at the highest level. It takes incredible self-confidence to believe that you can launch yourself off a springboard, contort, invert and spin your body multiple times before landing safely back on earth. Such a mental demand leaves no room for self-doubt…
“I, too, have burst into tears at the end of an Ironman triathlon race, unsure whether the emotional response was elation from finishing the grueling 226 kilometers (140.6 miles) of swimming, cycling and running or the disappointment of not doing better. Similar tears are shed by amateur and elite athletes before, during and after competition with little understanding of the cause or their underlying mental state. We all know that elite performance is in the mind, but we still lack clarity on the mechanisms that underpin that process.”
Tim Culpan, Bloomberg
“Gymnastics at an elite level is too dangerous a sport to participate in if your concentration isn’t where it needs to be. That’s especially true for Biles, who performs feats so difficult that other women don’t even attempt them. Two months ago she landed a Yurchenko double pike vault, the first female to do so in competition. (Few men have ever done it, per NBC.) If her head’s not in the game, she could break her neck.”
Allahpundit, Hot Air
“You can learn a lot about a subculture by the slang it develops. Gymnastics has a lot of slang around fear: the twisties, headcasing, mental block, bailing, balking. Gymnastics is obviously physically demanding with a high injury rate. But it is extremely difficult psychologically as well. Many of the skills could kill you. When Kevin Durant's foot was off by an inch in Game 7 of the NBA's Eastern Conference semifinals, his shot was worth two points instead of three, and the Brooklyn Nets lost in overtime. When Riley McCusker's foot was off by an inch on her beam dismount at the 2017 American Cup, she slammed backward onto her neck and then rolled over it…
“‘It's the Olympic Games,’ Biles told the press, ‘But at the end of the day, it's like, we want to walk out of here, not be dragged out here on a stretcher.’”
Elle Reeve, CNN
“If anyone has a right to say ‘no’ it’s Simone Biles, who has suffered enough for Olympic glory in an organization that never cared about her while she was being molested and abused. It’s time for Simone’s voice and all the voices of those women to be heard and respected. The scandal of what happened to our Olympians—who we all thought were having the times of their lives and living the dream—is outrageously criminal. They were living a nightmare and no one helped them. No one cared…
“Did Tom Brady’s management ever do this to him? Comparing pampered NFL players to little girls who were sexually, mentally, and physically abused with the consent and help of their organization is not in any way fair. The two sports are not at all comparable.”
Megan Fox, PJ Media
“The predictable subset of the pundit class framing Biles’s decision as cowardly—proof that the modern athlete is coddled, or that the supply of American grit is running low—could not have chosen a less fitting mark. Biles has won the U.S. national championships jumping and landing on broken toes; she has won a world championship with a kidney stone. There may be nobody alive with a firmer grasp of what can and can’t be transcended…
“For athletes, a willingness to sit one out, if they need to, may make for more humane conditions—more thoughtful protocols for post-match media interviews, more resources for competitors traveling around the world without friends or family. For all of us watching, there’s another subtle but meaningful effect. We draw no small portion of our ideas about striving and accomplishment from sports. Biles, in leaving her competition yesterday, did what we want great athletes to do: offer a hint about the connection between internal workings and external brilliance. It wasn’t joyful, so she couldn’t fly through the air in the way we’re used to seeing. That tells us something crucial, and beautiful, about the times when she could.”
Robert O'Connell, The Atlantic
Other opinions below.
“It is appalling to watch people pile on Biles for deciding that it was unsafe to compete… But there is a growing cacophony of commentators in the media and on social media who are trying to celebrate Biles for showing the importance of ‘mental health’ and prioritizing taking care of yourself, etc. Some of these are the very people who built her up as unstoppable, and are now giving her the ‘Yassss Kween’ treatment in order to normalize dropping out of things over mental blocks. This is just as appalling, and it is affirmatively harmful…
“It is a good thing to destigmatize discussing and seeking treatment for mental health. But the purpose of that is so that people can go on with their lives. We should not glorify using mental-health issues as an excuse to quit, even when (as in the case of Biles) quitting was the only sensible option…
“Watching people push through difficulties and keep going to do amazing things is a big part of why we watch sports. Biles herself has long been an icon of overcoming and playing through all manner of physical injuries and emotional traumas, and that is what we should praise her for.”
Dan McLaughlin, National Review
“Mental toughness is a crucial part of sports, and it’s a crucial part of life. This is not to belittle mental health struggles or to say we can always overcome pressures and other anxieties with mental toughness. We can’t. But we should always applaud those who choose to fight, who choose to try, even if they fail. Failure is part of life, it’s also healthy and where we usually learn and grow the most… And that’s the heart of the issue here. We cannot as a society applaud, praise, and reward young women, or anyone, for choosing to quit rather than possibly fail.”
Amanda Prestigiacomo, Daily Wire
“She’s the last survivor of Larry Nasser’s abuse who is still currently competing. And as long as she’s there giving USA Gymnastics a hard time, they have some accountability. That is hugely moving, but can you imagine having that weight on your shoulders?…
“On her best day, she is absolutely unbeatable. The thing is that if you’ve been watching her closely for the last year, you’ve seen flashes of absolute incredible brilliance and also her exhaustion. She said her body hurts her, that she felt like she could barely hang on until 2020. So when the Games were postponed to 2021, she’d been hanging on by her proverbial fingernails…
“I would rather be part of a silver medal team where people had control over their own bodies and didn’t compete while severely, grievously injured, than to be part of a potentially gold medal–winning team where that’s not the case."
Rebecca Schuman, Slate
“Gymnastics is a notoriously punishing sport… athletes are often encouraged, if not forced, to compete despite injuries. Perhaps the most famous athlete to do so was Kerri Strug, who, in the 1996 Olympic team final, performed a second vault on an injured ankle before being escorted off the mat by her coaches and by Larry Nassar, a team trainer at the time. That year, the U.S. women won gold, and the moment has since been mythologized as an exemplar of athletic grit…
“Today, though, [Strug]’s painful hop landing reads differently, less as a heroic sacrifice than as an unnecessary and essentially career-ending strain. To many spectators, Biles’s decision not to compete on Tuesday is a heartbreak, but it is also a welcome example of an athlete setting her own limits.”
Eren Orbey, New Yorker