We don’t need to write anything more than the headline above, but we’ll repeat it for those of you who somehow feel it’s OK to criticize Simone Biles for pulling herself out of the Olympic women’s gymnastics final: She owes you nothing.
Biles has given her all to her sport, her team, her country. The results have been becoming the greatest gymnast ever to set foot onto a mat.
But we saw the cost on Tuesday.
After her first vault in which she didn’t complete her full Amanar, Biles spoke to a trainer and her coaches and didn’t participate in the rest of the event, cheering on her team from the sidelines and watching them win a silver medal, an accomplishment that needs to be celebrated more.
She didn’t have to explain herself afterwards, but she chose to anyway, and given what she said, it’s courageous for her to even approach a microphone.
One of the most remarkable mixed zone press conferences I’ve known. In which Simone Biles described pulling out of tonight’s team event because she had to put her mental health first. Says she was inspired by Naomi Osaka among others #Olympics #ArtisticGymnastics pic.twitter.com/p3Rli5S7J0
— Ian Herbert (@ianherbs) July 27, 2021
More from USA TODAY Sports:
“After the performance that I did, I didn’t want to go into any of the other events second guessing myself, so I thought it was better if I took a step back and let these girls go out there and do the job and they did just that.”
Just a day ago, she posted this on Instagram, noting in the caption, “I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times. I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha!”
Imagine what it must be like, with the spotlight on her to be the GOAT that we all say she is. There’s the weight of fan expectations, from endorsers (it feels like she stars in every Olympic ad), from coaches, and from herself. If she didn’t feel right after that first vault, it was the correct and frankly heroic move to pull herself out of competition. It’s the same as a physical injury and we should treat it as such.
But we don’t treat mental health the way we do with other injuries. The sports world from fans to officials are still struggling to support these athletes — like Naomi Osaka, who Biles said inspired her after the tennis star withdrew from the French Open when she said she didn’t want to speak with the media — when this happens.
No more fines. No more criticism. If Biles wasn’t all the way there to perform at gold medal-level, her decision should be applauded.
Think about what other pressures were there. That weight is even more magnified when you consider what every person, particularly Olympians, have gone through in the past year — the COVID-19 pandemic. For Biles and others, that delayed the Games a year and came with restrictions placed upon these athletes in Tokyo (a city in the middle of a state of emergency) and the ever-present testing that could cost competitors a spot they’ve spent five years preparing for.
"It's been really stressful this Olympic games…it’s been a long week, a long Olympic process, a long year.”
Simone Biles is hopeful she can return to events after withdrawing from the all-around women’s team final pic.twitter.com/I5Pybs10yS
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 27, 2021
Is that not enough? What about the Larry Nassar abuse scandal that she has opened up about as a survivor? One of the things Biles has been so up-front about is continuing to compete is to continue to push for change in the sport. From a Today interview in April:
“I just feel like everything that happened, I had to come back to the sport to be a voice, to have change happen,” Biles told Hoda Kotb in an interview that aired on TODAY Wednesday. “Because I feel like if there weren’t a remaining survivor in the sport, they would’ve just brushed it to the side.
“But since I’m still here, and I have quite a social media presence and platform, they have to do something. So I feel like coming back, gymnastics just wasn’t the only purpose I was supposed to do.”
There’s also the added pressure of being a Black female athlete, and I can’t say it any better than the New York Times’ Kurt Streeter did earlier this week:
The I.O.C. swaddles the Games in gauzy myth and claims to be politically neutral and divorced from the brutal truths of the world. But that’s a lie. The Games mirror society. The heavy burden Black women carry in all walks of life will be carried by Black female athletes competing in Tokyo.
The expectation for many is that they perform perfectly and become headliners who sell the event.
The expectation is also that they be ambassadors for their nations, even as they struggle for equality at home and respect from the federations, governing bodies, sponsors and media who make up the rules and mores of their sports.
Those pressures of being a Black woman shouldn’t be there, but they are.
For her to even function with all of that on her shoulders is awe-inspiring. But even with all the support she’s received heading into the Games, that weight she spoke about might have been too much.
So, please: Have some sympathy instead of taking to your keyboard to accuse her of quitting when it became too much for her. Instead, applaud her for being the example we should set for everyone when they’re not at their best.
Simone Biles owes us nothing. We owe her the decency of supporting her decision not to compete.
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