Another subject not yet mentioned in this thread, totally worthy of pitting:
Floor routine for women: flips/tricks done across the floor, along with dance choreography set to music.
Floor routine for men: flips/tricks done across the floor with no choreography and no music.
I mean, the entirety of the Olympics (and athletics in general) is stuck in incredibly outdated, blatantly misogynistic modes in the name of “tradition”, “that’s just how it is”, “it’s too hard to change”, and probably a lot of unspoken “women prefer it”.
To be fair, Biles herself wore a GOAT leotard at the US Gymnastic Championships earlier this Summer. So I find it less ridiculous when the athlete in question has embraced the moniker.
Sure. However, as a counterpoint, people can and are often involved in their own oppression and self-destructive behavior, and when those behaviors are reinforced and encouraged by societal pressure, they can be impossible to see from the inside, let alone resist. I would never be critical of Biles adopting the title given to her, but I will be critical of the culture that named her in the first place, and which does so not out of consideration for her, but for the momentary pleasure of the masses.
I’ve kind of been wondering if Simone Biles competed in this Olympics because she still loves the sport or because “most gold medals ever!” and the GOAT business gives her more oomph when it comes to supporting her causes. She hasn’t said a thing about the thrill of competition or how much fun it is and the usual bubbliness that the athletes show.
In one interview she mentioned having a big social media presence that gets her listened to. She wants to be an advocate for sexual abuse survivors and for accountability from the American Gymnastic Association. And be part of BLM. And inspire young Black athletes, especially girls. These are all really important and great causes but just one is a life’s work for some people. I think she’s trying to do too much and the pressure caught up to her.
At the end of the day she’s still a very young woman who wound up in the spotlight at an age when young adults are just figuring out hhow to build a life for themselves.
I hope she gets the help she needs to get through this, and takes some time to figure out what she wants for herself and her own future.
Only have to look at this message board to see some of that.
Folks like damuriajashi have long had no problem buying into the “model minority” myth and reinforcing stereotypes that are ultimately self-destructive and harmful to the very people they purport to support.
And one way that happens relevant to this thread is a socially reinforced reluctance to seek help for mental health and to “tough it out” when things get tough.
This is somebody who has already performed at a ridiculous level for a very long (for a gymnast) period of time. The idea that this was some ultimately selfish decision is ludicrous.
Sure, we all enjoy the stories about the athlete gutting it through an injury and winning the big game. But how many athletes try the same and lose? Badly. And exacerbate their injuries to the extent it affects them the rest of their lives. It is the more common story by far. But we celebrate the exceptions.
We take what are ill-advised or really just plain stupid decisions (that may still be brave) and celebrate them because all of us, no matter what we say, prefer dead heroes to live people.
That statement from the gymnast was well said. I OCR’d it for those who don’t like twitter or all caps:
It makes me so frustrated to see comments about Simone not being mentally tough enough or quitting on her team.
We are talking about the same girl who was molested by her team doctor throughout her entire childhood and teen years, won the world all- around championship title while passing a kidney stone, put her body through an extra year of training through the pandemic, added so much difficulty to her routines that the judges literally do not know how to properly rate her skills bc they are so ahead of her time. All of this while maintaining her responsibilities to her endorsement deals, the media, personal relationships, etc. And some people can still honestly say. “Simone Biles is soft. She is a quitter.” That girl has endured more trauma by the age of 24 than most people will ever go through in a lifetime.
For non-gymnasts, the fact that she balked mid-air and accidentally did a 1.5 on her first vault instead of a 2.5 is a big deal. It’s terrifying. She could have been severely injured getting lost in the air like that. The fact she somehow landed on her feet shows her experience and is incredible. The margin for error on a skill like that is insanely low. A very small wrong move, and career-ending or even worse, life-threatening injuries can occur.
After her track record of all she’s pushed through - the fact that she took herself out of the competition on her own merit means that what ever she is dealing with internally has to be insurmountable and should be taken seriously. Despite what she’s able/choosing to articulate to the public in interviews, we will never know or fully understand her personal choices and struggles. She does not deserve to have any judgement passed - number 1, because she’s a human. And number 2, after all she’s done for the sport. Plus all that she’s had to endure because of this sport, and the joke of an organization who protected her predator instead of her and her teammates for years.
Regardless if she comes back for AA and EF or not, she is the GOAT!!!
Better brace yourself then, there’s a lot more disdain coming your way from all directions for your contemptibly selfish armchair-spectator sneering that any athlete “deserves derision” for pulling out of a competition (especially in a physically grueling and highly dangerous sport) when they’re not feeling fit to compete.
The Olympics, or any other sports competition for that matter, is not a fucking volcano-virgin sacrifice where it’s mandatory to propitiate the gods (or the sponsors, or the spectators) at the expense of the participants’ well-being.
No elite athlete wants to pull out of a competition that they’ve been devoting their lives to training for. If they make the difficult choice that they must withdraw to protect their health and/or safety, they don’t deserve any “derision” from any lazy self-centered sadistic assholes demanding that athletes’ health and safety be ignored for the sake of their own entertainment.
Save your derision instead for athletes who recklessly endanger their own health and that of their fellow athletes by irresponsible behavior, e.g. by disregarding COVID protocols.
I have now watched all the coverage and read many of the articles and I apologize to Biles for my earlier posts. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to have to withdraw from a competition when so much attention is on you. I jumped to the conclusion that she was sacrificing the team for her own individual medals and I was wrong. I said that if she withdrew from the all around I would reassess and I have.
I do think that there is a little too much emphasis on finding a physical cause for her withdrawal, ie the “twisties”. She should be able to withdraw purely for her own mental health. I am still upset that it came at the worst possible time for her team, right in the middle of the team competition, but she may be feeling the same way. I don’t pretend to know how she feels.
I do hope that this is not a permanent problem and that she can recover although TBH, she has every right to retire right now. She has been in gymnastics long enough.
I am still looking forward to the rest of the gymnastics competition. I do think that some of the other athletes have been overshadowed and hopefully will get a little time in the spotlight.
As far as the other coverage goes, I did enjoy watching the kayaking and not an American in sight.
The “Twisties” are viscerally terrifying to read about. I can barely wrap my head around what it must be like to perform these skills–that’s part of why I enjoy watching gymnastics so much. The idea of being halfway through an upside-down airborne maneuver, with a fraction of a second to complete the move before you snap your neck, and losing track of your body’s relationship with the ground?
I’ll just say that I can’t imagine being halfway through an upside-down airborne maneuver and having any idea where my body is in relationship to the ground. I could just barely manage a full flip off a diving board, but never had any real idea how far I had rotated in the attempt. Which also explains my many belly- and back-flops off of boards of varying heights.
Former Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu shares some thoughts and a video of a horrific moment that happened to her on the world stage. This isn’t a “recent thing”. It was systematic abuse.
If she had competed, she’d be risking life and limb. Becoming disoriented in mid-air doing what she does is quite dangerous. One can easily imagine her landing in such a way as to become seriously injured with the condition described as the twisties. I personally wouldn’t risk death or paralysis for any medal for anyone.
