I wanna see them take Olympic gold in basketball, even they need a trampoline like the mascots use to dunk.
I think a lot of the pressure comes from internet sports-hero worship and the intense weight put on the athlete to please their fans, their family, their team, their country, etc. It is good to see athletes unafraid to sit-out to avoid injury (mental or physical). Used to be you were just expected to tough it out and to hell with your mind/body. Biles has got some guts and a lot of uncommon sense.
What do you think can be done to help this?
Exactly what Biles did. When more athletes decide to protect themselves and their future health that will set an example that it’s ok to protect your health, Wheaties and medals be damned.
Dude… She was apparently injured. She was not healthy enough to compete, or so it seems.
That’s one reason for that. You really think it’s the biggest one?
I know it’s been pointed out to you earlier, but maybe, just maybe, you should read this article. It might help you change your mind.
I think you spelled “sponsors” wrong.
Why would you need to be half nude to play that?
Beach Volleyball has practical reasons, sand gets everywhere and they play in rain.
It’s beach handball, actually.
Because silver isn’t valuable?!
I’m surprised it’s not gold-plated aluminum or some other non-precious metal.
I’m pretty sure the silver medals are mostly sliver, and worth about $500 melt value. You can’t (or maybe shouldn’t) have the gold medals be worth less than the silver ones. 
Whoa, that is freaking amazing. Synchronized swimming has never done much for me, but I’m suddenly thinking that if it were all shown upside-down, it might be my favorite Olympic sport.
Why do you think she owes you any explanation at all? Why should she care about changing your mind?
Well sure, but in that case just make all of the medals be plated (though I don’t think bronze is that valuable melted down).
I just checked on prices of scrap metal…
Gold is anywhere between $567 per ounce to over $1,600 per ounce depending on purity (US dollars).
Silver is between $10-25 per ounce, again depending on purity. So yeah, that is a lot cheaper I admit, and plating silver makes a huge difference, I can see why they do it now.
Bronze is between 8-10 cents per ounce so of course not very valuable at all.; a pound of bronze is maybe $1.50.
Sorry about the tangent though I guess you could call this a minor Pitting of the medals so it’s sort-of on-topic.
From the official page:
Gold: more than 6 grams of gold plating on pure silver
Silver: pure silver
Bronze: red brass (95% copper and 5% zinc)
Here’s a decision tree/flowchart that will help Simone Biles critics determine if thay have the right to criticize her decision.
This is excellent.
I know a bikini is always my first choice for rainwear…
And do these “practical reasons” not also apply to the men?
I think it’s the height of disingenuousness to pretend it’s about anything other than the male gaze.
Yeah, the Olympics are well known for economizing and running things on a shoestring budget.
The women have a range of options for uniforms. Many teams choose the bikinis because they like them better. Some women’s teams wear shorts and shirts but the majority seem to prefer the bikinis. It seems counter-intuitive to me as well, but that’s what they choose.
I doubt the IOC is even responsible; my guess is the host city is expected to pay for this (though it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the overall costs).