# What has been the general reaction to Biles stepping down? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** olympic-sports-track\ **Created:** [July 28, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-the-general-reaction-to-biles-stepping-down/947537 "2021-07-28T17:02:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 18
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-the-general-reaction-to-biles-stepping-down/947537/18 "2021-07-28T20:37:59Z")
Good article in The Atlantic. That’s what I’m talkin’ 'bout! 👍🏽 > **[What Simone Biles Understands About Greatness](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/07/simone-biles-olympics-withdrawal-greatness-language/619595/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%2BTheAtlantic%2B%28The%2BAtlantic%2B-%2BMaster%2BFeed%29)** > > In walking away from an Olympic event, the world’s best gymnast rejected the false dichotomy between personal well-being and professional excellence. > … > Shortly after [withdrawing], Biles appeared at a[press conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz6WKirpCzs) and did something remarkable. One of the world’s [top athletes](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/simone-biles-excellence-resistance-greatest-athlete/619149/) revised the language of greatness, positioning it as something to be tended to and mindfully maintained, not drawn on ad nauseam. Her most telling words rejected the false dichotomy between personal well-being and professional excellence, instead pointing to the former as a precondition of the latter. Biles has spoken in the run-up to the Olympics about the pressures of fame, the [isolation](https://twitter.com/simone_biles/status/1415281991738658821) of [these particular Games](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/07/tokyo-olympics-opening-ceremony/619555/), and her experiences in therapy. Yesterday, Biles said she felt “lost in the air.” “I tried to go out here and have fun … but once I came out here I was like, ‘No, mental’s not there.’” > > The response to Biles’s candor has been mostly laudatory, an indicator of the waning hold of sports’ win-at-all-costs ethos… > > … In the 24-plus hours since Biles walked off, sports media have [made much](https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/31897727/why-simone-biles-withdrew-team-final-be-100-percent) of the potential of her actions and words to reshape gymnastics. This is a discipline rooted in hard endeavor that can tip into mistreatment; its participants start young, train [through injuries](https://twitter.com/Dmoceanu/status/1420396388614037509) and over arduous hours, and chase a codified perfection. USA Gymnastics has seen these mores concentrate messily in Kerri Strug, who in 1996 vaulted onto an already-damaged ankle to push her team to gold, and nightmarishly in Larry Nassar’s sexual [abuse](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/05/new-film-exposes-how-larry-nassar-was-able-abuse/588571/) of Biles and other athletes. (Biles noted yesterday that she had the “correct people” around her at these Games, an allusion to the brutal and tight-lipped culture of the former regime.) Aly Raisman, a former Olympic teammate of Biles, is among [those](https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/31899751/aly-raisman-proud-simone-biles-took-bravery-withdraw-olympic-team-final) publicly hoping that Biles’s actions set a new precedent of self-prioritization among gymnasts. Biles has made room for others to do what was formerly unthinkable in the sport’s grinding culture: refuse too punishing a task. > … > > 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. > … The third paragraph somewhat relevant to [my thread here.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-there-be-a-lower-age-limit-minimum-age-for-participation-in-the-olympics/947204) --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-has-been-the-general-reaction-to-biles-stepping-down/947537)._