With plenty of qualifiers, but sure:
Are we now in agreement that Biles is suffering from a debilitating condition that makes her unable to compete, that stepping down was the only reasonable course of action, that she’s given this competition 100%, and that she has “let down” exactly zero people because she has no control over when the twisties appear or how long it will take to correct the issue?
Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Jackie Joyner Kersee, and Wayne Gretzky.
“She let down her team and her country,” is denigrating her. That doesn’t change, no matter how many time you preface it with, “I’m not denigrating her, but…”
I think in an ideal world, someone withdrawing from a competition, even a team comptition, for clear and present medical reasons should be neither lauded nor denigrated.
But the point a lot of people are trying to make is that USA gymnastics, in its treatment of athletes (particularly young and female ones) has been genuinely awful in any number of ways, including (although certainly not limited to) removing all agency from them in control of their own health. Biles’ withdrawal is seen as a massive step away from that disfunctional and oppressive past.
Simply saying “she made a reasonable decision for herself, she doesn’t deserve to be either criticized or praised” is like saying “those little black kids in Little Rock just went to school. You shouldn’t be either criticized or praised for going to school”.
I think there’s a teeny bit of subtlety there. Again, going back to the analogy of a more “obvious” injury, if Tom Brady broke his leg on the first snap of the super bowl, he might well say something like “I feel awful for letting my team down”, and everyone would understand that he was disappointed, but that there was no moral/ethical “blame” towards him for nor trying to play on a broken leg.
That said, it’s a pretty loaded term, and I suspect most people using it are not intending it in a judgment-neutral context like the above.
What?
On what planet is that equivalent?
…on this planet.
On the planet where (a) analogies don’t mean that every aspect of the situations are equal, or equally important, and (b) the context surrounding events matters a lot. Or, in other words, as Banquet_Bear says… on this planet.
And in case you didn’t connect the dots, the REASON it’s equivalent is because the history of the sport has been to force the gymnasts to compete even though they have the twisties, and it took courage and Biles’ personal standing for her to say, “no”.
https://twitter.com/ChloeAngyal/status/1422264249368330242
…for those in the thread wondering why this has never come up before? Well, this is why. Because parents and coaches and doctors and organizations were making 13 year-old kids think they were moral failures if they didn’t compete. Just because you’ve never heard of it before doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Gymnastics is rife with corruption, cruelty and sexual abuse. This is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Little girls facing racism to go to school is in no way equivalent to an adult who chose to compete in a sport deciding, on her own, to withdraw.
It’s not even close.
I wonder if Twisties/balking is a problem with fluid in the middle ear?
I know it can cause dizziness and is a very common problem. My dad was on meds for his middle ear and still had occasional dizzy spells.
I’ve know several mechanics that fought dizziness on car creepers. One friend changed jobs. My parents mechanic got meds and managed to keep working. He told me the problem came and went several times during his career.
I’m glad Biles managed to compete in one routine and finish with Bronze.
If she had competed and lost, conservatives would criticize her for not ambushing the winner after the event, beating the crap out of her, stealing the gold medal and proclaiming loudly that she was the real winner.
Because it’s all about winning, no matter what. Sportsmanship is the antithesis of the new conservatism.
One thing I wondered all through this controversy is if the reaction towards her would’ve been as harsh if it had been an ear infection that caused her orientation problems, rather than a “mental health issue.”
I wouldn’t classify this as a mental health problem. To me, mental issues seems more like something where the stress gets to her and she can’t compete because she’s overwhelmed. Although the twisties may be a problem with a basis in the brain, it doesn’t seem like something we would typically classify as “mental health”. If someone has a migraine, we don’t say they’re suffering from a mental health issue. Mental health issues seem to be more commonly based around emotions or hormone imbalances in the brain that affect happiness, satisfaction, or anxiety. The twisties seems more like a physical problem.
I’m glad to see former gymnasts speaking out. It seems like this is much more common than previously noted but the gymnasts were just encouraged to push through and compete anyway.
I have seen both McKayla Maroney and Dominique Moceanu comment on how toxic the Karolyis were and how they were forced to compete injured. It seems like the tide has turned and the gymnasts aren’t afraid to speak up for their own health.
One was a young black female who was the target of a vast amount of irrational hatred for daring to challenge an abusive orthodoxy and do something that, in an ideal world, would be completely unremarkable were it not for all the ingrained systemic discrimination ranked against her, and the other…was a Little Rock schoolgirl.
I know this is an older post but this is exactly how I feel and tried explaining to my wife this weekend. I don’t think she should be praised or ridiculed for this. Clearly the pressure/environment/stress got to her and she decided to bow out on the worlds biggest stage. She shouldn’t be ridiculed for cracking under pressure, all of us do it, and she’s performed under immense pressure 100’s of times more than most of us, but I don’t think people are being honest when they say this shouldn’t effect her legacy. It should and it will. Doesn’t mean she isn’t still a badass elite athlete with a huge book of amazing accomplishments but anyone who tells the story in the future and pretends her withdrawl didn’t happen/wasn’t a big deal isn’t being genuine. It’s like an elite pitcher pulling himself off the mound in game 7 of the world series because his shoulder is tight. He’ll always be known as an elite pitcher but will always have the tap out as part of his story.
…it’s more like an elite pitcher pulling himself off the mound in game 7 of the world series because he suddenly can’t see.
History will remember Biles for an entirely different reason than the one you believe.