Simone Biles

[Andrew McCeltic]

You do have to admit that the manner and the timing of both Biles and Osaka's pulling out of major events due to "mental illness" is, at the very least, perfectly timed for all kinds of media attention. Then they have the gall to ask for "privacy." If you really do have mental health issues, why would you (seemingly) do everything in your power to draw as much attention to it as these two have done? How does that improve their personal situation?

I am not denying that the pressure hasn't affected them or what they are going through is serious and real, but of all the ways of going about dealing with personal issues, this is probably the poorest timing possible, both from a sporting standpoint and a personal standpoint.

AFAIK each made a single public statement? Neither is doing interviews or going on at length. The idea they’re doing it for media attention has no merit. And the point is that they shouldn’t have to be secretive - “personal reasons” - about something human, normal, medical.

Osaka brought the spotlight on herself by refusing to do interviews at Wimbledon. That was never going to fly with the tournament organizers and was always going to be a very public dispute. This became THE story for ~a week before she pulled out. It was by far the biggest story of Wimbledon. Had she pulled out a few weeks before, she could have claimed any sort of injury or some other reasonably credible excuse and she could have gone and taken care of her mental issues in a much less extravagant way.

For Biles, the story isn't quite as clear, but pulling out of the Olympics when you are one of the most popular athletes is going to attract insane amounts of attention. She could have pulled out of the Olympics way before the trials or any lead up to the Olympics and gone and taken care of herself.

Again, I am not questioning the validity of their mental health issues; I am saying the manner in which both of these situations have happened seem staged/rehearsed/planned in order to extract as much media attention as possible and laying the groundwork for future projects, such as documentaries, comeback stories, interviews, and careers that go well beyond sports.

Isn’t refusing interviews also the kind of “privacy” you’re asking of them? I don’t know why your take is so cynical - if the issues are valid, withdrawing is the same thing it would be with a physical injury. Like, maybe they could rake in media bucks going on talk shows to hype memoirs, but.. most (all?j athletes who have revealed mental health issues haven’t gotten million dollar Netflix deals. Like, they’re on big stages. There’s not really an easy way to not get attention, and a maximally circumspect withdrawal as if they’re experiencing something shameful and best left unacknowledged wouldn’t be healthy or fair.

[heezyo2o]

On an Osaka side note, I don't think even think the Olympics need some sports when it's not the most prestigious title for that sport. Tennis has Wimbledon, soccer has the world cup. I'm okay with the basketball even with the NBA title as it's the only time many countries send their best teams to compete against each other.

[MrPerfect1]

She is 24 in a sport where people are done before this. The pressure was high...I would say higher than anything a nba player has but she signed up for it . I don’t begrudge her emotions but I don’t feel bad that she had them either. Everyone of those girls had expectations too

kind of shocked she has anxiety issues when nba is literally world champions theres no bigger stage. to make it worse, theres 0 crowds so its one of the easiest environments as well. i suspect its from internally maybe shes getting bullied.

I didn't see the interview for myself but when I briefly talked about this with my buddy he mentioned a recent interview where Biles was saying all the other girls make fun of her for being "old" and call her grandma and she seemed legit bummed about it.

It's a good thing she doesn't play a more popular sport if being called old throws her off mentally.

Jackie Robinson received death threats. Even recenrly, Ben Simmons got destroyed for simply not shooting. Giannis was being called Robin despite averaging only 30+

[MrPerfect1]

JT knows what's up.

Read on Twitter

Being a hero is self sacrificing to help your team and rising through adversity. It definitely isn't "Things seem off, I'm outta here. Good luck the rest of the way. Deuces."

[ken6199]

This is 2021. There isn't a day goes by that some celebrity isn't coming out and telling you their "stories". Their "struggles", their "journeys", all that. It's becoming a common PR strategy for those who fail to live up to expectation, decide to bottle it, or refuse to accept the fact that they are fading away from the main stage. What's worse? General public always reward them with waves of good words, like "you are stunning human being" or "this is so brave". You go on to instgram, 50% of the celebrities seem to have some form of anxiety, or tell your how they recover from drug history, some darkness in the past, how there is a "struggle" behind those fancy public images. Maybe it's because they are public images, and their voices are louder than those Amazon warehouse workers or our soldiers in the army?

Not saying Biles is doing the same thing, just a general thought on the mental illness in terms of how it is being abused these days because it is so unfair for those who are genuinely suffering.

[Wigginstime]

She's no longer the GOAT after this decision IMO.

This will be used against her when comparing GOAT gymnasts.

I don't get this comment at all. From my prior post.

Simones routines are the most complex difficult routines ever attempted by any female athlete in gymnastics ever.

Simone was first ever woman to land
1. Yurchenko Double Pike on Vault
2. Double-Double Dismount on Beam
3. Triple-Double on Floor

The International Gymnastics committee has actually decreased the "difficult" score of some of her tricks because her difficulty factor is drastically higher than every other athlete in the world it makes it impossible for any athlete to beat her unless Simone makes major errors.

What Simone has done in Gymnastics is effectively "breaking all the records". How is it possible to argue against her when she does tricks that no other female gymnast can do? It would be like trying to argue that "Runner X is the GOAT sprinter despite the fact the Usain Bolt holds all of the world records". Its a silly argument.

[Pennebaker]

I have mixed feelings on it all.

On one hand I understand it, it's tough to compete under that pressure and she wasn't at her best. And her mental health is what matters most.

On the other hand, it hurts to see them win silver when they should have been bringing home the gold. And Russia of all countries wins the gold.

They weren't going to win the gold anyway. That's probably why she dropped out. She knew it wasn't going to happen.

[infinite11285]

She's no longer the GOAT after this decision IMO.

This will be used against her when comparing GOAT gymnasts.

I beg to differ. Honestly, who do you compare her to? She's in her own universe; 19 world titles, 36 medals (27 gold, six silver, four bronze), four Olympic gold medals, and boasts four moves named after her. Not to mention, one of her gold medals was obtained while passing a kidney stone and enduring routine sexual abuse from her team doctor. She's the proverbial equivalent of 10 Michael Jordans in the sport of gymnastics.

She owes no one anything, she's done more for gymnastics than anyone, and she has the full backing of her teammates. Gymnasts have died on the mat for making mistakes during routines, so if she says her head isn't in it, who are we to question her? The last thing any of us want to witness is the greatest ever get seriously hurt.

[bwgood77]

JT knows what's up.

Read on Twitter

Being a hero is self sacrificing to help your team and rising through adversity. It definitely isn't "Things seem off, I'm outta here. Good luck the rest of the way. Deuces."

What an idiot that Charlie Kirk guy is. This is a talk show host talking about an olympic multi time gold medalist with records at her young age?

She probably has worked harder in one month (and that's probably every other month for 7 or 8 years) than he probably has his entire life. Weak? What he's saying is weak. Extremely weak.

[Pelon chingon]

Kirk is right the Russians are having a field day clowning us behind closed doors right now.

[Harry Garris]

This is 2021. There isn't a day goes by that some celebrity isn't coming out and telling you their "stories". Their "struggles", their "journeys", all that. It's becoming a common PR strategies for those who fail to live up to expectation, or decide to bottle it, or refuse to accept the fact that they are fading away from the main stage. What's worse? General public always reward them with waves of good words, like "you are stunning human being" or "this is so brave". You go on to instgram, 50% of the celebrities seem to have some form of anxiety, or tell your how they recover from drug history, some darkness in the past, how there is a "struggle" behind those fancy public images. Maybe it's because they are public images, and their voices are louder than those Amazon warehouse workers or our soldiers in the army?

Not saying Biles is doing the same thing, just a general thought on the mental illness in terms of how it is being abused these days because it is so unfair for those who are genuinely suffering.

Yeah you just have to look at the intentions behind sharing the message. If they have a legitimate struggle that's been going on for a while and them sharing is helping them cope and move forward, it's commendable. If they're sharing so that they can fit in and be accepted by the group then it's in poor taste.

[Pointgod]

She's no longer the GOAT after this decision IMO.

This will be used against her when comparing GOAT gymnasts.

I beg to differ. Honestly, who do you compare her to? She's in her own universe; 19 world titles, 36 medals (27 gold, six silver, four bronze), four Olympic gold medals, and boasts four moves named after her. Not to mention, one of her gold medals was obtained while passing a kidney stone and enduring routine sexual abuse from her team doctor. She's the proverbial equivalent of 10 Michael Jordans in the sport of gymnastics.

She owes no one anything, she's done more for gymnastics than anyone, and she has the full backing of her teammates. Gymnasts have died on the mat for making mistakes during routines, so if she says her head isn't in it, who are we to question her? The last thing any of us want to witness is the greatest ever get seriously hurt.

The crazy thing is that if almost anyone else had those types of achievements and perseverance they’d be seen as an American hero. The US is truly a **** up country where someone like Biles is attacked, second guessed and vilified despite everything she’s contributed to the sport under the American flag.

[DCasey91]

As athletes go Biles is at the very top.

Imagine being 24 in a discipline that’s for me hardest in the world not close and being 16 is considered to be a prime age.

Morally Gymnastics is awful on the body girl or guy.
It’s spectacular and peak human ability but the stress/injury and just legitimate biological comprised morphism is horrific the deeper you learn about the sport.

Only so many times you can yeet yourself 10 feet in the air as a kid before your body goes haha I’m out for good.

But she’s 24 and already considered old. Her accomplishments are all time great. Hope she gets better. Live your life now.

24 ain’t even the start point for prime/peak age for sports for men/women.

Gymnastics is bonkers. It’s being a kid ninja, the reality is you can cop extreme amount of damage and not like on a tv show where they just get up and brush it off.

[a8bil]

We won't know the real reason until later. A number of things could've caused the anxiety. Only she knows and I'm sure she'll tell the truth. She kept the sexual assault quiet for a while so she does internalize things.

She said in interviews before and after, that as she has aged, fear of injury has crept into her psyche, which it never did before. Every gymnast I know had that same fear at times and had to go through a lot to get over it. Biles, with the most difficult moves of any gymnast -- ever -- has every reason to have fear given the difficulty of her skills. She is no longer unencumbered by the fearlessness of youth.

When did she say this? She could have won gold with the same routines as 4-5 years ago, but continued to push boundaries after committing to another olympics. She didn't have to push the envelope anymore, she wanted to

You can read about it here:
https://www.insider.com/simone-biles-says-age-makes-her-nervous-gymnastics-skills-2021-7

You can read this for context about what is happening with Biles:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/us/simone-biles-olympics-gymnastics-physical-mental-health/index.html

[th87]

I see humanity's cesspool has gathered in here.

[Sedale Threatt]

Again, I am not questioning the validity of their mental health issues; I am saying the manner in which both of these situations have happened seem staged/rehearsed/planned in order to extract as much media attention as possible and laying the groundwork for future projects, such as documentaries, comeback stories, interviews, and careers that go well beyond sports.

I have to say, I was definitely on the fence about this, probably leaning towards the "suck it up" camp. Intense, severe scrutiny and pressure just comes with the territory when you're a high-level athlete. (Hell, I played extremely low-level high school sports, and I was almost paralyzed with nerves before some games, just out of the fear of failure and not wanting to let my teammates down.) But reading idiotic opinions like this have swung me in the complete opposite direction.

[th87]

Kirk is right the Russians are having a field day clowning us behind closed doors right now.

They already did that in 2016. With your help.

[cornchip]

She's no longer the GOAT after this decision IMO.

This will be used against her when comparing GOAT gymnasts.

I beg to differ. Honestly, who do you compare her to? She's in her own universe; 19 world titles, 36 medals (27 gold, six silver, four bronze), four Olympic gold medals, and boasts four moves named after her. Not to mention, one of her gold medals was obtained while passing a kidney stone and enduring routine sexual abuse from her team doctor. She's the proverbial equivalent of 10 Michael Jordans in the sport of gymnastics.

She owes no one anything, she's done more for gymnastics than anyone, and she has the full backing of her teammates. Gymnasts have died on the mat for making mistakes during routines, so if she says her head isn't in it, who are we to question her? The last thing any of us want to witness is the greatest ever get seriously hurt.

So I think you can be of two thoughts at one time:

1) She is the GOAT regardless of this incident and if she didn't feel mentally up to it, she definitely should not have gone out there.

2) She gets the adulation and praise for being mentally up to it all of the time. And when she's not on the biggest stage, it (reasonably) knocks her down a little bit. Again, she's still the greatest gymnast ever...but this will definitely be a paragraph in her story.

[infinite11285]

JT knows what's up.

Read on Twitter

Being a hero is self sacrificing to help your team and rising through adversity. It definitely isn't "Things seem off, I'm outta here. Good luck the rest of the way. Deuces."

I mentioned this in a prior post, but Simone accomplished so much while enduring routine sexual abuse from her team doctor and even won an Olympic gold medal while passing a kidney stone. Questioning her ability to rise above adversity is insulting, and frankly, displays your lack of knowledge of her athletic and competitive stature.

Charlie Kirk is an impressively repulsive racist and sexist demagogue who routinely distorts the truth. I'm certain that flabby-armed imbecile can't do a single pull-up but has the gall to brand one of the greatest athletes in human existence as weak.

[DCasey91]

I don't really understand quitting in the middle of the event. I think you either make this decision early enough to let someone else take her place/let the team adjust their plan, or you go through with it once it starts. It's on her that someone else didn't get to compete. Still Biles >>> me so whatever do your thing.

Have you watched Gymnastics? They’ve been doing Evel Knievel stuff as little kids for ten plus years.

I mean getting stage fright or just your conscious finally kicking in would be quite normal.

She did have the whole nation and the whole world watching on her shoulders... talk about pressure before going ten feet in the air lol