OT - Next woman up for the US Women's gymnastics team!
With Simone Biles out, Suni Lee steps up and wins the all around gold!
That's awesome! What a great win for her. I'm sure she's not mad at Simone Biles for withdrawing ;)
In other Olympic news, current Michigan MBA student and grad assistant diving coach, Mike Hixon, won silver in men's 3m synchronized diving (yeah, that's a thing!) the other day. He and his partner, Andrew Capobianco, were apparently diving teammates at IU.
He also won silver in the same event in Rio.
I love this story for two reasons:
1. Mediocre middle-aged men everywhere are furious that an athlete they don't care about withdrew from a sport they don't care about.
2. The U.S. won gold anyway.
You're not wrong. Love that US won gold anyway.
At least the media and overall social media platform is supporting Biles (as they should). Kayla Maroney got crucified for her two second “not impressed” face at the 2012 Olympics where she got the silver medal after falling on her second vault attempt. How dare she be disappointed with falling and ending up short of the goal she spent countless hours training for!
Everything in my post typed above could be summarized with the term “useless idiots”.
Maroney got the last laugh though...she's still getting paid for the "smirk"!
Maroney got crucified??? She herself was making fun of herself and talking about how funny a lot of the memes were within a week of the 2012 Olympics end!
This quote from 14-August-2012: "“I think it’s really funny. At first, I was really confused and I couldn’t believe that just from making that face for two seconds it could turn into that, but I guess in my head I was just disappointed that I fell on my butt at the Olympics. And when the National Athem was playing, and it wasn’t my country, I was just thinking in my head, like just dangit, and that’s what my face did,” she told reporters in NYC after lighting the Empire State Building on Aug. 14. ”And I guess it turned into some big thing. It’s kind of funny.”
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Shoot, she's still getting mileage out of it 9 years later in GEICO commercials. And frankly, very good for her. She's seemingly grown into a very well-grounded young woman.
Your post is revisionist history --- victimizing someone who wasn't ever a victim in the first place. Not everyone is a victim.
I think it's a matter of perspective. She definitely did take it in stride and is still getting mileage out of it.
That said, there was a ton of criticism being thrown her way on social media and in the press over the look.
Perhaps you might want to take a little trip back into time yourself there pal. She did get hammered over it because according to many at the time it wasn’t representative of what an American should do on the stand so to speak. Social media hammered her over it. She didn’t take it in stride right away either. By the way, Biles isn’t a victim of anything this time either but as per the person I originally commented basically said is middle aged men are more or less ripping on her for a decision she very well should have made. Same type of people did it to Maroney back then. But thank you for correcting my memory, as yours is obviously much clearer than mine on the whole situation and that one article you cited proves it.
You seem a little angry. For the record, I wasn't attacking you.
As regards people who are criticized on social media ---- they should all ignore it. Easier said than done of course.
But as regards Maroney, she basically did do that in 2012. She never needed any "white knights" to come to her rescue. And while it may be fair to criticize middle-age males who criticized Biles/Maroney on social media (the OP in this thread), one could also argue that "white knights" are a different type of middle-age male that should be criticized just as well.
Anyway, all good for Maroney.
Didn't win gold in the team event, though. Ended up with silver in that...
Not sure why you're getting downvoted for saying something factually accurate - I doubt Biles would have gotten half the criticism she did if she'd competed in the team and pulled out of the individuals. May not be totally fair, but "quitting on your team" is always going to be judged more harshly than choosing to withdraw from an individual competition.
She is out for the individual, too. So basically what you're saying is she should have kept competing, received a worse score than what her teammates got (and possibly injured herself), and that would have somehow been better? She knew she couldn't perform, so she dropped out to give others a chance to do better than her.
A) That's why I said it's "not totally fair" - it was the correct decision in the moment, but her inability to perform did hurt her team, despite being for an extremely sympathetic and understandable reason. I'm not saying she should have kept competing, I'm only saying that a decision to withdraw / failure to perform is always going to be judged in a harsher when it hurts people other than just you. Which it clearly does in a team event.
B) She has only withdrawn from the individual all-around, she is at the moment leaving open the possibility of returning for the individual event finals.
She didn't "quit" on her team. She knew she couldn't perform, so she stepped down to let someone else perform who could get a better score than her. She was out there cheering them on, offering support the entire time. She was being a team player 100% because you know she absolutely wanted to be out there helping the team to win but wasn't physically capable.
You keep emphasizing exactly the reason I called it "not totally fair" and put "quitting on her team" in scare quotes, as if I'm actually disagreeing with that part, when I don't. My entire point has been that withdrawing from a team event IS going to be seen as worse than withdrawing from an individual event. You are claiming that it OUGHT not be that way, and I'm not intending to debate you on that point.
You're the one that first said "quitting on her team." You also said the criticism isn't TOTALLY fair, meaning you do think there should be at least some level of criticism for her withdrawing, even though it was what was best for the team.
This was the individual event, the U.S. did not win gold in the team event, which they almost certainly would have if Biles had been able to compete at anything like her normal level.
I'm hardly furious and Biles for withdrawing - it was clearly the right decision for her, and quite possibly for the team (would have been better if she'd recognized her issue earlier, but things happen).
I'm a little annoyed (as much as I can be considering this affects me not in the least, but hey, sports blog) that she's being lionized as some sort of hero for not doing the thing she went there to do, and is still the only US gymnast getting talked about - hopefully that will change a bit to recognize Lee's achievement.
Just weird to me that all the talk is on Biles, and not Lee, Chiles, and McCallum, who had to recover from losing their best teammate mid competition to still win silver - especially considering they had to go out and perform routines they had not planned or warmed up for in order to cover for Biles' absences (the team competition is 3 up, 3 count, on each event).
If Tom Brady benched himself in the first quarter of the Super Bowl, and Blaine Gabbert came in and won the game anyway, would we be talking about how courageous and brave Brady was for recognizing he couldn't perform, or would we be gushing about Gabbert's clutch heroics?
You're doing the same thing. You're talking about Biles in a thread that is supposed to honor Lee's gold medal achievement.
And it's your interpretation that she's being "lionized as a hero". I don't think that's what is happening. Far from it. I think it's people embracing her as a human being and telling her that she is STILL a great gymnast and a great person, despite whatever mental struggle she's going through right now.
I'm replying to a post that referenced Biles.
I saw an Instagram post with ~150k likes that called her the "True gold medal winner in my eyes, a champion we are lucky to have" because she "showed up for the people [she] cared about"... for coming out to cheer for the other (unnamed, in this post) gymnasts on her team after her withdrawal (who let's be honest, probably would have preferred that she showed up for them by being ready to compete, and win an actual gold medal rather than a moral one).
Here's an op-ed at NBC that starts with the line "Superstar gymnast Simone Biles showed women everywhere what real courage looks like" (apparently, the gymnasts who actually completed the event without her are not really courageous).
Here's one at USA Today that says that her decision to withdraw proves she's the greatest of all time (imagine someone saying that of Tom Brady in the world where he benches himself mid Super Bowl - I just don't think that happens). The title is "Simone Biles is a role model for prioritizing her own mental health over an Olympic medal" - again, no mention of the teammates who were also impacted by her decision.
There are a ton of similar articles in that vein. We can agree to disagree, but to me that doesn't look merely like support for someone going through a tough time (which I think is a good thing, to be clear), but rather kind of crosses the line into elevating her above the people who didn't withdraw. Which is a little weird.
But you're right, we ought to be talking about Lee, so I'll shut up now. Like I said, in my defense, I didn't start it here.
Thank you for OUTRAGE!
Why do you even care? Oh right, you don't...you just want to spew stupidity without understanding impact and nuance.
1) Simone Biles has been the best gymnast in the world for some time now and would likely have won the event (nobody is close to hers scores when she performs at even an average level for herself), yet clearly she lost confidence and was in a dangerous head space to be performing the risky stunts gymnasts must do.
2) She helped the team if she felt they were better off without her - unselfish move, and by not performing in the individual gave up on an event she has worked her whole life for.
3) Everyone is proud and happy for Suni Lee...it's a great sports story...hence, she is all over ESPN.
4) Biles is an historically iconic athlete and here decision to sit out the most important event due to struggling with mental /psychological issues is much bigger than sports. Post Covid many people have struggled returning to regular life (not to mentioned that Biles was molested by Nasser and the abusive US gymnastics association and the Karoylis)
Your failure to see this story as more than just about sport, achievement and national pride is why you can't understand the response.
You seem way more outraged than I am, and I'm not spewing anything. It's a sports story, this is a sports blog, I'm talking about sports and some people who would not be particularly noteworthy here except for the fact that they are extremely talented and high profile international athletes. You're welcome to think I'm wrong, I'm not gonna get super upset about it.
1) Totally agree, never said otherwise.
2) Day of, absolutely agree. Only potential knock on Biles is that she didn't recognize her headspace issue until 1/4 of the way through the event. In the moment she made a tough, but correct decision - but her inability to complete the competition hurt her team's chances of success, there's no other way to spin the sports side of this.
Sounds like this has been coming for awhile, and her comments seem to suggest she understands that in retrospect. Would have been better for her team if she had pulled out earlier, so they could have prepared rather than having to cover for her cold.
The closest analogy I can think of is a player who is injured but isn't honest with themselves about their ability to play through it during practice, "gives it a go" but then has to pull out early in the game - would be much better to have been honest with themselves and their team about their condition, so that the team could be better prepared for success.
3) Everyone is happy for Suni Lee today, now that she won a gold for herself. On the day of the team event, when Suni Lee (and Jordan Chiles) stepped up and had to cover for her teammate and run a routine she went into the day not at all expecting to perform, all the articles were about Biles and Lee was lucky if her name was even mentioned. I'm just noting this is a little weird - star player goes down, rest of the team rallies, seems like they deserve some praise too, no?
4) It doesn't make you a bad person to have psychological struggles / mental health issues. It's understandable, worthy of sympathy rather than derision. And certainly "protecting the mental health of athletes" is an important conversation to have. But it's interesting that everyone is projecting on her what they think her struggles were about... What she's told us is only that the pressure got to her and she basically got a mental block. She's hardly the first gymnast to have that happen to her - she's just the highest profile and thus the first that gets full-page hero treatment while her teammates who faced a lot of (but not all of) the same pressure, but did continue to successfully compete, get back burnered.
Fundamentally, to the extent I'm bothered at all (and again, this is "mild annoyance" or perhaps "nonplussed", not SPEWING OUTRAGE) it's that the story is still all about Biles, and we're unfairly minimizing the accomplishment of the other competitors who faced many of the exact same challenges and DID compete successfully. Then again I shouldn't be all that surprised, the Olympics are basically always like this. NBC picks the stars of the show before the games start, and the spotlight stays on them regardless of how they perform.
Again, nuance and situational comprehension...
To your 4th point, totally agree. She is not the first gymnast to have this happen to her....
But
1) she is the Michael Jordan of the sport
2) had this occur at the worst and most visible possible time (Olympics)
3) it occurred coming out of a pandemic which postponed the games for a year - (yes all athletes were affected by this), but it draws greater awareness in that the "Goat", strongest, and seemingly indestructible athlete unravelled). Had this happened to a lesser accomplished gymnast, it would not carry the weight.
4) There was a history of mental/sexual abuse per Nasser - We have no idea how it was handled at the individual level (therapy, meds, etc) - but anxiety and self doubt rear their head when you are at your most vulnerable and this draws attention to that fact.
Your beef seems to be with the media, but I'm not sure why. This is a huge story and if the only aspect covered was the sports angle, it would be completely burying the lede.
I will acknowledge that there is an absolute double standard however, as when Paul George melted down in last years NBA playoffs in the Orlando bubble, they said he was mentally weak and nicknamed him Pandemic P.
I think the media would be talking about both Brady and Gabbert, but mostly how the greatest NFL QB of all times suddenly developed the "yips" in the most important game and couldn't complete a simple pass.
But certainly nobody would be calling him "truly courageous" for getting the yips. He'd be lucky to not get featured on Not Top 10 (which is of course just a daily log of mental screwups, presented in a comedic tone). The way Biles is getting treated is kind of unprecedented compared to how athletes that suffer a mental lapse in a high-stakes situation normally get treated. In those cases, we (and I mean the sports community in general but even on this blog) talk about "yips" or "nerves" or "choking" or being "soft" or "the moment getting to them". We might express some degree of sympathy, but I don't think I've ever previously seen an athlete praised as courageous for admitting they had the "yips" and couldn't complete the competition.
Maybe this is a good thing if we start being more sympathetic to these sort of "mental injuries", as we would to a pulled hammy or whatever, but it's noteworthy precisely because this isn't how we normally talk about such things in sports.
I think that the long-term narrative might look something like this: Biles shepherded all of these younger women into the Olympics, then stepped aside/passed the torch to Lee et. al.
Damn - Spoiled! But good for her! Way to go USA!
The expectation is for the position!
the bench depth of US women’s gymnastics is more than men’s basketball
Logged in to upvote this
New ? on the block?
Yay, Lee! Yay, Biles!
sHE iS a REaL MerICAn herO aND mENTaley sTRonG noT liKE BiLEs.
-USA, MERICA!
spoken, and apparently written, like a moron. Good for you dude pat yourself on the back...
WHOOSH
I agree, despite his suspect points, BH has been pretty consistent in the support of Olympic athletes. I upvoted it... thought it was spot on.
(obligatory "can she play DT" post)
Good hands, terrible reach. Low CG, but not much G.
Better prospect at CB. Flips her hips well, can really elevate, and plays with a high motor.
This is so cool. Gotta be amazing for her and entire Hmong community.
Stuff like this is why the olympics always suck me in, despite all the corruption and ugly garbage.
17 year-old Alaskan shockingly winning swimming gold, her classmates going bonkers? Beautiful.
First gold medal EVER for Philippines, from a woman who was forced by Covid to be away from her country and family for years? Priceless.
Little Brazilian girl who was a viral star when she was 7 for skateboarding in a fairy princess outift winning silver at 13? Awesome.
Dude exploding from way back to swim the race of his life and win the first 800m gold? Inspiring.
Olympics seem determined to destroy themselves, yet they always win me over.
Upvoted. Could I tell you even one single fact about international swimming in a non-Olympic year? Not a chance. But yet, in Rio when Jason Lezak starts reeling in Alain Bernard (after his chest puffing nonsense about crushing the Americans) on the anchor leg of the 4x100 relay, I'm still jumping up and down in my living room like a madman.
SIAP, Joe Rogan's podcast discusses/speculates that Simone was not able to compete because she was unable to take her ADHD drugs (banned in Japan). She has been taking them for a long time to help her with her ADHD.
Great, inspired performance by Lee. What a moment for the Hmong-American community, too. All the yip-yap about Biles above diminishes her achievement.