Biles bails on her teammates

[MT~Forged]

Why is she being worshipped for bailing on her teammates? I think this was the most selfish thing I have seen in sports to date. Can you imagine Brady, Michael Jordon, Lebron, etc., quitting after a poor 1st quarter? I get it, things didn’t go her way, but such is life. Pull up her big girl panties and get over it. You are not ALWAYS going to be the best, sometimes you are just off, but QUITTING is unacceptable.

 

[xjx]

Her skill has been slipping for the past year or so. Her landings were poor. But, LeBron quit on his team mates too. I suppose quitting is the new "in thing" to do.

At 24, she is an old lady in her sport. Time to hang it up.

 

[Badcat]

From what I can see, she's suffering from an injury and tried to tough it out and simply cannot any longer. I may be wrong, but i've been coaching sports for two decades and that looks to be the case to me.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

A number of people on FB are saying that the judges were refusing to score some of her moves because it was stuff they'd never seen before and she was beyond frustrated. Not sure how true that is. When you're an Olympic-caliber athlete you still don't quit because something didn't go your way. How many of our athletes got screwed by the Soviet and East German judges back in the day? They didn't quit.

 

[Sarge]

Looked to me like she had a mental breakdown due to the pressure of the moment. If that's the case, I'm not going to give her much grief over it. Mental health is serious issue in this country, and recognition and treatment are severely lacking. Who knows what these young athletes are going through? We expect so much from them, never knowing what is in their heads.

 

[Steeltime]

Mike Tirico Day 1: "She is the greatest gymnast ever, the GOAT, the best, amazing, unparalleled, dominant, amazing (orgasms) ..."
Mike Tirico Day 2: "Are we putting too much pressure on these athletes?"

 

[NCSteelerfan]

There were mental issues going on and she couldn't focus. You could tell something was off on her vaults and she even stated that during the vault she lost sight of exactly where she was. Her head wasn't in the game and that is extremely dangerous. It could have resulted in a life changing injury for her.

She also said that stepping away was better for her team at that moment, because her performance could have cost the team a medal. Not sure why some of you want to rake her over the coals about it without knowing all the details, but I guess whatever.

 

[Steeltime]

From what I can see, she's suffering from an injury and tried to tough it out and simply cannot any longer. I may be wrong, but i've been coaching sports for two decades and that looks to be the case to me.

She denies that. Even at 90%, she is going to medal, probably get some gold. I think the fear simply overtook the courage.

My daughter did platform diving for years. She was extremely good, competed NCAA. She told me that her fear level at age 14 was so low, she would try any trick from the platform. By age 18, she would think about what might happen if she missed. By her senior year, she thought about it a lot.

 

[oneforthebus]

She denies that. Even at 90%, she is going to medal, probably get some gold. I think the fear simply overtook the courage.

My daughter did platform diving for years. She was extremely good, competed NCAA. She told me that her fear level at age 14 was so low, she would try any trick from the platform. By age 18, she would think about what might happen if she missed. By her senior year, she thought about it a lot.

Yep. I feel like that's exactly what happened. She was off and lost her fearlessness, and that could be very dangerous for some of the skills she was expected to do. And way too late in the game to try and change up the routines.

That said, of course someone at WAPO had to make it about race.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/27/simone-biles-out-greatness/

 

[Sarge]

Mike Tirico Day 1: "She is the greatest gymnast ever, the GOAT, the best, amazing, unparalleled, dominant, amazing (orgasms) ..."
Mike Tirico Day 2: "Are we putting too much pressure on these athletes?"

And this is what I was saying. We put that sort of stuff on young athletes repeatedly, and then when they break from it we turn and say they aren't tough enough or they are quitters.

 

[Steeltime]

And this is what I was saying. We put that sort of stuff on young athletes repeatedly, and then when they break from it we turn and say they aren't tough enough or they are quitters.

Yeah, I got that, and I am taking some small liberties with what Tirico said, but in fairness, I quoted him pretty closely to what he actually said. The way media present basically everything today is so overstated that it bothers the ever-loving hell out of me.

No athlete can simply compete and be good. It's always, "The world record is [x], will he do it!" or "She has a chance at [x] gold medals!" Blaring headlines, dominance, GREATEST EVER! It's done that way for video game generations who have the attention span of a gnat.

Because I am older than some here, I still remember seeing Nadia Comaneci in 1976. Nobody in America knew a thing about her before the Olympics. She is on the uneven parallel bars and the announcer says, "Watch this - she does this on purpose" right before the first release move ever done in the Olympics.

Before then, no obsessive prattling on about her routine, the number of golds, blah, blah. We were allowed to simply watch and enjoy what she was doing.

 

[oneforthebus]

And this is what I was saying. We put that sort of stuff on young athletes repeatedly, and then when they break from it we turn and say they aren't tough enough or they are quitters.

She put a lot of pressure on herself, to push the boundaries of what could be done. She apparently even wore GOAT emblems on her leotard. I get there was a lot of pressure on her but a lot of it was self-imposed. I don't blame her for stepping back from it, but I don't necessarily blame anyone else for it either.

 

[IndySteel]

Don't sugar coat it, she choked. I'm not trying to be mean, but let's state the obvious.

 

[Steeler Pride]

Don't sugar coat it, she choked. I'm not trying to be mean, but let's state the obvious.

I agree. It's the first time she has really faced some adversity in a competition and she was not strong enough mentally to rebound from it. If you are going to ride the GOAT train to the station, you better be able to come thru when **** hits the fan. I saw an interview with her over the weekend where she was asked "Can you be beaten", she just smiled and said "I don't know." Then they showed a backpack that she has that has an embroidered silhouette of a goat's head on it. If you buy into your own hype, and have the belief that you can't be beaten, you have nobody to blame but yourself if the pressure is too much for you to handle.

 

[Steelr4evr]

GOAT ego popped diamonds and all. Hey, let's just quit. I'm not feeling it today. If this had been her first rodeo, I could see the nerves getting the better of you.

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

 

[ZonaBurgh]

Looked to me like she had a mental breakdown due to the pressure of the moment. If that's the case, I'm not going to give her much grief over it. Mental health is serious issue in this country, and recognition and treatment are severely lacking. Who knows what these young athletes are going through? We expect so much from them, never knowing what is in their heads.

This is what I'm thinking, something happened recently to shake her confidence. I won't praise her courage for stepping down, but won't condemn her for it either.
If it were deteriorating skills, why would she not decide to pull out 6-12 months ago and let someone else take her place?

 

[Sarge]

She put a lot of pressure on herself, to push the boundaries of what could be done. She apparently even wore GOAT emblems on her leotard. I get there was a lot of pressure on her but a lot of it was self-imposed. I don't blame her for stepping back from it, but I don't necessarily blame anyone else for it either.

Fair enough, but I don't see it as she simply bailed on her teammates. Regardless of where the pressure came from, I think she was smart to step away from it. No sense hurting the team statistically or herself physically. I don't think she's a hero, but I also don't think she's some evil anti-american devil either.

 

[wig]

A few points, which may be unpopular...

First that ******* WAPO article... "She's carrying the burden of an entire gender AND race"... Ok.. .well **** me, but isn't it "Women's Gymnastics?" Aren't they ALL carrying the burden of an entire gender? I mean, current ******-up rules notwithstanding... How is her "gender burden" greater than the russian women? Is she "more woman" than the other competitors? Even those on her own team? I don't know. Asking for a friend.

And as for her carrying the burden of an entire race. Let's not mention that to the other (apparently NOT BLACK) competitors on her national team. It seems they aren't black enough to be burdened with carrying the fate of their race. Cause... actually, I got nothing. When you are SO racist that even black people aren't black enough... I got nothin'

Finally... It doesn't really matter why she felt she had to drop out. That was her choice and it kinda sucked for the team but the story SHOULD BE that they rallied even without their leader and still won the Silver. (I mean, it's not like they carried the burden of an entire gender or race or anything, but they DID take silver minus one teammate.) That's the ******* story, not... "Poor Simone just became overwhelmed with the moment or with her injury or whatever..."

Typical liberal racism. "Simone Biles, a black athlete who may be the greatest black athlete ever went in to these Olympics with the overwhelming BURDEN of defending her entire gender and race against the endless crushing onslaught of "white folk". Sadly, due to cataclysmic circumstances beyond her control, she made the brave choice of stepping down and pulling herself from competition. (No whitey would ever do that! They too damn selfish!) Resultantly, despite Biles' heroic, brave and selfless decision to give up, her no-name, sorta black teammates bumbled away the gold. Woe to the U.S. team since they didn't have capable athletes who could bear the terrible burden of supporting an entire gender and race. If only they'd been more woman and black.

Stupid backhand compliments to Biles completely undermines the achievement of the rest of the team who was playing with a tremendous handicap (Biles). They should be celebrated as champions. THEY shouldered the burden that was given to them by... someone of their gender and race.

 

[wig]

McKayla Maroney just texted in... Hey, if you need somebody to step in and carry the entire burden for your race and gender, give me a ring at 555-****-OFF

 

[steel dino]

In strict accordance with the current cultural climate in the United States of America....

Simone cancelled herself.

 

[IndySteel]

Heh heh...

 

[deljzc]

I was taught when you go into something you don't quit on your team.

I don't understand why we are allowing these decisions to just take place "whenever an athlete feels like it". If Simone Biles wasn't mentally ready, you tell the US Olympic Committee MONTHS IN ADVANCE of this. She took someone's spot to do something only .0001% of Americans ever get to do.

If she had decided to do that, I would have no criticism of that at all. Even if she said, "I don't want to do certain events or the team events".... fine. She is allowed to do that. If all she wanted to do was be the best vaulter in the world and only do that event, fine. Let the USOC decide if she can qualify and come for only those events.

But once you COMMIT to being on the team, once you tell the USOC these are the events I will participate in, the only excuse for NOT doing it is injury.

I just don't buy the "the pressure was too much" or there was some magic straw that broke the camel's back that only happened after her first event.

She made a commitment that cost someone a spot on US Olympic team. She backed out for no reason other than her mental ability/fortitude. That's unacceptable to me.

 

[xjx]

She had lost focus and concentration months ago. The ends of her routines were sloppy. The coaches should have seen this.

 

[Steelworth]

 

[DBS1970]

Looks like she didn't practice and prepare and then decided to bail out instead of tightening up her shot group.