https://www.boredpanda.com/former-gymnasts-explain-simone-biles-withdraw-olympic-games/?cexp_id=41767&cexp_var=47&_f=featured&utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
People forget that women's gymnastics is insanely dangerous. A person who loses their equilibrium while doing these exercises can suffer horrible injuries, like the commentator who broke her neck during a gymnastics fall and was paralyzed.
She's the perfect role model for today's youth. They should do a poster of her in a fetal position.
Really? You think that "If you're doing something dangerous and it suddenly gets MORE dangerous, stop before you get seriously hurt" is a bad thing for young people to hear?
share
I've actually reconsidered my stance on her withdrawing after I posted that. If she was a swimmer, track, volleyball etc. athlete then her mental "breakdown" would be fodder for derision, but I certainly don't want her to land on her neck and break it.
Yes, she should have withdrawn.
That's the thing. A lot of people don't realize that women's gymnastics is extremely dangerous, probably because its done by cute little girls in sparkly leotards.
But it's dangerous, the cute little girls get badly hurt if they make a mistake.
I don't generally watch the gymnastics, but when they showed some shots of her and the others doing their routines on the news, I thought "holy shit", if they land on their heads they're screwed for life. I mean, Christopher Reeve spent the last 30 years of his life as a quad for falling off a horse..
So even if she's being a crybaby (I honestly don't know her issues), she absolutely shouldn't do her routine without being in the right frame of mind.
Thanks Otter for trying to talk some sense into these self centered male incels.
shareBut she claimed "mental health issues" first. It is only now that she has shifted her narrative to "the twisties."
I know that gymnasts face greater danger and thus should be more careful but this smacks of ex-post-facto damage control.
There's been no shift.
I watched a replay of her controversial performance the other day. The commentators can be clearly heard saying, one very emphatically after her faulty landing, "She's lost in the air!" So it was immediately obvious to them what she was struggling with. And it is a mental health issue because of how the confusion impacts her judgment.
That commentary you heard was not live. It was an after-the-fact recording. Days later, it changed from mental health to the twisties. Obviously damage control after the blow-back.
shareBecause of the time difference, I've often been confused about whether something I'm watching is live or taped, so I'll take your word on that.
As for how the story has changed, that's the media. The first sketchy reporting was speculation about a possible injury, which was followed by a "medical problem", then the "mental health issue" explanation. Then this gymnast's vernacular of "being lost in the air" and "the twisties" was introduced by gymnasts chiming in. That's how it unfolded for me.
What you see as obvious damage control, I see as the media's routine handling of a breaking news story which is undoubtedly destined for controversy.
True. We are always at the mercy of our source.
All I know is that in interviews in the 2 days after her drop-out, Biles said "It just wasn't fun anymore" and "I felt like I was doing it for other people instead of myself." These were the things she said, not "Oh it was the "twisties." Then she got some pretty bad reactions (seems about 50/50) and suddenly the narrative changed over on a dime. It doesn't all add up ... unless it is B.S. damage control.
I haven't had the opportunity to see her in an interview. If and when I finally do, it could possibly change my perspective some.
Also, she must have known very intuitively when coming to her decision that there was going to be an intense blowback. It's just a given with today's social media.
Indeed. One would think that she would have a grasp of what kind of reaction she would get. Just go with the twisties story first, right? It shows an insulated state of mind. Kinda fits the "me me me" flavor of her initial statements. Like she was too wrapped up in herself to think for a second that the public might have some other opinion about her actions.
In the end, I give her a pass. Insanely accomplished athlete who brought us gold. Pass or not, I don't want her on the team anymore.
Oh, and the other gymnasts who chimed in also said that she's being deliberately underscored by the judges, apparently because she's in a technical class by herself and they want to even things out rather than see her win everything.
I don't know if that's true, but I've heard that from other sources as well, and if it IS true... there's nothing like being deliberately and unfairly fucked over by the judges to sour a person on a sport.
I assure you, it's 100% true. The organization that creates the protocols for scoring gymnastics internationally literally changed the scoring with the explanation that Biles being so good would be "unfair" to other gymnasts and that she's making the sport too "dangerous" for them. From what I understand, it's not even the first time they did this to her. There's a 2019 article about the score changing, so I'm assuming that ever since then, every time she accomplishes a new first, they keep shifting the goal post so she can never get the score she deserves:
[Forbes] If You Can’t Beat Them, Change The Rules: “The Biles” And Unfair Barriers For Excellence In America
https://www.forbes.com/sites/colinseale/2019/10/08/if-you-cant-beat-them-change-the-rules-the-biles-and-unfair-barriers-for-excellence-in-america/?sh=47447897160b
[Insider]Simone Biles is so dominant that scoring rules are holding her back for the safety of others, but she thinks the reason is more nefarious
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/simone-biles-is-so-dominant-that-scoring-rules-are-holding-her-back-for-the-safety-of-others-but-she-thinks-the-reason-is-more-nefarious/ar-AAKp9ll
This is outrageous. The Olympic comity has been a corrupt organization for decades and the skating judges have always been a joke. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this info.
It;s a sad state of affairs.
I've read a few of those and have to admit I'd never considered how dangerous it was. Someone described it like a highdive where they've taken the water away. Definitely not something to attempt at that level when your heads not in the game.
shareAs opposed to men's gymnastics?! WTF?
shareI think men's gymnastics is actually slightly less dangerous than women's, although it's still quite dangerous. They don't do the same events, both sexes do tumbling and vaulting and that carries a risk of horrific injuries in a fall, but men only do the pommel horse and the rings, which require tremendous upper body strength and which carry a risk of injury to the arms, hands, and shoulders, while women do the parallel bars and balance beam, which are much more likely to cause permanently disabling spinal and head injuries.
Funny how people have never talked about how dangerous gymnastics is before this.
Well - 2020 is when we first discovered that old people die when they get old, hence the need for national, permanent lockdowns to extend old people's lives by another year. Clearly, we are still learning. Crap - an apple just fell from a tree. I wonder what that's about...
shareDon't overthink it. She's having a rough time due to drama behind the scenes:
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/06/videos-victims-mother-tries-to-attack-simon-biles-army-soldier-brother-after-judge-acquits-him-of-triple-murder-charges/
https://www.the-sun.com/sport/3362156/simone-biles-sister-arrested-dui-before-olympics/
This is probably downplayed for concern of embarrassing her. But none of it reflects poorly on her as an individual. I only post because the speculation seems to be getting worse than the truth.
Did I already reply. IDK.
Leave Simone alone.
Seriously. Do. Leave her alone.
Bash the media for worshiping her though.
Hell, do what you want.