2021 Summer Olympics

[Gaucho]

sup

[count2infinity]

You don't get to pick when your brain takes over and shuts you down. It doesn't work like that... ask anyone with high anxiety or depression. You don't have a choice in the matter. Sometimes you can work through it, sometimes you can't.

[MWB]

Worse yet, even if this ends up being a physical injury, there are people who will think lesser of her because it's now been floated out there that this was a mental issue. So even if that wasn't true, some people will always believe she was just mentally weak and quit on her team. A shitty repercussion of social media and the need to get the story first.

[King Colby]

US earned the silver

[Trip McNeely]

One thing I’ve seen is people comparing this to Michael Jordan and being the GOAT. Like “do you think Jordan would have sat out a game 7?!?! That’s why he’s he GOAT!”

Well I guess everyone forgot how he took 2 years off of basketball after his fathers death

[Morkle]

So is Biles out of her personal events too, or was it just the team event? They were down to Russia with one cycle left, having her sit out, did they know they wouldn't win or something?

Did she preserve herself knowing she has a chance to get golds for individual competitions?

[MWB]

USA gymnast Simone Biles said she withdrew from today's team finals over mental health concerns.

Biles broke down in tears as she addressed the media following the women’s team gymnastics final where Team USA won silver.

“Whenever you get in a high stress situation you kind of freak out," she said. “I have to focus on my mental health and not jeopardize my health and wellbeing."
“We have to protect our body and our mind," Biles added. “It just sucks when you’re fighting with your own head."

Biles said those competing are "not just athletes, we’re people at the end of the day."

The team is planning to have a “mental rest day” tomorrow, Biles added.

Guess it's TBD if she does the personal events.

[skullman80]

I honestly can't imagine the pressure someone like that is under when you are basically carrying the weight of your country on your shoulders in the Olympics.

[MWB]

Another aspect of this that is probably overlooked is that if you're not 100% mentally locked in, you can do major damage to yourself physically. She bailed out of whatever vault she was doing mid-air, supposedly. Landing wrong on some of these things can mean broken limbs, back, neck. That's different than a team sport. You can not be mentally with it in a basketball game and still play; you'll just look out of it. I imagine there are countless instances of that. Just because you're participating, doesn't mean you're ok, or "fighting through it." In fact, you're probably doing more damage to your team.

[King Colby]

It would be a bad look for her to participate in the individual events given her comments

[shafnutz05]

Biles got hurt

It doesn't sound like she's hurt, it sounds like she withdrew for her "mental health".

Look...I get that it's a lot of pressure. But that...hmm. Not a great look, IMO.

[nocera]

Mental health should be just as important/taken just as seriously as a broken bone.

[meow]

Yeah. That’s a tough one. You are a teammate. Suck it up and do your flippy flips

[shafnutz05]

Mental health should be just as important/taken just as seriously as a broken bone.

Dude, you know my stance on mental health. I have been seeing a therapist for six years now. It's important.

But c'mon...withdrawing in the middle of a team competition? That's weak sauce. She's the best gymnast of her generation, but you can't constantly encourage the GOAT talk and then leave your team out to dry like this. She already has millions of dollars in endorsement deals, so this is only hurting her teammates.

Mental health is a legitimate priority, but it feels like "I am doing this to watch out for my mental health" is becoming an overused excuse.

[Morkle]

Does she even want to be considered the GOAT? Maybe she's just selfish, and is tired of carrying her teammates. Who knows what's going on behind the scenes.

Gymnastics moves the needle zero for me, and I'm sure USA would rather have her come back for individual events if it's going to up their gold total. The teammates lose the most here, but even the USA is hiding behind Biles greatness, because they may have been worse had she not carried them that far.

[LITT]

when your brand logo is a GOAT, you want to be the GOAT

[shafnutz05]

Heh, I've often wondered what goes on behind the scenes at the highest levels of the biggest Olympic sports like gymnastics. I bet there would be some great documentary material.

[shafnutz05]

when your brand logo is a GOAT, you want to be the GOAT

Yeah, she literally has a goat on her leotard, and Twitter provider her with a new GOAT emoji just for her. I think that's why it comes across as weaksauce to me. If you want to build yourself up as the greatest of all time, that's all well and good, but there's a flip side to that.

[MWB]

Biles got hurt

It doesn't sound like she's hurt, it sounds like she withdrew for her "mental health".

Look...I get that it's a lot of pressure. But that...hmm. Not a great look, IMO.

Haven’t you said you go or went to therapy and think it’s a really important thing (sorry if that’s not correct)? If so, seems like you’d have some understanding of this and not be judging.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Michael Jordan took a two-year leave of absence because of gambling stuff, not his dad.

Besides it's not like he left in the middle of NBA Finals.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

when your brand logo is a GOAT, you want to be the GOAT

lol you wear a leotard with a goat on it to the friggin olympics, you want to be known as the goat

[MWB]

Mental health should be just as important/taken just as seriously as a broken bone.

Dude, you know my stance on mental health. I have been seeing a therapist for six years now. It's important.

But c'mon...withdrawing in the middle of a team competition? That's weak sauce. She's the best gymnast of her generation, but you can't constantly encourage the GOAT talk and then leave your team out to dry like this. She already has millions of dollars in endorsement deals, so this is only hurting her teammates.

Mental health is a legitimate priority, but it feels like "I am doing this to watch out for my mental health" is becoming an overused excuse.

Yeah, eff your mental and physical health and do what we expect of you.

[MWB]

Michael Jordan took a two-year leave of absence because of gambling stuff, not his dad.

Besides it's not like he left in the middle of NBA Finals.

Lol

[Morkle]

when your brand logo is a GOAT, you want to be the GOAT

And as the GOAT of her sport, Biles embraced that self-assured and widely-recognized statement by placing the image of a goat on her leotard.

"I just hope that kids growing up watching this don't or aren't ashamed of being good at whatever they do,” Biles said of the goat leotard in a recent interview with Marie Claire. “And that's my problem: when people kind of harp on other people that are good at something. And it's like, everybody can say you're good, but once you acknowledge it, it's not cool anymore. And I want kids to learn that, yes, it's okay to acknowledge that you're good or even great at something."

Huh, never knew that.

OK so I'll bite, isn't she the most decorated US Gymnast of all time? We're not supposed to treat our athletes like heros, so isn't she still technically the GOAT?

[shafnutz05]

Yeah, eff your mental and physical health and do what we expect of you.

My point is, if you go out of your way to portray yourself as the greatest of all time, and are more than happy to rake in millions of dollars of endorsements, it's fair to scrutinize her withdrawing in the middle of a team competition through a different lens.

If the pressure has been so terrible over the last x amount of months as we are starting to hear now, why didn't she withdraw during the trials and give them a chance to bring a full squad to Japan?