Sorry for going over the top, but if 10 criticise her, I need to shout 10 times more loudly to compensate. I see nobody else is defending her. Why? Because they will be jumped on?
dear_john, I thought you were always the one who had disdain for eccie membership and complained about how it has gone downhill?
I am also aware how a large proportion of the US society has a disdain for individual choice - witness the 'taking the knee', whereas, for example, the entire GB football team takes the knee at every match.
Biles has a right to decline a competition, and she has a right to do that without being criticised. She is not there purely for our entertainment, she is there because she wants to be. If her sponsors do not complain, why should members of the public complain?
I understand your viewpoint, but I was getting my retailiation in first against all those who pile in and try to throw dirt. I am also very aware of the abuse she and other members of the team have suffered, so am not very sympathetic to any 'core, wow, what a body' etc. comments about any athletes (although a mature admiration of the elegance of the best human bodies is what it is, an artistic admiration).
So sorry for Katrina Johnson Thomson, broke down in 200m.
Originally Posted by essence
Biles could have declined the competition before going to Tokyo. She could have declined the competition the day before around the same time she tweeted that she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. She could have declined during warmups when she obviously had to have known she had a problem. Hell, she could have declined before she stepped on the mat as I understand it and an alternate could have filled in. She did none of those. Instead she went our there knowing she wasn't in a good mental state and put the medal hopes on the line for the rest of the team because she couldn't admit she had the twisty's or whatever the fuck she had.
I get it. I've said it many times about athletes past their prime. Joe Montana, Dan Marino and Emmett Smith are all great examples. The same drive that made them great and at the pinnacle of their sport is the same drive that made it hard to admit they were physically limited. It can't be turned off like a light switch. But you know what? None of those guys walked off the field in the middle of the game, as much as I would have loved watching Montana walk off instead of handing the Oilers their asses in the playoffs.
However. Biles wasn't physically limited. She was fucked up in the head, and she knew it based on her tweets. She deserves criticism for not doing the right thing when it would have meant the most to her team. Instead she selfishly went out knowing she was having mental problems and failed to "man up" and do her best. She didn't have to put on a Biles like show. Fuck just go do a warm up vault and call it good. That would have been better than quitting.
Fucking woke ass, excuse making mentality makes me sick. Why don't we just give them all a gold medal for participating. That way no one has to cry.