Comment Writer Georgia Juckes discusses Simone Biles’ decision to withdraw from the Olympics and prioritise her mental health, arguing that this was a courageous decision to make, and one that she should receive praise for
Content warning: this article discusses mental health problems, sexual abuse, suicide, and harmful comments on mental illness.
With seven Olympic medals to her name, a further twenty-five from glory at World Championships, and four gymnastics moves named after her, Simone Biles has more than earned her GOAT status (Greatest Of All Time). But her journey here at the Tokyo Olympics has proved far more complex than the all too familiar routine of wake up, compete, succeed: for the 24 year old history maker, this year was a little different.
After a shaky performance on the vault, Biles retired from the gymnastics team final, leaving her teammate Jordan Chiles to finish the proceedings for the USA. The team took home a silver medal that day, losing out narrowly to the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). Biles subsequently pulled out of four of the five individual events– the all round, vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise, leaving her only participation in the games being that of the balance beam. Just recently, Biles won bronze in this event, calling this medal ‘sweeter’ than her equivalent result in Rio.
In the team final, Biles attempted a Yurchenko with 2½ twists- having been the first female gymnast to complete this move in Rio five years prior. She didn’t complete the full rotation and instead managed just 1 ½ twists, followed by a stumble on the landing. This earned her a score of 13.766- her lowest Olympic result on record and the lowest score of the round. What seemed like intense conversations with her coaches and remaining team members ensued, resulting in her eventual retirement from the competition.
Biles had reached the threshold of what she could manage as a human being with emotions, not solely a gymnast with accolades
Biles has since revealed that the reason for this removal was because of her mental health: the pressure of the situation became, simply, too much to handle. Simone Biles had reached the threshold of what she could manage as a human being with emotions, not solely a gymnast with accolades. In the final, this manifested itself physically, resulting in what gymnasts call the ‘Twisties’, which Biles describes as ‘not knowing up from down’, and ‘not having an inch of control over your body’.
Whilst the sympathetic among us could only ever view Biles’ honesty as brave, some unqualified commentators view the situation differently. Piers Morgan, aptly called ‘a petty, petulant, fragile man baby’ by Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu over his relentless abuse of Megan Markle, turns his attention this week to a different Woman of Colour, saying ‘you let down your teammates, your fans and your country’. As usual, these comments are not only malicious but uninformed. As usual, these comments are not only malicious but uninformed
From a man who knows nothing about the pressure of being not only a professional athlete, but the best of your kind, it comes as no surprise that he failed to understand the magnitude of not knowing whether you’ll land on your feet or on your head. Continuing in the manner with which Biles started could have proved fatal. As for costing the USA a gold medal (Morgan claims), this is simply untrue. Biles was not performing to her usual standard, and her replacement saw results similar to what Biles was scoring in her shaky start.
Further criticism came from Texas’ deputy attorney general Aaron Reitz, who called Biles a ‘selfish, childish national embarrassment’. As the writer of this article, it is my role to explore that, but quite honestly, I have no words. That may be unprofessional, but I do not care – and quite frankly, I will not justify that sort of opinion by investigating it further.
What will it take for this barrage of abuse to end? Whenever we read heart-breaking recounts of suicides, we talk about how these cases could have been prevented by people speaking up about their mental health and putting it first. It seems, then, not only unfair, but cruel to abuse a woman for having the strength to do what we rightly encourage people to do.
Simone Biles has had an extremely difficult life. From her childhood, where she was sexually abused by USA team Doctor Larry Nassar (I recommend the Netflix series ‘Athlete A’ for greater understanding here) and spent much of her time in foster care, to her adulthood, with recent reports revealing the sudden death of her Aunt during this Olympic period. It is important to remember that when we are talking about athletes, we are talking about real people. People who are recovering from sexual abuse, who are grieving, and who have bad mental health days, like the rest of us. They operate exactly like we do, just with more scrutiny, more pressure, more resulting backlash, and less slack. It is important to remember that when we are talking about athletes, we are talking about real people
We are talking about an athlete who pushed through her struggles a week prior to win a Bronze medal in the following week- who came back from the toughest experience of her life to be victorious, yet again. The only difference in this victory? It was on her terms. Biles cites that often, she was competing for others- not for herself, and that she was not enjoying the experience anymore. It should not be viewed as a concession to put our happiness first.
I feel I should also say thank you. An athlete of such high profile being so open about her struggles paves the way for other people to do so. Simone, we are in your debt. Congratulations for the medal, and for the greatest achievement of all – having the courage to say ‘stop’.
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