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Tokyo Olympics

This. It's like Tiger when he started skulling simple chips across the green like a hack. Dumbfounded everyone, including him. Then he wins the Masters. If you watch that vault in slow motion you can pretty much see the moment her face breaks into a panic and she loses it. How she handles it moving forward and what she says about her withdrawals might be a middle finger to the mess that is US Gymnastics, but the actual mental issue has to be 100% real. That was legit dangerous, no way she's faking it or just not trying as some kind of statement.

Tiger is maybe a pretty good comparison...that there is an athlete that definitely should have sought mental health care and taken some time off, but he suppressed it and his life imploded.
 
My $.02 - Biles has likely spent her entire life to this point being told she absolutely must perform, and finally reached a point where she didn't want to. I doubt it just happened this week, and she probably fought major anxiety over finally saying no to people in power for the first time in her life.
 
When a superstar takes a mental health break in the middle of the World Series or the the World Cup final or the super bowl let me know. Until then , what biles did is just stunning. Maybe this becomes the new norm and if it does then I’m just going to have to be one of those old crotchety dudes who talks about the old days and I’m actually fiercely liberal in my political views.
 
Is there anything else happening at the Olympics other than Simone Biles?
 
Our 3x3 basketball women showed up that’s for sure. That was awesome
 
When a superstar takes a mental health break in the middle of the World Series or the the World Cup final or the super bowl let me know. Until then , what biles did is just stunning. Maybe this becomes the new norm and if it does then I’m just going to have to be one of those old crotchety dudes who talks about the old days and I’m actually fiercely liberal in my political views.

Pretty sure they have. Maybe they went on a bender before the Super Bowl like that dude several years ago. Maybe they’re out with “turf toe” or a “sprain.”
 
When a superstar takes a mental health break in the middle of the World Series or the the World Cup final or the super bowl let me know. Until then , what biles did is just stunning. Maybe this becomes the new norm and if it does then I’m just going to have to be one of those old crotchety dudes who talks about the old days and I’m actually fiercely liberal in my political views.


She did it in order not to hurt the team.

"I was like, I think the girls need to do the rest of the competition without me. And they were like, 'I promise you, you're fine. We watched you warm up.' And I said, 'No. I know I'm going to be fine, but I can't risk a medal for the team, so I need to call it.'

And you usually don't hear me say things like that, because I'll usually persevere and push through things — but not to cost the team a medal. So they were like, 'OK, well, if Simone says this, then we need to take a pretty serious.' So I had the correct people around me to do that."

Brady gets hurt and realizes in the first quarter of the Super Bowl that he just can't throw the ball. The other team realizes not too, so he's in danger of a career ending injury and the team is in danger of losing. Is he a coward or a wimp for taking himself out? This is no different. She did not want to jeopardize her team's chances and she didn't want to hurt herself.

I saw a thread from a diver about how critically important the mental focus is when doing flips and spins. Competing means putting herself in danger of serious, ecvn critical injury.

I fo agree that it is stunning -- stunning in her courage.
 
When a superstar takes a mental health break in the middle of the World Series or the the World Cup final or the super bowl let me know. Until then , what biles did is just stunning. Maybe this becomes the new norm and if it does then I’m just going to have to be one of those old crotchety dudes who talks about the old days and I’m actually fiercely liberal in my political views.

the best basketball player to ever play the game quit with three years left on his contract at the absolute height of his powers, at least partially because he was wrecked his father died

whether this has precedent or it doesn't, if you can draw a worthwhile comparison in your head or you can't, if we as a society say that mental health is the same importance as physical health, which we certainly pay lip service to, than this withdrawal is nothing different than pulling out of a competition for an acl tear or a concussion
 
Michael Jordan??? Lol!
He retired after he won a fucking championship, not during the middle of the NBA finals. He did exactly what biles critics are saying she should have done.
 
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it is equally plausible and and likely more parsimonious to assume that she just couldn't admit to herself and all the people "depending on her" that she was suffering until she was on the floor and it was increasingly hard to ignore.

This sounds entirely more likely to me than the hypothesis that she planned some dramatic statement about athletes' mental health.

Based on everything I've read that actually seems very much not to be the case. She called herself yesterday, with some regret, "the face of the Olympics." She's in half a dozen commercials and she's all anybody wants to talk about. Seems pretty straightforward.
 
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Strug >>>> Biles. End of discussion!
 
This sounds entirely more likely to me than the hypothesis that she planned some dramatic statement about athletes' mental health.

Based on everything I've read that actually seems very much not to be the case. She called herself yesterday, with some regret, "the face of the Olympics." She's in half a dozen commercials and she's all anybody wants to talk about. Seems pretty straightforward.

I agree is the most likely. I didn't phrase that correctly. It seems possible that she planned this to high light mental health in athletics/Olympics/gymnastics, but I think it's more likely that she was in denial until it could not be denied anymore. That's how most people in our culture approach mental health.
 
I agree is the most likely. I didn't phrase that correctly. It seems possible that she planned this to high light mental health in athletics/Olympics/gymnastics, but I think it's more likely that she was in denial until it could not be denied anymore. That's how most people in our culture approach mental health.
Yes, I think you're right (and it wasn't you who initially proposed the "grand gesture" hypothesis. That's why I didn't include the first half of your post in my response.)
 
Biles is a public figure. Ph and I are not, nor do we wish to be. Sports networks spent hours talking about her and her mental health yesterday, and the vast majority of those commenters don't know her either.

ph is as close to a public figure as we have here now that rj is gone

Could be, you'd have to ask her. I'm just saying she was able to perform that vault and make one of the most memorable Olympic moments in history. Like a said, she should not have been forced, if she was actually forced. I just don't think we can assume that she's all full of regret over it.

no one would remember kerri strug without that vault.

If a golfer had the yips and pulled himself out of the British Open, hardly anyone would care.

A gymnast who wasn't mentally focused pulled herself out of a competition in a sport in which a mental lapse could cause paralysis or another tragic outcome.

People suck.

what if Dustin Johnson pulls himself out of the Ryder Cup in the middle of a match?

still, i'm glad she's doing what she needs to do. She doesn't owe us a damn thing.
 
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