In 2016, when I last wrote about US gymnast Simone Biles, she had just won four gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Since then:
GOAT (Greatest Of All Time): If gold medals at World Championships are anything to go by, Simone Biles is the greatest gymnast of all time – of any gender, race, nation, or decade. By 2016 she had won 10 World Championship gold medals. Since then she has won 9 more for a total of 19 – a world record. And it is not just mere quantity either: she was the first woman to successfully perform a vault move called the Yurchenko double pike – in addition to four other gymnastic moves that have been named after her.
She is on another level! But, like French skater Surya Bonaly in the 1990s (who could do a backflip and land on one skate), she does not always get top points for doing what no one else can do.
Her own emoji – Twitter gave her own official GOAT emoji, pictured above.
Sexual abuse – she, among too, too many others, was sexually abused by the USA Gymnastic (USAG) team doctor Larry Nassar, now in prison for 300 years. Biles:
“For too long I’ve asked myself, ‘Was I too naive? was it my fault?’ No. No, it was not my fault. No, I will not and should not carry the guilt that belongs to Larry Nassar, USAG, and others.”
USAG not only allowed the abuse to go on, says Biles, but even covered it up. And even now in 2021, three years later, when asked if she would want any daughter of hers to become a gymnast, she said:
“No. Because I don’t feel comfortable enough, because they [USAG] haven’t taken accountability for their actions and what they’ve done. … And they haven’t ensured us that it’s never going to happen again.”
She and other gymnasts who spoke out against Nassar received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
Her brother’s murder trial – oh, and her brother was charged with murder in 2018! He was not acquitted till last month.
2020 Tokyo Olympics – she was widely expected to sweep the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, now ongoing (delayed a year due to the pandemic). She easily qualified for the Olympic team last month, but she was making mistakes she should not have been making. Then this week at the Olympics she flubbed a vault move during warm-ups – and suddenly pulled out. She was having more than an off day. It was something far more frightening:
Twisties – Biles, while in mid-air, suddenly lost the sense of where she was in space, becoming disoriented. She nearly landed on her butt. She was fortunate. The now-former gymnast Jacoby Miles (pictured below) experienced the same thing and broke her neck. She will probably never walk again. It is called the twisties because for gymnasts it feels like their body has a mind of its own and does extra twists. You cannot tell when it will strike, but it seems to be common when under huge mental stress, which Biles has certainly been under.
– Abagond, 2021.
Update (August 3rd): Simone Biles re-entered the Olympics for one last event, the balance beam. She won a bronze. She was happy just to be able to compete at all. The bronze is in addition to the team’s silver medal from last week.
See also:
- Olympics
- Simone Biles
- Naomi Osaka
- Sha’Carri Richardson
- Surya Bonaly
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When Black people especially Black women achieve impossible feats they are expected to be entertainment and amusement. When they are needing help and needing to take a break to take care of themselves then they get criticized and judged. If Simone Biles had been a white male, who was having a mental health issue nobody would have an issue with that. Black women in America never are extended grace in America. Simone Biles if she never does another back flip, is still superior in the sport of gymnastics. She doesn’t owe anyone any explanation for taking care of her mental and physical health.
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When it was announced on the news about Simone Biles brother being a criminal, the media made sure to put emphasis on “Simone Biles” She had nothing to do with her brother and his criminality. This is why I hate the mainstream media and how they frame news stories around Black people.
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“When Black people especially Black women achieve impossible feats they are expected to be entertainment and amusement.”
Then why do it?
GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)
there was a very famous boxer that used brag this all through his career
intellectually its childish and just as meaningless.
And he showed his profound ignorance when he changed his name from his given one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassius_Marcellus_Clay_(politician)
a white male who fought against slavery
to a religion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_views_on_slavery
that started hundreds of years before the Europeans and still practices it today
I look at this young pretty african american female
and I see the same delusional pathological dedication to a people and a society the only want your brutal servitude.
The only black female in a group for white people – talk about putting yourself in the most powerless position socially.
then there is the hair
its nicely seen as petty and taboo to openly discuss why any black person,but esp our females must reject their natural hair and length and modify it to look more like the people the regularly abuse rape and murder you no matter how you look.
And for what, yeah it makes me so proud that a black female can uh run real fast or do complex flips in the air.
Yah your famous and world reknown for being a athlete.
you will get a lot of money
so you can buy a large unnecessary house
wear expensive clothes and jewelry.
What about homelessness and poverty?
wat about racism?
is as ridiculous and petty as not rejecting your natural and modifying to look like people who have always hated and despised you.
as to the so call mental breakdown
I have no sympathy
Cause I haven’t seen the men’s gymnastic display but you can bet no male
would be whining about feeling bad.
females are weaker mentally and physically
but the lie is being pushed.
In the police and military you are despised inside and out.
inside because those organizations are about fighting and killing and if you lie to yourself about how strong you are ,you not only endanger yourself you endanger your partner ,team ,mission and the public you signed up to serve.
On the outside ,why would join such a organization ,when the goal of equality is peace.
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Update: Simone Biles re-entered the Olympics for one last event, the balance beam. She won a bronze. She was happy just to be able to compete at all. The bronze is in addition to the team’s silver medal from last week.
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