Simon Biles goes home devastated - quits in middle of team competition

making up definitions wrote:

Old people have always run the world. If boomer is synonymous with old person then we might as well say boomers were responsible for the fall of Rome, WWI, and just about every other major war or catastrophe.

Now we are making progress

Who knows why she broke or why she broke now? Mental health is tricky. In my own life, I have managed to withstand a lot of serious issues but then broken down over stuff that should have been really trivial. But I have fought through and my guess is she will as well. I am rooting for her on Thursday.

Don't know if I agree that a "first timer" feels more stress, especially in her circumstances.

When you are successful in accomplish something remarkable for the first time, you have reached a mental state that has blocked out every possible distraction except the task at hand. With Biles, she was essentially trying to cement her status as an "immortal" of the sport. She was thinking about "externalities", not executing her routines.

One more example of someone who broke--Seb Coe in 1980 800. Deer in headlights. For no reason. But he came back.

And from outside of running--Michael Jordan. His years off for baseball after his dad was murdered. But he came back.

She will too.

You gloss over the fact that she was sexually abused by a team doctor.

Don't forget that many who looked the other way and enabled Nassar to abuse hundreds of young girls remain in positions of power.

I never said you said it erased her past. I am saying that you seemed to be under the impression that winning all those medals prior didn't require mental toughest, as if it was just handed to her. If we can agree it requires mental toughness to win (are you with me?) and a person does this repeatedly (which means more than once) to the point where very few comes close, executing elements no one else is capable of, would you not say that this person has more toughness than people who were unable to make it to that level?

Oh and did it not take competing through adversity when she was being sexually abused and winning?

mordechai wrote:

Ernest wrote:

Never quit a race. Came close once - wiped out on a hard 180 turn in a 5K road race and ended up hopping the last 2K. Did quit several workouts, discretion being better part of valor.

Ron Clarke, was old-school blood-and-guts and feared/respected for it, like Zatopek or Viren.

He would never give up mentally. Later in his career, he was plagued with tendon issues. He had surgery to have tendon sheathes removed. In "Run To The Top", he recounts how he would have happily been crippled for life later if it meant dominating at the top-level a bit longer.

Viren quit many times between 1973 - 1975 and 1977 - 1979. Don't call him blood & guts.

Zatopek was famed for his training as much as contorted-face wins. He was said to have run with his wife on his shoulders. After one long run, he was so spent he collapsed on his porch and clawed at the door like a cat for help.

Viren, I don't know so much about his training, but he is synonymous with "Sisu" - which literally means "guts" in Finnish. Wiki defines Sisu as "extraordinary determination in the face of extreme adversity, and courage that is presented typically in situations where success is unlikely" Best demonstrated at the 72 Olympic 10K where he fell down, got up 50m behind, and ran down the pack take Gold.

Old-school elites didn't make excuses - they found a way to win, or didn't.

This is a child / young adult who had the missfortune to work with " doctor fingers " and through all of that is able to do things no athlete has ever done before and a lot of little bitches on here have the nerve to say she is "weak" . Take a good look at yourselfs before judging others .

Maybe it’s as simple as: She is sick or injured.

That’s pretty much it. Hope she gets better…..

Jerry Maguire wrote:

I think this "mental health" narrative has just gone completely over board.

We are talking about champion athletes here. There will always be enormous pressure to win.

But, lets not pretend these millionaire athletes are struggling with some of the dark terrible stuff that happens to real people in the world every day. I mean JFC people's families are wiped out in WAR.

We have a person who plays tennis for a living that treats post match press conferences like it s a firing squad.

Worlds going SOFT AF.

The best comment on the thread!

6403 wrote:

So is she really going to "go home devastated" or stick around and make a "miraculous" recovery for the rest of the events?

Just imagine the universal outpouring of support she'll receive if she courageously manages to get through this crisis to compete again during these so far absolutely riveting Olympic Games.

Yes. Part of the strategy. I can see it coming 😂

You've got one job. Gymnastics. That's it.

You work once every 4 years.

Do your damn job.

Nobody likes a quitter, and at this point if there is even a question that it might not be medically related, then you known damn well it isn't.

One more kid that doesn't know how to handle not winning. This kid just happens to be an Olympian.

letsrun never too stupid to become even more stupid apparently wrote:

I never said you said it erased her past. I am saying that you seemed to be under the impression that winning all those medals prior didn't require mental toughest, as if it was just handed to her. If we can agree it requires mental toughness to win (are you with me?) and a person does this repeatedly (which means more than once) to the point where very few comes close, executing elements no one else is capable of, would you not say that this person has more toughness than people who were unable to make it to that level?

Oh and did it not take competing through adversity when she was being sexually abused and winning?

It’s possible to lose mental toughness. Again, no one denies what she has done. Quitting in a CURRENT competition is a sign of mental weakness. Sure, I’ll concede she might have had some mental toughness when she was winning years ago, but something has snapped and that strength is gone.

The sexual abuse issue is irrelevant here. If she competed through it years ago why would it be a factor now.

Trackmeister wrote:

Jerry Maguire wrote:

I think this "mental health" narrative has just gone completely over board.

We are talking about champion athletes here. There will always be enormous pressure to win.

But, lets not pretend these millionaire athletes are struggling with some of the dark terrible stuff that happens to real people in the world every day. I mean JFC people's families are wiped out in WAR.

We have a person who plays tennis for a living that treats post match press conferences like it s a firing squad.

Worlds going SOFT AF.

The best comment on the thread!

two tiny-dick losers who have accomplished nothing in their lives agreeing with each other, what a sight to see

They "quit" when they faded. Don't have to literally walk off the track to be a quitter. Just cause you finish the race doesn't mean you did not give up.

It is giving up on yourself when it hurts. And any runner who says they never gave up in the face of pain at some point never ran that hard. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. . . .

Yawn^9 wrote:

Idk how some of you can’t see a main point here.

No one is denying her past achievements. But that doesn’t give you a free pass to bail on your current teammates.

If in ‘98 Michael Jordan just quit during the finals, we wouldn’t just say “well he won 5 previous championships so who cares”

Er...um...Jordan did quit, twice. -- once after each three-peat.

Nobody likes a quitter wrote:

You've got one job. Gymnastics. That's it.

You work once every 4 years.

Do your damn job.

Nobody likes a quitter, and at this point if there is even a question that it might not be medically related, then you known damn well it isn't.

One more kid that doesn't know how to handle not winning. This kid just happens to be an Olympian.

jesus how can you people be so stupid

gymnastics at her level requires 24 hours a day focus, you do literally nothing else but train and compete

you being too ignorant and stupid to realize the amount of effort that goes into it, or the many, many other competitions outside of the olympics should disqualifying you from commenting

but alas, here we are, we're all forced to read this stupidity and be confronted with the shocking reality that you actually believe what you posted, regardless of how dumb it is

Nobody likes a quitter wrote:

You've got one job. Gymnastics. That's it.

You work once every 4 years.

Do your damn job.

Nobody likes a quitter, and at this point if there is even a question that it might not be medically related, then you known damn well it isn't.

One more kid that doesn't know how to handle not winning. This kid just happens to be an Olympian.

No, dude, you watch once every four years. One more spectator who doesn't know how to learn about the sport.