Hilarious! Simone Biles named TIME’s 2021 Athlete of the Year

flyingfrog wrote:

Makes sense, either her or that trans mma fighter. Next year is the Penn swimmer for sure. Takes a lot of balls to take on a pool of female at birth swimmers and obliterate their records.

HAHA!!! It helps that he has some! HAHA

I get what they're doing there, and I have nothing but good things to say about Simone Biles, but "Athlete of the Year' should be based on athletic performance in my opinion. They want to name her "Person of the Year" or some other thing, then I'd be more on board.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

Bingo Is His Namo wrote:

How about a certain island sprinter who won multiple golds and challenged a record every single one of us thought was unchallengeable? OH, and one who's a shining example of coming from nothing and making it big.

Elaine Thompson Herah is another fine choice, except for the questions you might raise about those performances, but then the same would be said of the Ethiopian record holder.

You just don't get it. This is not an award for the best athlete. Time never claimed that it was.

Master of LolIy wrote:

Once again:

Simone Biles, the most influential athlete of the year.

For sports achievements please read sports magazines.

^This.

And a sports magazine chose Suni Lee and Caleb Dressel.

Time has a history of using different criteria for People of the Year.

https://time.com/5573720/hitler-world-influence/

It's obvious they chose her for the controversy, they want people to click on their article as much as possible.

I have huge respect for her. She knew as a Gymnast that she was in trouble and decided not to risk a broken neck or a concussion by trying to compete when she was not feeling well (doesn't matter if it was mental or physical). There are plenty of runners that DNS or DNF for the same reason, why risk profound injury when it's better to regroup and then try again under better circumstances? AND Gymnasts face much more severe injuries than runners do, injuries that are potentially life threatening or ones that have a high chance for mutilation or life-long disability. They are not beholden to us.

I also greatly respect her for standing up and speaking out against the evil sexual predator and pedophile Larry Nassar in what is one of the most horrifying cases of repeated, long standing sexual crimes and cover-ups in the history of sports. Period. USA Gymnastics should be shut down completely and rebuilt from scratch. They betrayed and physically and mentally/emotionally tortured these Olympic athletes. I don't have the words to describe how horrible the circumstances were that Biles and other gymnasts had to go through as children and then the added pressure of competing on a world stage for medals. All of us here on these boards would have crumbled.

Add on top of that the pressure and hype that she was getting from the media, for marketing purposes. They sold her image and success and pre-determined her glory for their own gains, and at the expense of her well-being. It was too much. None of that came from her.

She did her best under all of these circumstances and still performed well, and cheered her teammates on with a genuine smile. Many high profile runners (I'm thinking of NOP athletes in particular) hide and slink away (sometimes crying) and don't even talk to the media after a bad race.

However all of this does not mean she should have won this award. I agree with other posters on here, that athletic "performance" not controversy, not extenuating circumstances or social capital deserve this kind of recognition. Yes, her accomplishments should be applauded and recognized, but not in this category.

I will always be a fan of hers and I wish her the very best that life has to offer.

Simone Biles is a name heard even to those outside the world of gymnastics. Obviously the public appeal will be even better than a lay-low successful athlete. It's a popularity contest.

solely because she is black

Athing Mu.

girl watcher3 wrote:

Athing Mu.

She is a great athlete, but not really that influential. Once again, Time's magazine is not a sports magazine, therefore their criteria for an athlete of the year is NOT mostly based on sports achievements.

Were there better athletes than Simone Biles this year? Yes.

Were there more influential athletes than Simone Biles this year? No.

The most influential track athlete this year was Sha'Carri Richardson, but not even close to Simone Biles level.

Stupid. I do not blame Biles for pulling out - she was clearly unfit for competition due to the circumstance that occurred and could've gotten hurt. We should neither celebrate that nor get pissed at her, the vertigo she had is a little like a runner spraining an ankle before competition, there's no good reason to even try to compete on it. But this? That's just stupid. She didn't do anything, and that's fine because she wasn't able to, but come on. There were multiple American and world records this year. No Sydney McLaughlin? Ryan Crouser? Idiots. Anyone who can't see the wokeness in this is just plain lying to themselves and everyone else

Just another example of why increasingly normal people ignore liberal main stream media. You can only get caught lying and insulting for so long.....

preferred pronouns wrote:

Just another example of why increasingly normal people ignore liberal main stream media. You can only get caught lying and insulting for so long.....

As if you were reading Time magazine anyway...

no surprises wrote:

I expected nothing less from the Woke cult.

good call redneck . by the way how are your banjo lessons working out ?

daytripper wrote:

solely because she is black

That helped. Being American and a woman likely did also.