You can’t be the greatest of all time (GOAT) if you leave your team during an Olympic Gold Medal competition. If she had mental issues she should have let other athletes join the Olympic team instead of her. She took up a valuable spot on the team, the coaches gave her time when it could have gone to others and then she withdrew leaving them.
She knew she had problems beforehand and yet put GOAT on her uniform and then choked and bailed. No GOAT would have done that! Putting GOAT on your uniform just sets you up for high pressure. It’s stupid.
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She isn’t the GOAT. GOATs don’t walk out of the biggest event and leave their team to pick up the pieces. She is the NOPE this year.
Kerri Strug vaulting with a broken leg to take home gold for her team is true Olympic determination and grit.
GOATs don’t leave their team at an Olympics Gold Medal round. That’s not greatness. That’s also what she will be remembered for in the future.
She was unprepared, got stunned by her lack of capability at the games and the extreme compilation provided by the others there and then used a smokescreen to get out and try and gain sympathy.
She may have been honest about not being able to get her act together. But that doesn't make her brave. She may have bowed out when she realized she couldn't pull through. But that doesn't make her a hero. That just makes her an honest failure.
A hero is someone who doesn't give up. Who does the incredible to uplift those who cannot uplift themselves. Simone did none of that. She only looked out for herself when she realized she couldn't finish what she started.
A hero would be any firewoman at 9/11 who pulled someone from rubble, only for herself to then get crushed.
Nor is Simone brave. She's avoiding a risk, not taking one. To stand up for her own fears and insecurities, not to stand up for some matter of principle that is unpopular.
Brave is Kate Shemirani, whom the Twitter ghouls want to turn into the next Sophie Scholl.
I don't fault her for admitting weakness. Unfortunate that it hit an Olympic athlete - who is supposed to be trained specifically to avoid that. I do fault her for caring more about her Twitter feed than her performance on the world stage.
I reserve my bile for those who wish to use the guise of defending her as a pretext for raping the dictionary.
As for the writing "GOAT" on her own uniform: She, like all the other morons on Twitter / Netflix, love to spew blasphemies to sound important; but always plagiarize each other when doing so, never once presenting an original argument, nor one that hasn't already been debunked a million times. And in advance of correction, they say dumb things like "excuse me while I eat my breakfast and contemplate my job choices." Worthless.
Matthew 23:12 predicted this crowd to a T! If only they had a little more respect for that book; they'd realize it was trying to warn them about their own attitudes! Instead, by living to flip the bird at that book, they keep on proving its points in the end! Yet, the Tide eaters never learn.
Whether someone is considered the GOAT in any sport is a matter of opinion but she is the most decorated American gymnast of all-time. These games in Tokyo don’t diminish those past achievements. Her abilities are spectacular. That being said, there were apparently signs of this mental block before the games, so it’s a legitimate question to ask whether she should have stepped down and given another gymnast the opportunity. In hindsight, yes she should have but, in the end, sports is just a form of entertainment. It’s not really that important. Life goes on.
She’s totally choked. It sounds like she has personal problems she should’ve dealt with before joining the Olympics Team. You can’t bail out on America like this and expect sympathy from the people.
I agree but many people support her and say "it is ok not to be ok" Also many people support her beauase they say people do nto understand what mental illness is and people should nto judge her that I what I have read all over
@kitty71 She knew she had a problem before she landed. She should have never joined the team and taken a slot from someone else that could do it. Unless all this is just an excuse for an athlete who did great in the past, then slowed down and had her head on Twitter instead of the competition and then choked. She may have been fearful of realizing that she was unprepared and needed to get out of there before she flubbed in the games. She may be using all of this as a smokescreen which is horrible.
Possible you are right, but there is no proof she was not unprepared, people will stick to her theory that she is suffering from mental illness noone will believe that she bailed out due to she was not ready
@kitty71 Now she claims it was because she gets dizzy not mental issues. She knew beforehand that she would have major trouble and she took a slot on the team from someone who was left home to watch it in TV.
Pulling out may have been the reasonable thing to do.
however, elite athletes aren't admired for being reasonable. They aren't just admired for being born with more talent either. They're admired for pushing through obsessively, for showing people extremes of human capability.
the level of devotion required to win Olympic medals is a little bit unhealthy but that's what it takes to hit the absolute limits of human capability.
any number of young gymnasts have the aptitude to be olympians, they lack the deranged obsession and ability to overcome anything to achieve that goal.
I don't know exactly what happened here and may never. Her withdrawal may have been the right idea. It's not just "choking" it's perhaps falling back to being normal.
maybe she's already done enough to be considered a GOAT. But if she withdrew over anxiety and having the twisties, that might be right but doesn't mean it won't tarnish her status as a "GOAT" because a big part of being goat is ability to handle extreme pressure.
Let's just put the word play aside for a minute and look at what we know or can reasonably assume.
Claim that someone "has stressed out". Not an excuse. Every Olympian has the stress of not having their family present at the Games, being homesick, different routine, etc. So let's put that one aside.
Spacial disorientation. THAT is what happened. When other Olympian gymnasts saw slow-mo's of Biles' vaults, they saw her head going in one direction and her body in another, a Gymnastics 101 faux pas. Only her unusually high strength allowed her to even land on her feet and not her rump.
Biles' only mistake was saying it was a "mental" problem rather than a "physiological" one. Maybe she didn't figure the average person could understand the technicalities of the phenomenon. I never could turn a somersault. I have to be careful when I consider riding a roller coaster. I can't swim underwater. All due to middle ear problems. ButI don't call it a mental problem when I know it is a physical one.
Biles had the third worst score out of everyone for her routine. Staying in the US team events with scores like that would have pulled the team average down and out of "the money". While her typical presence would have landed the US with a gold, by being courageous enough to bow out, she at least gave her team a chance at medals. The team rose to the occasion and took a silver. Congrats to all!So while maybe not a goat this time around, Biles certainly was not a choke.
I can see where both sides are coming from but I definitely can’t say she’s the GOAT.
If what you say is true and her coaches gave her plenty of time for someone else to take her spot then I think she should have settled for that. Japan has reasons for not allowing methamphetamines and we can agree or disagree but it is the current law of the land and right now the only option seems to be going along with it.
I don’t think this has anything to do with a direct affront to her or her skill. And honestly I don't know why this even blew up so much. Probably because nowadays people seem to believe we have to devote so much more attention to what women are doing 🤷♂️
But if she was denied an exemption and was very sure that she would not have been able to perform well without her medication then she should have given that role to someone else, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. If she just walked out to make a statement then this is showing bad sportsmanship and is representing our country poorly.
Maybe it’s unfair for her to compete without her medication but causing a political revolution for that moment is a poor use of that time I think and I don’t believe anyone wants to personally attack her or call her unskilled.
Simone Biles is a spectacular athlete, and has a lot of medals to prove it, but putting GOAT on her jacket is a boasting I don’t like. It also doesn’t help that the media has been building her up for years. If she were part of the team going to the Olympics, she should have been part of the team 100%. The Olympics isn’t just about who’s the strongest or fastest, it’s also about who has the heart and courage.
Scott Hamilton faced a lot of pressure in the 1984 Olympics, and the pressure caused his performance to not be the best, but he hung in there and still managed to win. Same thing with Nancy Kerrigan. She was targeted, assaulted, got a busted knee, but still went to the Olympics and won a silver medal. She came close to winning the gold.
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The term GOAT seems to be thrown around quite a lot lately. Here is the thing. She was chosen to a team she could have said at any point she wasn't feeling well. She waited until the team competition started and blew her first routine. She only then quit because it looked like she wasn't going to be the person she was 4 years ago that dominated everything.
Now as far as GOAT goes. She competed in 1 Olympics prior to now and dominated. That is really good and proves she is or was a great athlete. But a GOAT needs to establish a list of accomplishments over time. Its why athletes like Bo Jackson who was an all star in two sports can be remembered as an amazing athlete but not the greatest of all time.
She's a very good athlete who choked in this instance. It's interesting to see how incapable people seem to be at discerning the difference between an individual's overall assessment (she's clearly excellent) and her assessment in a particular instance (she very clearly failed to meet the be bar, let down herself, and let down her team).
If the story today is about her performance at this Olympics, it's a clear fail. Want to see a gymnast who overcame her difficult shit to step up for the team and win? Check out what Kerri Strug (sp) did in the 1996 Olympics. Broke her fucking ankle on a vault, got back up went to the line, ran, vaulted and STUCK the landing on her broken ankle, held her leg up like the goddamned Karate Kid as she spun around for the crowd and the judges and brought home a gold.
Has almost 20 gold medals so yes it puts her up there along with more to come given her age.
Can we just say how everyone preaches mental health awareness until someone actually does something for their mental fucking health, blows my mind how dumb people are
Instead we have a silver medal, an elite level athlete who again has almost 20 gold medals and in 4 years will compete alongside a new crop of gymnasts
It’s super weird to act like her career is over after this, especially since she’s pretty easily the most successful gymnast in USA history. Are you the type of person who thinks that Lebron should retire every year he doesn’t win the title? Or do you only apply this logic to biles?
@thotmas97 she is getting too old for another Olympics. And she was getting too unstable for this one. Perhaps she can shine outside of team events this year. That would be good.
@thotmas97 I don’t watch this year. I have in the past. I used to watch as much as I could. The ratings are down by 49% I read, from Rio, so this seems the norm now.
Okay, obviously a lot of you don't understand how hard it is to get where she's gotten. She worked her way up through quite literally millions of people and with talent, training, dedication and skill, she has gotten where she has and she deserves it just as much as anyone else. It's the bloody Olympics and to make it there, you have to be the best of the best. You don't know what she's going through, what's happened in her life and the finer details of why she's pulled out so sorry, but you can't comment.
She should have stayed home with her issues. Someone who would have appreciated that slot on the team could have gone to the Olympics but she took their spot and threw it away. She should have stayed home.
She's immensely talented, but I have to admit I did lose some respect for her over this. I feel being asked to compete at the Olympics is a huge honor, and you should push yourself and power through your personal drama. You can fall apart later. Yes, mental health is important, but there's a huge problem with girls giving up in our culture. Learning persistence is a hugely valuable life skill.
Eh, she dealt with sexual abuse and is basically the most successful in her discipline. It is abundantly clear she has persevered through a lot of shit.
@tartaarsaus doesn't matter. Even if someone has to walk through and back hell, no one cares about that in real life. How many companies or organizations care if their employees have has serious trauma? As long as it doesn't mess up their bottomline, no one cares. It's an afterthought. It can be good stories after the event.
Right now, she let her team and nation down giving up. If she had that many demons to deal with, she should have not gone in the first place. She basically gave up at the moment of truth. All her hardwork, and the time and energy of others wasted on all this.
You’re barking up the wrong tree here. The original poster of this opinion says women need more rolemodels that show perseverance. Simone Biles has clearly shown that.
With respect to the other stuff, knowing her own limits is a benefit to the team and their performance on the Olympics. She reported feeling “twisties”, which is where you are completely disoriented in the air. Well, that is incredibly risky and creates crap performance. At that point, you’re way better off putting someone who can perform optimally than risking someone.
And woth respect to “giving up at the moment of truth”, she was basically the most successful in her discipline years before these Olympics. These do not detract anything from her performance
@tartaarsaus it doesn't matter when they give up. I still contend that the "Twisties" was occuring long before she showed up for her final games...
It's easy to understand if someone hurts themselves at the games. When older athletes hurt themselves, it begs the question why did they not look at pretty substantial evidence that Olympic trial games are best for Teens and young adults. I now Simone is not old as people go, but for a gymnast, she is up there for an Olympiad. This is her fourth show. That's pushing it. And then everyone around her should have seen the issues that were popping up I bet years ago. It's just no one wants to level with people, and try to limit them.
When in reality she may have has her time long ago. As had virtually all the athletes before her. Some sports are not that demanding and athletes can go into their 30's, even 40's for some competitions. Not Gymnastics. Simone all ready proved that one, and made a case about the long-term effect of trauma and PTSD on a person's ability, especially on the extreme.
And it might sound like I am bashing Simone, but I am actually bashing all those around here for not being realistic and seeing what would have been flags early on to help her, than put her back into the games.
This would have been abundantly clear had this been any other situation. Everyone doesn't want to hurt other's feelings, and when people lose that control, bad things happen. Say when people are going through rough times. or abusing substances. It's rare that anyone levels with people around them because they don't want to hurt their feelings.
@Little_Princesa Here's a study I found interesting. At a company that does technical interview prep, men were outperforming women, and they suspected it was because the interviewers were being sexist against female candidates. What they ended up discovering is that if anything, the interviewers were biased in favor of women, but they also discovered men and women with the same amount of experience performed about the same. So why were men outperforming women? Women were _dropping out_ at seven times the rate men were, so there were a much higher percentage of women with low experience. The problem wasn't sexism, it was women quitting where men stuck it out.
From what I understand she had vertigo so I don’t think she choked or as a Goat. She’s clearly very talented but if you’re up in the air and you have vertigo you probably shouldn’t be up in the air because that becomes incredibly dangerous I think her excuse of mental health issues was stupid she needed to say it was she was getting dizzy and mid air which would be perfectly acceptable because we don’t want her to fall on her head and die
She was perfectly athletically qualified when she tried out she’s also probably the best gymnast currently living. It seems like this was a one time medical condition but you never know it’s going to be reoccurring and then cases like this you don’t want somebody to literally break their head open
As a college athlete, i can say i completely understand and think if she is unable to help her team, or feel she would hurt her team, sitting out is the unselfish move.
Pretending to know what she was going through doesn't prove anything.
I love all these pretend ass people running around acting like playing a sport at amateur level or rec level makes them an expert in sports
@thotmas97 exactly. And she shouldn’t have gone or would have controlled her fear. Her arrogance had her put GOAT on her uniform and her arrogance had her go when she shouldn’t have gone. She should put NOPE on her uniform now.
While you pretend to claim you understand and know while sittin on your ass living through her ups and downs.
She is actually living them just like all real athletes instead of pretend athletes.
We ain't mules to ride till we become useless and then toss aside.
She is a human who can have a mental breakdown just like anyone.
But ya know you not understanding the trials of true athletes you could never understand what a real athlete has to endure so there is no reason to continue this conversation.
The mental stress i dealt with going from hs to college was hard enough, let alone going to the biggest event in the world.
But keep living through her life judging her actions instead of living your own life, cuhh
@Still-alive So have to react to each comment? She said that was all she said so I left it there. And you morons think that shut it down? “That’s all I’m gonna say” is just throwing a drive by comment and leaving quickly… kind of a Simone like move actually.
and the only one Nobady ever succed to make a perfect 10 afther all 5 equipment. She win the gold medal (10+10+10+10+10)/5=10. <nobady had ever succed this and now is imposible because the sistem had changed.
She successfully performed a move that has never been done by anyone man or woman since the inception of the centuries old sport...
She's the goat lmao and I don't even give af. There's just no question. Sure you can split it from female goat and make goat. Kohei Uchimura in my opinion is the best All Arounder. But as far as women she is by far the best.
Doesn't mean she's had the most exciting or best moments. Basketball example would be something like Tracy McGrady 13 points in 35 seconds to win the game against the spurs. Tmac was not the goat but it's hard to find a more exciting moment than that in sports history.
Kobe 80+ point game was exciting but not as exciting in my opinion. But there's a stronger argument to be made for Kobe over Mcgrady. Is Kobe Bryant not the shit because he hasn't had a comeback like TMac?
GOATs don’t leave their team at an Olympics Gold Medal round. That’s not greatness. That’s also what she will be remembered for. She was unprepared, got stunned by her lack of capability and the extreme compilation provided by the others there and then used a smokescreen to get out and use sympathy.
"GOATs don't..." are you the goat? Do you personally define it? Is your niche criteria what stands above all or is there an objective standard such as Dominance in a sport that is unquestionable?
Because I'm not in the game of subjective measures that fall on opinions more than anything else
What a bunch of nonsense to deflect from what many see. She is no goat even though she self proclaimed. She choked on her team in a clutch moment, that’s what happened. And now she changed her excuse to that she gets dizzy in the air. What? That just started? No. Someone was left off the team for this crap.
That wasn't a personal jab lol. No need for the defensiveness. I'm just stating it's silly to put such a subjective standard to determine a GOAT.
LeBron James doesn't play defense while Michael Jordan had multiple defensive titles. Is LeBron James out of the conversation now? Or are other factors more relevant?
I am just put off that she gave herself that title. That should be bestowed by fans and teammates. I think it also added a lot of pressure in her that wasn’t good as she was already struggling I would guess before the Olympics. One mishap and the pressure goes to critical. I think someone told her to self claim goat and that person did her wrong. She shouldn’t have come and taken a slot. She should have cheered them on and then she might have been goat.
Being put off by the behavior of backing out makes sense. Maybe even say calling herself th GOAT arrogant is fair. But she didn't self bestow it. Many fans of the sport have called her that years before and other athletes said it years before she ever took it on for herself.
So you can't even make that claim. Again a LeBron example. Is he out of the conversation? Because he himself has called himself the GOAT aswell.
How much consensus is "widely considered the greatest of all time" whenever you Google her name, read articles about her for the past several years or see her name listed in polls all over?
Because there will never be 100% consensus and depending on the pool of people you pick from the percentage of votes changes.
I don’t know. It’s kind of an I’ll know it when I see it thing. There is always someone who is amazing at that level so goat is not something that can last or even be undebatable.
She should had dealt with her personal issue first and not be part of the US Olympic team. I mean if she was dealing with issues before the Olympics, sorry she should had stayed and seek for help, and take this time to recover away from the lights, the stress and tension of being part of an Olympic team. I mean I doubt her mental illness suddenly show up days before her next competition.
That could be another reason, taht she was not prepared enough this time and she used her mental issue as an excuse in order not to be seen like a coward perhaps
mental health has unpredictable outcome. any athlete would try and beat the pressure and mental thoughts. @kitty71 also if she was doing tricks no one else was doing during the events I doubt she would use it an excuse.
I got dizzy at my state meets due to anxiety which i dont get as much it’s a factor and she said her main reason already on TV. she’s even answering questions on instagram on her story saying it’s hard “when your body and mind isn’t in sync due to personal reasons” anyway good day you can have your opinions it’s not like next time people will be booing her lol like you say she’ll be remembered for only that.
@mollyyyy37474 You seem to perpetually excuse her. She shouldn’t be there if she can’t take the pressure. 75 people on this question alone agree with me. And who says I’m watching, lol. No one is watching this year as ratings are down 49% from the last games.
no you just sound crazy she’s not a robot. if your a perfectionist like she is and doing tricks no one else is doing i dont think that’s a sign of her not being physically ready. now being mentally ready is different for athletes and at least trying and fighting her thoughts like any atheletic goat would do is better than not trying at all is better it’s not like it was planned.
@mollyyyy37474 She signed up for this. Doing tricks is literally what she does. She more than volunteered for this, she pushed for this. You have some emotional attachment to her and are defending her when she should never have been there. She must have known she was unfit and yet screwed someone out of a slot in the team. She was extremely selfish.
nope you just sound like a hater lol that’s all & not that clever sorry if she was doing tricks which is exactly what she’s known for good job lol, new tricks keep in mind that no one else was doing i doubt that would be considered unfit and something she obviously trained for. good day sir exit time i’ll be cheering for her and i know millions of other will and won’t be booing her because that’s definitely not what she’ll be the only thing she’s remembered for lolll you troll.
It's a tragic deal. It's sad that this athlete feel from her trauma. But that's not the fault of her team or country. If she had this level of demons, why was she allowed to attend?
Because everyone wanted to send what they thought was the best, but I surprised no one saw issues a brewing. These types of breakdowns don't just happen out of the blue?
See, there are likey other girls who lost their seat because of this. Dreams lost not only on Simone, but others as well who were likey up to the challenge.
This is like taking a race car to the race you know that has structure damage that will fall apart if stressed. Who takes chances like this? How many race car teams become heros because they opted to race, but decided not to last minute because they didn't want to chance it? This is fundamentally why competitive sports is all about.
You don’t walk away like that traveling all those miles just to quit. Rven Michael Phelps pushed on through his mental issues. To me I’ll stick to Mary Lou Retton she had the eye of the tiger and beat out a high competition Russian gymnast and won the Gold medal 🥇
She got too cocky. Probably was partying way too much and focused on being a celebrity instead of focusing on her skills. Then she quit like a snowflake in the summer. She should've been kicked off the team when she said her life isn't all about medals/gymnastics. When you are representing your country on the world stage that's not the time to talk like that.
Leave her alone! Simone did the right thing as an athlete I know. If you are dragging down your teams score you have to back down. Plus gymnastics is a sport where if you are not at 100% you can seriously injure yourself. Don’t bring up the Kerri Strug thing because you can clearly see she is in pain and crying after her second vault. These girls are trained athletes who know when to back down and as someone who was in Simones place where I had to decide whether to back out and let my team handle it. I know she made the right choice.
She’s neither right now. She already proved herself in her increíble career. She’s executed gymnastic moves that have never even been seen before.
But she has been recently suffering from “aerial disorientation” which is a very real and dangerous phenomenon that’s impacts pilots, skydivers, etc. She could screw up a movement and land her neck.
So I understand and repeat her decision. But she is NOT a heroine. No. You are not brave for quitting. She’s not a coward or a villain either. She’s just a responsible adult who made an adult decision. Nothing better nothing worse.
SHE WAS ASSUALTED BY SOMEONE SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TRUST. AND SHE STILL TRIED TO COMPETE. EVEN AFTER THAT HAPPENED. SHE HAD EVERY RIGHT, SHE WAS DOING WHAT WAS BEST FOR HER. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE FRIGGIN BETRAYED LIKE THAT BY SOMEONE WHO YOU SHOULD BE SAFE WITH, DO YOU? ITS DAMAGING IN SO MANY WAYS.
Then she shouldn’t have competed and taken a spot in the Olympics team that others would have killed for. Someone was left home in the US but could have been in that amazing team. She took that.
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