Biles withdraws from gymnastics final to protect team, self

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AP

She’s been doing this for years. She’s burnt out. Gymnastics is an extremely rough sport.

The weather conditions and Covid restrictions in Tokyo are insane. Athletes have said they aren't allowed to discuss how bad it is.

I'd be leaving too, if it became intolerable to my mental health. I'm sure this has nothing to do with her devotion to gymnastics.

Very similar to Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka, Elite sports stars can burn themselves out.

The Olympics create pressure like nothing else in sports. No next game, no wait until next year. You sacrifice like crazy for 4 years for something that will last a few minutes. If you make a slight mistake and blow it you don't get another opportunity for another 4 years when often by then it's too late because there are better younger athletes.

Gymnastics is the summer Olympics signature event adding more pressure. You just can't release that energy you get from finally doing what you have been sacrificing all these years by being purely physical like hitting somebody, you got to think through every move with not even a second until the next move.

And you had pandemic stuff, the cancellation, the extra year wait, the uncertainty of maybe another cancellation, and no crowds.

Simone Biles is 24.

That's actually close to the average retirement age for elite female gymnasts.

And given all her records and medals, Biles has probably pushed her body a lot further than her peers.

That's why I have always been ambivalent about elite gymnastics. It's truly impressive to see what they can do... But they burn out 10 years *faster* than ballet dancers (! !!)... And they will sometimes have to deal with hip and knee injuries for the rest of their lives.

I thought she has mental health issues? not physical

I was very remiss in not mentioning the stress of being sexually abused by the team doctor and all the stresses involved with her going public about it. Not to mention it was inexcusable on my part. I apologize.

It would be interesting to know how much of an effect this had on her preparation for the Olympics, and whether it contributed to her decision to withdraw:

Something else to consider besides just "burnout".

The things she's doing are highly technical. They require intense concentration and precision. If you mess them up, you can cripple or kill yourself. They are NOT things you want to risk even attempting if you aren't able to focus properly on what you're doing.

There are real physical risks involved in pressing on if you're not capable of focusing on what you're doing. So it's not just "I don't think I can do this anymore" - it's also, "I could seriously wreck myself if I try", too.

There's confirmation that Biles was using Ritalin to treat ADHD. Japan unfortunately bans the use of Ritalin and Adderal to treat ADHD (they do legally allow it for sleep disorders?).

Japanese law trumps international Olympic laws pertaining to athletes.

Without access to her medication her anxiety was through the roof. The apparent glee that members of certain political persuasion are attacking her are completely unfair and reflect an apparent pretext to claim she's not patriotic because (well we know why).

Apparently there is phenomenon call the "twisties." The flipping / twisting movements that Simone does require an unusually highly tuned mental and physical connection to know where in the air the body is, so the gymnast can land inappropriately. Sometimes stress or other issues can severe that connection, and that is what apparently happened during the vault that led to her meeting with the doctors. You can actually see that there is a problem watching her land that first team competition vault. Gymnasts have to go back into the basics and rebuild the connection, which can take weeks. She's apparently had the problem before and until it resolves the reality is that she cannot physically do the skills in her routines without high risk for falling on her head or back. Before withdrawing from the individual bars event, she had fallen on her back twice in practice, trying to get her brain and body back in sync.

I am a firm believer in sticking to your commitments, but I also know better than to reach a conclusion on someone without gathering more data. The more I read, the more I realized it would have been impossible for her to successfully compete. She did the right thing not just for herself, but also for the team.

As unfortunate for Simone this turn of events is, it has been a gift for Suni Lee and MyKayla Skinner. They were given an opportunity to truly shine and took full advantage of it.

A Canadian diver who scored a 0 with a feet-first flop with the finals on the line said she wasn't going to give up