Biles Is Still the GOAT
She is known as the greatest American gymnast of all time.
The GOAT.
She won four olympic gold medals and a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Her world championship resume includes 19 gold medals, three silver medals, and two bronze medals. Add the Pacific Rim Championships and the World Cup, and her medal count swells to 27, five, and four.
Her skills are unquestionable. She has moves gymnasts perform in her routine named after her. She is an inspiration to young women around the world. Aspiring gymnasts hit the mat in gyms everywhere trying to emulate Biles' routine.
In addition to her unbelievable and superhero-like athletic ability, she is also an advocate for change in the world that is USA Gymnastics. The sexual abuse scandal which left the sport's governing body with a huge black eye, and former diagraced team doctor Larry Nasser incarcerated.
Biles came forward and said she was one of the gymnasts who was abused. She has committed herself to help change the culture of sweeping sexual abuse under the rug in the sport in which she dominates.
Oh, and by the way, another plus in the Simone Biles column — she's from Spring, Texas.
After laying waste to her competition in Rio de Janeiro and the world championships, Biles became a household name. Fat out of shape guys like me who have never come within a stone's throw of a gymnastics competition became a fan of the Texan, and American, who was representing the country so gracefully.
Advertisers threw endorsements at her. Aside of the obligatory Wheaties box, Biles sponsors include Nike and Hershey's. She also has her own line of gymnastics equipment.
Her dominance in 2020 was a foregone conclusion. It wasn't a case of if she would win gold medals — it was a case of how many gold medals she'd win.
She arrived in Tokyo seemingly ready to take on the world. But she wasn't. Citing the lack of crowd support, and feeling as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, she pulled out of this week's team and individual competitions. Initially, sports reporters blamed a physical ailment, but in a statement, Biles cited mental health issues as her reason from withdrawing from the competition.
At a press conference, Biles said, “I say put mental health first because if you don’t then you’re not going to enjoy your sport and you’re not going to succeed as much as you want to...So it’s OK sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself because it shows how strong of a competitor and person that you really are, rather than just battle through it.”
Biles is being applauded by the medical community for calling attention to the mental health conversation front and center. She has received an outpouring of support from gymnasts, sports reporters, American fans, and people and fans from around the world.
I am one of her supporters. At 24 years old, this young girl has taken on mental health, and the world, with the maturity and grace of someone with wisdom and maturity way beyond her years.
Biles took to Twitter to release a statement thanking her fans for her supoort during this difficult time. Biles wrote, "The outpouring love and support I've received has made me realize I'm more than my accomplishments and gymnastics which I never truly believed before,"
USA Gymnastics released a statement of support for Biles as well. Their statement read, "We wholeheartedly support simone's decision and applaud her bravery in prioritizing her well-being. her courage shows, yet again, why she is a role model for so many."
Then, without fail, the anonymous angry mob on social media has to rear its ugly head. The bitter and the negative have to start bringing up nonexistent reasons why Biles was punished and was forced to withdraw.
Grumblings on social media said the reason why Biles withdrew from the competition was because she was being penalized for being "too good," and she was being scored too harshly. Now, I'm not an expert on gymnastics, and I do know sports with judges like gymnastics and boxing are often times controversial because of how judges score competitors, but in the dozens of articles I read, not one of them said Biles blamed the harsh judging as the reason she withdrew.
And, of course, the social justice warriors have gone even further and, yes, you guessed it, have blamed the entire gymnastics community of not liking Simone Biles and wanting to see her fail because she's black.
This country is always going to have stupid, ignorant, and racist people. No matter how much we try and change people's mindset, those type of despicable people will always exist. That said, you will always find some idiot on social media posting under some sort of anonymity, who will make some inappropriate racist comment about Biles and her ethnicity, but after seeing the overwhelming support she has received, it doesn't appear the majority of the people are complaining because Simone does not look like Mary Lou Retton, like one idiotic, insignificant guy who thinks he was a big movie star said on TikTok.
Are there people who will say something negative about Biles because of her ethnicity? Yes, I'm sure there are. However, is that the impetus begind the entire athletic and gymnastic community concocting some multi-faceted conspiracy to get Biles to leave the competition? No.
Biles has the heart and athleticism of a true champion. She truly is the GOAT. This incident will make her stronger and she'll come back with a fire in her belly. I am afraid for her competition in the next event she chooses to participate in. And if she chooses to retire, she'll still be the greatest gymnast of all time.
Regardless of what the dark souls on social media are spreading, there are way more people who stand behind Biles than there are people who are trying to tear her down.
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