It just turns out, even she has her limits.
It just turns out, even she has her limits.
I have always looked back at Mike Tyson’s first defeat at the hands of journeyman Buster Douglas as the most stunning sports upset that I had ever witnessed. That is, until this week.
Simone Biles has been as close as it gets to automatic in sports. Tom Brady has lost Super Bowls. Mariano Rivera has blown playoff games. But Biles hadn’t lost a major all-around championship in eight years, racking up 30 medals — including the four golds she won at the 2016 Olympics. It was assumed, going into Tokyo, that everybody else was competing for silver. We were watching not to find out whether she would win — for everyone assumed that she would — but simply to marvel at her dominance. To be sure, it was always possible that she would have an off day, or a stumble, as was the case when she ended up with bronze in the 2016 balance-beam finals. But Biles always seemed to have ice water running through her veins. To drop out because she couldn’t get herself in the right place mentally was unimaginable until it happened.
There has been a furious debate over her decision to pull out. Some are lashing out at her as a quitter, others are portraying her action as heroic, and still others fall somewhere in between in their reaction. But one of the most ridiculous responses among her critics has been to portray the move as some sort of failed referendum on her mental toughness. In reality, Biles had nothing to prove on that front, because she has already demonstrated her mental toughness many times over again.
It would be one thing if this were Biles’s first go-around, and it showed that she simply couldn’t handle the pressure of the big stage. But we know she can handle pressure because she has already done so. She came into the 2016 Olympics as one of the most hyped female gymnasts ever, having one three straight World Championships. And she lived up to the hype with a dominant performance that showed considerable poise.
In the wake of Biles’s decision to quit, some people have likened it to the idea of Tom Brady simply deciding not to compete in a Super Bowl. But cross-sport comparisons don’t hold up and could easily be turned the other way. Brady, who is known for his coolness under pressure, had already gone through college and spent several years as a backup in the NFL before achieving superstar status when he reached 24 — Biles’s current age. On the other hand, Biles was forced to endure the glare of the global spotlight as a teen. She won her first worldwide championship at 16. By 19, she had already cemented her legacy as arguably the greatest female gymnast ever. At that age, Brady was a freshman backup quarterback at the University of Michigan, who threw five passes over the course of a season — one of which was intercepted.
Taken on their own, Biles’s achievements through 2016 were historic. But only later did we learn that she had been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of the team doctor, Larry Nassar, throughout her teen years as she trained for competitions. It is difficult enough for survivors to try and block out their sexual abuse and go about their lives. She had to compete on the world stage while interacting regularly with her abuser. She subsequently related that her abuse left her deeply depressed, and even with suicidal thoughts. Somehow, she managed to gut through it and not only win but play the role that Americans expect of their female gymnasts — bubbly and smiling broadly.
She could have retired after the 2016 Olympics, or after speaking out about her abuse, and walked away from the sport widely considered the greatest there ever was. But she went on and sought to use her platform to push reforms in the U.S. gymnastics program to which she gave so much despite the way the program failed her.
In 2018, Biles was rushed to the hospital with a kidney stone during the world championships but ended up competing anyway, winning four gold medals. She maintained her dominance in the 2019 championships and appeared primed for the 2020 Olympics when the pandemic happened, forcing her to add an additional year of training and putting her age at 24, which is considered ancient by female gymnastic standards. Still, by all accounts, she was perhaps in the best shape of her life going into the Olympics. Just two months ago, she became the first female gymnast in history to complete a daring Yurchenko double pike vault in competition.
Yet when it came time for the Olympics, she clearly struggled to get into the right head space. Whether it was being isolated from friends and family, having to perform without crowds thanks to COVID-19 restrictions, or the sky-high expectations, it’s hard to say. On her first vault, she described suffering from what gymnasts call the “twisties” — a sensation of being lost in the air while doing an insane series of flips that could potentially lead to serious injury.
While her withdrawal will be long debated, we should put to rest the question of whether she possesses mental toughness. She indisputably does. It just turns out, even she has her limits.
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