TOKYO: BILES PULLS OUT OF ANOTHER EVENT
TOKYO: Simone Biles withdrew from the individual all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday, a day after she shocked the world by pulling out of the team event.
Olympians past and present flooded the US gymnast with messages of support as the mental health of athletes were in sharp focus at the Games.
“The advice I would give is to reach out, to colleagues and friends,” said Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics.
NEW DELHI: The medals can really wait. Even if those medals are intimately tied up with history—Simone Biles, already heralded as the greatest gymnast of all time, came to Tokyo as the first person to defend an Olympic all-around title in more than 50 years.
These were supposed to be her Olympics. Her success was a given, and the only question seemed to be how much higher she can push her own lofty levels. Instead, Biles withdrew first from the women’s team event, and then, on Wednesday, from Thursday’s individual allaround event citing mental health issues.
Her decision was yet another example of a radical shift in the sporting world, one which challenges the notion that elite athletes are forged of steel in mind and body, and must not show vulnerability or frailty. “We have to protect our mind and body rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do,” Biles told reporters.
Perhaps there is no better stage than Tokyo 2020 to move the conversation on mental health in sport forward. Deferred by a year because of the pandemic, and now being held under strict Covid-19 restrictions—empty stadiums, daily testing for every athlete, face masks to be worn at all times in the venues (except when the athlete is competing)—the need to speak openly about anxiety, stress or depression has never been higher.
Naomi Osaka, who lit the Olympic cauldron, was the face of this discourse heading into the Games when she pulled out of the French Open and Wimbledon, speaking of “long bouts of depression” and the difficulties of handling the pressure of being a top tennis player. A home favourite, Osaka again pointed to the oppressive pressure of expectations after her third round upset in Tokyo.
“There must be so many athletes that deal with depression, that deal with some kind of mental health struggle at the Game,” Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, had told HT in an earlier interview. “It’s something I’ve personally dealt with multiple times. Ever since 2014 I’ve talked openly about it because it’s important to me, because a lot of people are struggling with the same exact thing. It was hard for me to ask for help, it was hard for me to become vulnerable and show that side of me.”
Remember Sally Robbins? At the 2004 Athens Olympics, the Australian stopped rowing in the women’s eight event in the final stretch as she was too exhausted. Unable to put oar to water, she lay on her team mate’s lap. It dashed Australia’s medal hopes, and Robbins became an object of ridicule. She was accused of mental weakness with the Australian media dubbing her “Laydown Sally”.