The answer my friend, is spinning in the wind...
On her worst day, Simone Biles can still be expected to outperform rival gymnasts on their best days. Because of this performance gap between the 24-year-old and the rest of the field, she is sometimes penalized with a score meant to discourage other gymnasts from ever attempting whatever impossible move she just did on the balance beam or during her floor routine.
It may not be fair, but neither is the prospect of an ordinary mortal going head-to-head with the greatest gymnast of all time while she’s still in her prime.
When Ms. Biles scores yet another world record after vaulting unprecedented heights with extra twists thrown in for good measure, scientists scramble to explain how what looks like defiance of gravity is actually a deft use of the same physics that bind the rest of humanity.
Simone Biles isn’t a magician — she’s simply the world’s greatest physicist when it comes to the art and science of bodies moving through space. No one understands its confounding mysteries better than she does because no one understands to the degree that she does what it takes to become a human missile.
That’s why scientists who can talk with ease about gravitational twists and angular momentum are just as much in awe of Ms. Biles’ performances as the rest of us.
Crediting mental discipline, physical prowess and sheer tactical mastery of the sport doesn’t go far enough when it comes to assessing a once-in-a-century talent like Simone Biles. For half a decade, she has transcended those ordinary categories with ease.
That’s why her decision to pull out of the Tokyo games where she was expected to add to her already astonishing Olympic medal count stunned the world.
After a wobbly (for her) performance on the vault, Ms. Biles abruptly pulled out of team competition citing a need to “focus on my mental health.”
That admission of mortality and the lack of mental clarity required to vault safely through the air at the speeds Ms. Biles routinely achieves riled America’s army of right-wing culture warriors into paroxysm of self-righteous froth and indignation.
Conservative pundits on Fox News echoed the opinions of the lowest brow sports commentators, podcasters and right-wing zealots accusing Ms. Biles of being “weak,” a “selfish sociopath” and a “national disgrace” who lacks
the intestinal fortitude to compete on the international stage.
Never mind the fact that Ms. Biles is the international stage and that no gymnastic competition is legitimate if she isn’t present. Never mind the fact that Ms. Biles has already met and conquered all of her Olympic competitors multiple times on multiple international stages. Never mind that Ms. Biles has nothing left to prove to the world — or even herself — when it comes to competing on the world stage.
Having thoroughly vanquished her physical competition many times over, the only unconquered field left for Simone Biles to lay waste to is much more personal — the world inside her own head where competing voices are screaming for her attention. Those voices are now loud enough to affect her performance.
While Ms. Biles’ army of reactionary critics can afford to surround and mock her like hyenas surrounding a wounded lion on a savannah, Simone Biles can’t afford to be distracted at the levels she competes at.
While jackals and hyenas like Charlie Kirk, Piers Morgan and their ilk mock someone whose shoes they’re unworthy to untie, Ms. Biles understands that one misstep caused by mental distraction could result in a broken neck or any number of gruesome outcomes that have befallen other world-class gymnasts over the years. She’s not interested in dying to entertain folks who wouldn’t mind witnessing a career-ending tragedy.
With apologies to Bob Dylan, we should all ask ourselves: “How much gold must Simone bring home / before we can say ‘that’s enough.’ / How many prizes can one athlete win / and still have to
hear ‘ you ain’t tough?’ / How many records must one woman break / before she’s allowed to be free? / The answer, my friend, is spinning in the wind / the answer is spinning in the wind.”
It’s interesting to note that most of the complaints about Ms. Biles’ decision to work on her mental health at the expense of American dominance at the Tokyo Olympic games are the same creeps and cretins who believe football became “sissified” as soon as the NFL began worrying about the effects of concussions on the brains of its players.
These are the same creeps who are quick to question the patriotism and toughness of any athlete who doesn’t demonstrate singleminded devotion to playing the game, even if toughing it out means a mental breakdown or death. Charlie Kirk, a weak-kneed Trump sycophant of the highest order, has the audacity to call Ms. Biles a “selfish sociopath” because she has the temerity to put her mental health above his sick compulsion to be entertained at all times.
For a few hours in the middle of the week, there was an attempt to pit Ms. Biles unfavorably against the memory of Kerri Strug’s Team USA victory in the 1996 Olympic Games where the injured gymnast allegedly scored a Rocky-like victory over the Russians.
Upon closer inspection, the right-wing spin turned out to be untrue, but that didn’t stop the hate machine from churning out other dubious precedents that “prove” Ms. Biles’ unworthiness to represent America. Never mind that Simone Biles has competed and scored victories for the country with broken toes and passing a kidney stone once. She even competed while struggling with the mental weight of sexual assault by a serial
rapist who decimated the confidence of dozens of young women over the years.
That doesn’t matter, she’s still a “sociopath” as far as good Christian men of impeccable conscience like Charlie Kirk are concerned. In Texas, Ms. Biles’ home state, a public official who works for the attorney general tweeted out a racist dog whistle this week comparing Ms. Biles unfavorably to Ms. Strug. His tweet contained the following insult: “Contrast this with our selfish, childish national embarrassment, Simone Biles.” National embarrassment? Simone Biles is literally one of the best things about this country. The national embarrassments are the goobers who are trying to outdo each other imitating the former president’s misogyny and racism.
It’s hard not to have contempt for the men and women who lack the grace to allow one of the most accomplished humans on the planet the mental health space she needs to perform at the levels she’s accustomed to attaining. For half a decade, Simone Biles has performed at a level unattainable by most athletes on the planet only to have her patriotism and moral character questioned by people who aren’t even brave enough to get vaccinated during a pandemic. For once I wish “cancel culture” was more than just hype because these blowhards richly deserve it.
As effortless as Simone Biles makes it look, what she does routinely really isn’t. Now more than ever, both her body and mind have to be perfectly aligned as she passes into the next phase of her athletic career. Everything else is just bread and circuses.