It’s brave, and simply human, to protect self

First, it needs to be stated bluntly that Simone Biles prioritizing her mental health by pulling herself from competition, even one as vital as the Olympics, was an act of bravery. It was not cowardice.

It was not selfishness.

It was human. It was what she should have done.

“Simone, you’ve made us so proud,” said Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the U. S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. “Proud of who you are as a person, teammate and athlete. We applaud your decision to prioritize your mental wellness over all else, and offer you the full support and resources of our Team USA community as you

navigate the journey ahead.”

This is a point that will be hotly contested in the coming days. You will hear critics calling her soft, and they will be loud, and they will be wrong. They won’t see this as evolution, as the 21st century, not the 1950s, with new science and new understanding. They won’t get how empathy isn’t weakness or how what Biles did wasn’t just wise, it’s almost a prerequisite.

The situation with Biles, tennis star Naomi Osaka and other high- profile athletes shows something else as well. The same extreme internal heat that helps mold them into the fiercest competitors on the planet can also consume them.

“I think all athletes face a tremendous amount of pressure, even if they’re not at the top like Simone Biles,” clinical psychologist Susan Wilson, who has worked with professional athletes, told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. “But when you’re an elite athlete like she is, it’s not just the pressure to perform well but to also stay on top. It can be soul- crushing.”

In other words, top- caliber athletes aren’t exempt from the same mental health traps and spikes that can affect us all, from the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker to, yes, even an Olympian. Except in the latter’s case, the stress increases by a factor of a billion. They perform before planet Earth while doing some of the most physics- warping maneuvers the human body and mind can handle.

The U. S. team earned the silver medal behind the Russian Olympic Committee. Biles performed solely on the vault and failed to competently execute her intended move. She withdrew after that.

“If I was in her shoes, I’d have done what she did, and I would have advised her that what she did was right,” Wilson said. “Based on some of the things I’ve seen her say ( after she withdrew), she might have felt like she was letting her team down. Or even that she was letting the United States down. She definitely did the right thing.”

Biles’ comments post- withdrawal are instructive, and you can hear a person who has the correct perspective and is grappling, like many athletes and many people, with the dilemma that mental health challenges present.

“I was still struggling with some things,” Biles said Tuesday in Japan. “Therapy has helped a lot, as well as medicine. That’s all been going really well. Whenever you get in high- stress situations, you kind of freak out and don’t really know how to handle all of those emotions, especially at the Olympic Games.

“I’m one to tough it out to the last minute, and obviously, it didn’t work. Moving forward, go back to those tactics that have always worked, so we’re just going to see.”

What Biles said is similar to what Osaka stated. Osaka, who was eliminated from Olympic competition Tuesday, skipped Wimbledon and withdrew from the French Open after she was fined $ 15,000 and threatened with suspension for declining to appear at tournament news conferences.

“I communicated that I wanted to skip press conferences at Roland Garros to exercise self- care and preservation of my mental health,” she told Time. “I stand by that. Athletes are humans.”

Wilson said what people need to understand most is that Biles and Osaka should be allowed to protect themselves. Even during something as important as the Olympics.

Why?

“The Games eventually end,” Wilson said. “You don’t want to be just a shattered piece of yourself when they do. You’re allowed to protect yourself from that.”