Biles bails at the Olympics
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@jon-nyc said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
I must confess I have no opinion about Ms Biles.
Yep. I see her as neither courageous nor cowardly. She just did what she did. I have no reliable knowledge of her personality or her mental or emotional state.
As far as her detractors, the only one I have ever heard of is Piers Morgan. I suspect the rest of them are simply clamoring for attention. All this stuff would not have brought a single whisper had it been a lesser known Olympian.
Nothing but clickbait.
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One former US elite gymnast I talked to said that if it was someone other than Simone Biles who had made that same error, they would have certainly blown a knee, at minimum. Another said if it had happened to her instead of Simone, "I probably would have ended up paralyzed".
Most non-gymnastics fans do not understand the seriousness of what happened because she landed on her feet. Every elite gymnast I've talked to has said that Simone Biles' vault was TERRIFYING and it's a miracle she put that vault to her feet & avoided seriously injuring herself.
I see they are bringing out the heavy duty rhetoric to defend Ms Biles. So deliciously non-verifiable and emotionally compelling. Who could argue?
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She could be going through anything - we genuinely have no idea one way or the other.
But if she is having mental health problems, I can't see that a bunch of mediocrities decrying her online is going to help much.
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@doctor-phibes said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
She could be going through anything - we genuinely have no idea one way or the other.
But if she is having mental health problems, I can't see that a bunch of mediocrities decrying her online is going to help much.
Yes, those people expressing anger at their Olympic star suffering an emotional breakdown at the worst possible time, are bad. Actually I distrust any adult man with an emotional connection to women's gymnastics. And yes, Simone had a breakdown. It's unfortunate she didn't retire before the competition, but she clearly wasn't predicting that this would happen.
However I again fail to require a fainting couch at either the incident or the reaction.
Perhaps this will cause people to once again re-evaluate their understanding of all of human existence. Like vaccination rates being less than 100% have been revelatory for some.
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@horace said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
Actually I distrust any adult man with an emotional connection to women's gymnastics.
I'd be quite willing to bet money that Piers Morgan didn't give a fuck about it until a black American woman did something he doesn't approve of.
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@doctor-phibes said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@horace said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
Actually I distrust any adult man with an emotional connection to women's gymnastics.
I'd be quite willing to bet money that Piers Morgan didn't give a fuck about it until a black American woman did something he doesn't approve of.
I am sure the race narrative will be wielded here at some point. Maybe in some cases it will even reflect some truth.
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@doctor-phibes said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
Piers Morgan isn't American. He is, however, a pudgy little cunt. I may have mentioned this in earlier discussions.
Yes, I thought of you when I included his name. <G>
I wavered between neutral and mildly disapproving, fueled largely by ignorance. Thanks to Omni and to George's sources, I have a better understanding now. Like Mik said, she did what she did. If these people are correct, she had the choice of quitting versus bulling through and risking her life or serious debilitating injury. No choice, really.
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Mental issues really shouldn't be that big a deal - just look at Piers Morgan, and how he manages to maintain a successful media presence despite suffering from a crippling personality disorder.
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I love how we've politicized a gymnast deciding not to compete at the Olympics. What the actual fuck.
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@aqua-letifer Welcome to TNCR, noobie! Just so you know, somebody else has been using your nick all this time.
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@catseye3 said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@aqua-letifer Welcome to TNCR, noobie! Just so you know, somebody else has been using your nick all this time.
I didn't mean TNCR, I meant Americans.
If you're liberal, you have to view this as a courageous act from a true hero.
If you're conservative, you have to view this as an act from a quitter who couldn't hack it.
I'm tired of everything becoming a proxy discussion about politics with no one thinking for themselves. I don't want to discuss issues with someone's interpretation of what their echo chamber has concluded, I want to talk to an actual person.
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@aqua-letifer said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
I didn't mean TNCR, I meant Americans.
Ah so.
I'm tired of everything becoming a proxy discussion about politics with no one thinking for themselves.
Oh, m'dear, I so SO hear you.
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We've also moved on from being Monday morning quarterbacks to Monday morning mental health professionals.
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@doctor-phibes said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
We've also moved on from being Monday morning quarterbacks to Monday morning mental health professionals.
Liberals are the Monday morning mental health professionals in this instance.
Conservatives are still doing the quarterbacking.
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@aqua-letifer said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@catseye3 said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@aqua-letifer Welcome to TNCR, noobie! Just so you know, somebody else has been using your nick all this time.
I didn't mean TNCR, I meant Americans.
If you're liberal, you have to view this as a courageous act from a true hero.
If you're conservative, you have to view this as an act from a quitter who couldn't hack it.
I'm tired of everything becoming a proxy discussion about politics with no one thinking for themselves. I don't want to discuss issues with someone's interpretation of what their echo chamber has concluded, I want to talk to an actual person.
Amen, brother Aqua.
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A new hero has emerged. Donβt want to be a spoiler but what a great success story. Churchillian even.
You can assemble the facts and write your own narrative but the final outcome is part of the American grit, resilience and overcoming the greatest odds story.
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@aqua-letifer said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@doctor-phibes said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
We've also moved on from being Monday morning quarterbacks to Monday morning mental health professionals.
Liberals are the Monday morning mental health professionals in this instance.
Conservatives are still doing the quarterbacking.
Quit being so tribal. As I referenced earlier, it's fine for her to withdraw, the question is why wasn't it done earlier?
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@jolly said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@aqua-letifer said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@doctor-phibes said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
We've also moved on from being Monday morning quarterbacks to Monday morning mental health professionals.
Liberals are the Monday morning mental health professionals in this instance.
Conservatives are still doing the quarterbacking.
Quit being so tribal.
Yeah it's me.
As I referenced earlier, it's fine for her to withdraw, the question is why wasn't it done earlier?
In other words, "she should have known her limits before she reached them." Doesn't sound reasonable to me to assume anyone can do that with any accuracy.
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@aqua-letifer said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@jolly said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@aqua-letifer said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
@doctor-phibes said in Biles bails at the Olympics:
We've also moved on from being Monday morning quarterbacks to Monday morning mental health professionals.
Liberals are the Monday morning mental health professionals in this instance.
Conservatives are still doing the quarterbacking.
Quit being so tribal.
Yeah it's me.
As I referenced earlier, it's fine for her to withdraw, the question is why wasn't it done earlier?
In other words, "she should have known her limits before she reached them." Doesn't sound reasonable to me to assume anyone can do that with any accuracy.
I think she was confident that she'd be embraced by her culture even after doing what she did. I think that confidence played a role in her decision. I think if she was Japanese or Chinese or Russian etc, she wouldn't have had that confidence, because of the differences in culture. To the extent that politics and culture overlap, there's an easy way to get from reactions to this event, to politics. You don't have to squint too hard.