Simone Biles continues to gracefully navigate the media uproar after her withdrawal from the final individual all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games. This decision came about after Biles’ uncharacteristic vault during team finals, in which she completed one and a half twists instead of two and a half as planned. She explained to her coach and team doctor, as reported by multiple media outlets, that she was afraid of injuring herself because she was not in the right “headspace.” She also reasoned that she did not want to jeopardize Team USA’s chances of winning a medal.
Biles recalls, “I had no idea where I was in the air. … I could have hurt myself.”
This phenomenon is known in the gymnastics world as the twisties — a loss of body awareness in the air that can make it extremely hard to land safely. Although most viewers and those giving feedback were very supportive of her commitment to putting herself and her health before performance, there were outliers with disturbing comments.
Charlie Kirk, a White conservative took to his podcast “The Charlie Kirk Show” to vilify her decision.
“We are raising a generation of weak people like Simone Biles,” he determined. “She’s an incredible athlete, I’m not saying that — she’s probably the greatest gymnast of all time. She’s also very selfish, she’s immature and she’s a shame to the country.”
Piers Morgan, also chimed in with similar comments via Twitter: “Are ‘mental health issues’ now the go-to excuse for any poor performance in elite sport? What a joke. Just admit you did badly, made mistakes, and will strive to do better next time. Kids need strong role models, not this nonsense.”
Why is there such a consistent, not only lack of empathy, but harsh criticism when Black women express any sign of humanity?
This is not only rooted in sexism but deeply rooted in racism. Dating back to slavery, White scientists believed that African men were “uniquely fit” to be enslaved due to having brute physical strength and simple minds. They also argued our primitive nervous systems did not experience pain the same way as our White counterparts and enslaved Africans experienced mental illness at lower rates than freed northerners.
Nevertheless, the hypersexualized “Black brute” caricature does not end with Black men. It affected Black women as well and still does. The undeclared bias in medicine still affects and kills Black women today.
Even so, as a double minority in the spotlight of not only a very divided America but the world, Simone Biles made an incredibly hard decision that possibly protected her life and allowed her team to place in the Tokyo Olympics.
Among others, NBA player and current Olympian Jayson Tatum challenged Kirk and Morgan.
Is it that hard to be supportive and empathetic to what others are going through? This is someone’s daughter and her health your referring to. Wonder if he has kids and how he would feel as a parent someone talking about his kids this way. Cause I’d be DAMNED. Simone is a hero! https://t.co/kJWnXK2tlk
— Jayson Tatum (@jaytatum0) July 28, 2021
