While I’m sure the PR team couched it in pretty terms, no one knows just how serious her condition is except her and her doctors. I get why people are upset by this move; on the surface, it seems like a slap in the face to her team.
I see it a little different, as someone who did gymnastics and a mom with a child that battles depression.
Gymnasts can make their aerial moves look easy, but they are extremely dangerous if not properly executed. A life altering injury can and does happen.
She is a champion. Her many medals prove it and represent years of hard work, pain, and sacrifice. She is not a fragile snowflake. You don’t get to the Olympics be being weak.
That being said, if she knew she couldn’t perform, it was better for her to walk away.
My middle child has an endocrine disorder. Chronic depression is one of the side effects. It is debilitating, like any other serious medical condition. I witnessed my straight A honor student, with offers from Ivy league schools, crash and burn in her Junior year of high school, turn suicidal, engage in self-harm...it was agonizing.
All these folks in the media putting their spin on her situation is not helping her. Just wish her the best and pray that life after sports is not a trainwreck.
Just a couple of examples of athletes who sucked it up and push ahead to not let their teammates down...
Kerry Strug completed her vault on a severely sprained ankle, her team won the gold medal as a result of her efforts, she was clearly injured but pushed ahead...
Jack Youngblood a Defensive End for the Los Angeles Rams broke his leg in the NFC championship game, a game the Rams won....
Two weeks later Youngblood played the entire Super Bowl with a broken leg, the Rams lost but Youngblood gutted it out....certainly professional football is a sport with life altering injuries....
Simone Biles didn’t just quit, she quit right before the competition ....probably costing her team a gold medal...
Finally. Thank you for telling your story.
A final note Simone Biles is 24-years old, she’s not a child she’s a grown woman maybe if more people treated her more like an adult she wouldn’t be having so many issues