I don’t believe many here understand her accomplishments, or understand how incredibly difficult what she does is. She is the best gymnast ever. If she found that she was having issues maintaining orientation during complex elements it is inherently dangerous to continue - regardless of the errors it could introduce and harm the team.
I just don’t believe I’m in a position to judge. I agree many here are being very harsh when they’ve no idea what they’re talking about.
I suppose if the withdrawal had happened prior to all the political and covid woke mess that has happened in the last several years then perhaps folks’ hearts might have been more open to the young lady’s plight.
Fair or not she gets lumped in with all the other kneelers and anti American whiners of which we’ve had to contend with.
That she might have withdrawn because she wasn’t performing well and didn’t want to hurt her team-mates anymore than she was doing doesn’t seem to be the message, even if intended, that is getting out there. It might have been better to say...”Look, I’m not performing well right now as my head isn’t in the right place and I’m dragging the team down, lets get an alternate in place so that my team has a better chance at a metal.” I think more people would have understood that scenario better than how she and her coaches decided to portray the situation in the media.