Ben Sixsmith

The strange veneration of Simone Biles’s Olympic exit

(Photo by LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)

An opinion columnist should have some self-awareness in life. When your job is to sit behind a laptop droning on about politics, for example, one should be very careful before casting aspersions on the mental and physical performance of one of the most decorated Olympians of all time.

Simone Biles, who transcended poverty and abuse to become in all likelihood the greatest gymnast ever, with 19 gold medals in World Championships, clearly has nothing to prove when it comes to mental toughness and physical excellence. You can’t hurl yourself head over heels, through the stratosphere, in front of millions of viewers, without both — never mind doing it better than anybody else.

So, if she thought she had to pull out of the all-round gymnastics final at the Tokyo Olympics, I am sure she did. It is a terrible shame, but such is life. I hope Ms Biles feels happier and healthier soon.

The sad fact is that commentators are less interested in Biles’s emotional health than in deploying it for political purposes

The problem is not her actions but the response to them. Commentators have treated Biles’s departure from the competition not as a sad event deserving of our empathy but as something to be celebrated. The Week’s culture critic writes:

The strength required to [pull out] — when you know the coming backlash, the disappointed fans, and the let-down teammates — is enormous, unfathomable.

To which the question is, what backlash? Biles has received praise and support from USA Gymnastics, the International Olympic Committee, fellow Olympians, the mainstream media and so on. Criticism has largely been confined to Piers Morgan — whose disdain for Biles’s actions earned him a tidal wave of online abuse. Her support has been almost universal.

The sad fact is that commentators are less interested in Biles’s emotional health than in deploying it for political purposes.

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