So, what happened to Simone Biles?

[Baitball Blogger]

Spoiler: She withdrew.

My guess: On top of the Russians performing well, the judges wanted to send a message. Simone had two bobbles and the judges were tired of her level of difficulty carrying the day.

It is possible that she also has Covid, I quess, but that young lady is probably just terribly disappointed in herself. My husband said that going into competition with all the hyper expectations would have sunk anyone.

[NCDem47]

1. I mean, what was left to accomplish for her?

You can only push the mind and body so far before it gives.

[bottomofthehill]

2. She did not make the vault she planned to make

She does not have Covid or she would not be back in the arena

[Me.]

3. This Is A Long & Not Pretty Story

“Hence, Biles’s storyline this year isn’t about whether she’ll win, but whether her skills will be fully appreciated. Specifically, the controversy is that Biles is doing moves that few, if any, gymnasts can do, including her male colleagues. But instead of getting full points for her moves, she and those who watch the sport feel that the judges aren’t scoring her fairly and are not giving her moves their proper value. With Biles’s overall dominance, missing a few tenths here and there can feel trivial. But try to imagine the absurdity of shortchanging greatness and why it’s happening to arguably the greatest athlete of all time…

This means that Biles’s potential scores are much higher than her competitors. You’ll also notice that in terms of execution (the “E” scores), she’s executing her harder skills at a similar clip, if not better (e.g. the vault in the first column), than her opponents. So she’s not only performing more difficult routines, but also executing them well. That leads to, as it did at the World Championships, a win by more than 2 points in a sport that — until Simone Biles — was decided by tenths and hundredths of a point.

The current controversy surrounding Biles is that she’s added new, more difficult skills but isn’t getting what should be the full credit reflected in her difficulty score. One of those moves is her vault, which has the difficulty value of 6.6....

“Simone does something that’s called a Yurchenko double pike, which is misleading because she’s actually doing three complete flips during the vault,” said Dave Lease, who runs the gymnastics and figure skating site The Skating Lesson. “This is something that only a handful of men can do without serious bodily harm. She actually did the vault extremely well. But the judges went conservative on the score.”

This is a very interesting read and is a sad commentary on why they would hold her back. And frankly, I can't help wondering if the fact that she is a female or an African America or both has anything to do with it. Ceryainly women in sports are not treated with the same respect men are.


https://www.vox.com/22575301/simone-biles-olympics-scoring-explained-gymnastics-yurchenko-double-pike

[GPV]

4. How terrible

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Yeah, I was afraid this was the case.

It came down to the judges who traditionally like the flurry wrist actions, and are not ready for greatness.

[marble falls]

6. Nailed it. She has three marks against her when she goes onto the mat: PoC, woman, American.

[Me.]

7. I Forgot American

[GopherGal]

12. No, the scoring has nothing to do with it

She didn't attempt one of her super-difficult vaults*. She posted the number for a 2-1/2 twisting vault (still more difficult than any the other Americans were trying today, but the same vault that McKayla Moroney famously did so well in 2012), but then completed only 1-1/2 twists before opening up and landing somewhat awkwardly.

*A lot of the top gymnasts perform "safer" lower-risk vaults/routines in Team Final to get a "guaranteed" good score for their team, whereas in the All-Around and/or Event Finals they're competing only for themselves and the risk/reward on the higher-risk elements is worth it.

The scoring "controversy" lies not with the judging in individual meets, but in the determination of the difficulty score for Simone's new elements never performed by anyone else. These have to be submitted to a committee before the competition so that they can be given a difficulty value. The committee has given some controversial rulings that appear to undervalue some of those new elements (relative to the progressions for adding a flip or twist to other elements and relative to the progression of values in the men's Code of Points). The value would of course apply to any gymnast who performs those elements, but, in practice, only applies to Simone, for now.

I think there is sentiment that the Technical Committee has intentionally undervalued some other elements under cover of "safety concerns" in addition to Simone's new elements, so the evidence is a little fuzzier than Dave Lease is implying as far as Simone's being directly targeted. IMHO, it appears to me that there is an old-school Russian/European influence that resents the increase in technical difficulty vs balletic "artistry" in the sport, and this is one of their cudgels to try and tip the balance back to balletic waifs. And yes, Simone personifies the powerful tumbler-type they resent, so it gets fuzzy... However, any of this is at best tangential to Simone's decision to withdraw from the competition today.

[Me.]

13. I Am Going To Disagree With You Somewhat

I understand about the vault but she has been talking about the difficulty she faces just before she entered the Olympics and the scoring, part of it, is no small thing and I think it all added up to the withdrawal from the team competition. We shall see as times goes on as I think there will be interviews that clarify her thoughts

[GopherGal]

14. I should have been more precise in my language

I meant that the scoring of that particular vault had nothing to do with it. I think I overstated the case in an attempt to forestall any implication that it was an "I didn't get the score I wanted so I'm going home" situation.

But I can certainly see the under-valuing of her difficulty being an issue in an "it's hard to love a sport that doesn't love you back" kind of way. We'll probably hear more about what was on her mind in the coming days, not that she owes us any additional explanation.

[Me.]

15. Oh ...I Quite Agree

I think the question for the future will be why she was so off her game when we all know that she is such a professional. and the last thing we would expect is for her to pull out so suddenly.

[underpants]

8. Officially it's medical. The Today Show has been heavily (but nicely) saying it was pressure related

From the actual Today show to a fan girl report from Hoda they are all focusing on the mental pressure of it all.

My wife got up (we are on vacation) and her first impression was that she just bailed on her teammates. Interesting. I know we are all loving us some Simone but she does have a reputation and history inside the gymnastics community of leaving coaches by the wayside and owing them money. This came out after 2016.

[underpants]

9. Self correction - it's NOT physical according to her. (Just popped up while I was posting above)

When Simone Biles exited the arena, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team’s gold medal chances plummeted. The world’s best gymnast later returned to the sideline but she withdrew from the competition for what USA Gymnastics cited as a “medical issue.”
Afterward, Biles made clear the issue was not physical.
“I just felt like it would be a little bit better to take a back seat; and work on my mindfulness,” she said.
As for whether she would compete again in Tokyo, where she is next scheduled to perform in Thursday’s all-around, Biles replied, “We’re going to take it a day at a time.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/27/olympic-gymnastics-live-updates-womens-final/

[TexasBushwhacker]

21. I read that she got the "Twisties"

It can happen to any gymnast, even the best like Simone. She attempted a vault that was supposed to have 2.5 revolutions and she only made 1.5. The "Twisties" is when a gymnast loses awareness of where their body is positioned in space. Up becomes down. Right becomes left. It all gets messed up.

You can imagine the impact this has on the gymnast. It was during the team competition and she was afraid it would cost her TEAM a medal. As it stood, her score on that vault meant they were no longer in contention for the TEAM gold. However, the TEAM did win the silver. Simone may choose to continue in individual competition, or not.

https://www.health.com/condition/mental-health-conditions/simone-biles-twisties-gymnastics

[Anon-C]

10. Nothing but proud of Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka!

[Coventina]

11. I feel so badly for her. I wish I could give her a hug.

[Baitball Blogger]

20. +1

[applegrove]

16. She is not that much of a kid anymore so she does not have that deluded thinking

that she can do anything and not get hurt that young people have. Plus roaring crowds were not there as much. I bet she is used to feeding off that. Could have been a combination of things like that. I hope she can be in a better head space in a few days but she has nothing to be ashamed of if she isn't. For too long the press has treated young athletes like commodities. They are not. They are still kids.

[TexasBushwhacker]

22. I had a college housemate in the late 70s who broke her neck falling from the uneven bars

She was partially paralyzed from the neck down. She had to drop out of school to focus on her rehab. We kept in touch for a while, but I don't know how much ability she regained.

[applegrove]

23. Oh that is so sad.

[TexasBushwhacker]

26. It is. I just tracked her down via Facebook

Her name was Nina. The last time she posted was in 2009. It turns out she died that year. She was only 51. I contacted a friend of hers and she said Nina never got out of the wheelchair and had a very difficult life.

It's really tragic, but my guess is these things happen more often than we are aware of. Most of us only see gymnastics on TV for national or international competitions.

[applegrove]

27. Oh boy. I guess we all are looking at the sport with new eyes.

[3catwoman3]

24. I can hardly bear to watch the balance beam because...

…I am always afraid that someone will land badly on her neck and break it. That particular exercise does not look to me like something the human body was meant to do.

[TexasBushwhacker]

25. I know. 4" wide!

This is Dominique Moceanu in 1996. She has come to Simone Biles defense and basically said you have to keep yourself safe, because no one else will! She said no one even examined her neck after this incident. Bela Karoli just pushed everyone to keep going, even with injuries.

[Skittles]

17. she honestly sounds like someone who really needs a break

she's been in the pressure cooker too long

[LisaL]

18. It's not possible that she has covid.

They are being tested at least daily. If she had covid, she wouldn't have been allowed to compete.

[LisaL]

19. Sounds to me that there was too much pressure and she couldn't handle it.

Too much pressure, too many expectations.