"Obviously it was the right decision, but to have it finalized - in a way, you feel defeated because you've worked so hard. "I felt kind of torn and broken," Biles said regarding the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics - which were initially scheduled for summer of 2020. In a recent interview with Vogue, Simone Biles described the dread she feels about competing under USA Gymnastics for an additional year. Competitively, she didn’t do anything, or anyone, wrong.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. She allowed the others to come in and preserve the silver medal. To argue she cost anyone anything is ridiculous. She was the pitcher who pulled themselves from the game. The chance of not capturing silver, however, was significant if Simone couldn’t get things right.īiles’ decision, whether you want to criticise it, was at least partially rooted in strategy for the team. Whether Biles competed or didn’t, the Americans had essentially no shot at winning gold. The USA beat Great Britain for silver by just 2.0. If that continued over the three rotations, she would have tallied a total of 39.303 points, or 1.962 less than what Chiles and Lee put up. On vault, Biles scored 8.0 below her qualifying number. What are the chances a non-confident gymnast is doing that? Virtually nil. That wouldn’t be enough to catch the Russians.īiles would have had to outperform her qualifying numbers by more than 1.9 points on those three events for her score to impact the outcome. would have added 1.5 points to its total score. If Biles had scored the same in those three events as she did in qualifying when she topped the all-around list - and that would be a remarkable recovery - the U.S. The Russians still won easily, running away with the gold by 3.432 points. Chiles scored a 14.166 on bars and a 13.433 on beam. So she called on Chiles to fill in for her on bars and beam and Lee to step in on floor.
“So I thought it was better to take a step back and let these other girls do the job. “I didn't want to go into any of the other events not believing in myself,” Biles said. There is no manager who comes to the pitching mound in gymnastics. “I am not going to lose a medal for this country and these girls because they’ve worked way too hard to have me go out there and lose a medal.” “I was like, ‘I am not in the right headspace,’” Biles said. Only three other gymnasts, and none who competed on the top six teams, scored lower. In a sport where winning and losing can come down to one-tenth, let alone one one-hundredth of a point, Biles was 1.2 points below what she put up in qualifying.
Instantly, Biles knew she couldn’t compete any longer.īiles received 13.766, a painfully low score in elite gymnastics. Of the 42 women who competed Tuesday, only one attempted an easier vault. The Yurchenko 1.5 is a basic vault, a 5.0 degree of difficulty that is comically pedestrian at this level. Her teammates were so stunned that they covered their mouths. This is somewhat akin to a baseball pitcher thinking he was going to throw a fastball but instead throwing a curveball. “I was trying to do a two and a half but that was not clicking.” Simone Biles knew something was not right “I did not choose to do a one and a half,” Biles said. On her vault she attempted to perform a Yurchenko with 2.5 twists, except she was so out of it that she managed only 1.5 twists. For Biles, the inability to concentrate was obvious.
A lack of focus is as dangerous as a busted-up ankle. Some will dismiss mental health issues, but gymnastics, in particular, is a sport that requires the mind as much as the body. Team USA won silver in the artistic Women's Team Final. However, Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, was anything but good in her one vault attempt. “I have to put my pride aside,” she thought. While it would no doubt have been better for all if Biles had determined this prior to the start of competition, she said she felt good heading to the gym before trying to power through. However, there is a distinction in sports between just walking away and acknowledging when, for whatever reason, you are either incapable of continuing or your performance is hurting the team - like a player testing out a knee and realising he can’t go or the pulling of a hockey goalie who is letting in too many shots. After all, she decided to stop competing. There is no denying that Biles “quit" by some definitions of the word. While some have slammed Biles as a quitter who let her USA teammates down, there is a compelling argument that the gymnast's decision actually gave Team USA a chance to win the silver medal that they may not have otherwise.
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