Simone Biles Withdrew From The Individual Floor Exercise Final At The Olympics
Everyone with a functional sense of awe and appreciation for the heights an impeccably trained and talented human body can reach will feel at least a little selfishly deflated by the news that Simone Biles has withdrawn from Monday’s individual floor exercise final at the 2020 Tokyo Games, after having previously pulled out of both team events and the individual all-around. But there’s also a sense of relief that she is continuing to look out for her mental and physical health by not taking life-threatening risks, unless, of course, you’re the paragon of compassion that is Piers Morgan, who barfed up a stream of breathtaking wisdom wrapped in humanity, doused in heart and unicorn emojis, and tied in a candy-pink ribbon blessed by fasting monks on the waxing moon. Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che, who was also planning to take a swipe at Simone, later joked that his account had been hacked. Watching Simone slice, twist, and leap through the air while appearing to defy the laws of physics in this event is always a completely absorbing, jaw-dropping pleasure, but now I guess I’ll have to mine more athleticism from my own days by getting up off the couch to grab the remote five feet away instead of coaxing the dog to fetch it. Don’t judge! According to ESPN, there is still one more event, the balance beam final on Tuesday, and her participation has not yet been decided.
via ESPN:
TOKYO — Simone Biles has withdrawn from Monday’s floor exercise final at the Olympics, USA Gymnastics announced on Sunday.
She has not decided on whether to participate in the balance beam final, which is scheduled for Tuesday. She earned bronze in the event in Brazil five years ago.
Biles had previously opted out of the all-around final, as well as the vault and uneven bars finals.
“Simone has withdrawn from the event final for floor and will make a decision on beam later this week,” a tweet from USAG read. “Either way, we’re all behind you, Simone.”
It was after Simone’s first event on vault that she withdrew, citing that she’d been experiencing the “twisties” and was doubting her ability to safely compete. The clearest and best explanation of this phenomenon I’ve come across is broken down by a former diver and gymnast in this Twitter thread. ESPN continues:
In a series of posts to her Instagram account on Friday, Biles explained she was still experiencing the phenomenon, in which gymnasts feel like they get lost in the air, and said her “mind and body are simply not in sync.”
Biles will be replaced by Great Britain’s Jennifer Gadirova in the floor final.
MyKayla Skinner said she believes Biles will compete in Tuesday’s beam final, however.
“Yeah, I think so. I don’t know for sure. It’s kind of up to her. So that’s the game plan,” she said.
Meanwhile, this past week still brought a huge win and celebration for Team USA in the form of fellow gymnast Sunisa Lee, who won the gold medal in the individual all-around and was the first Hmong American ever to compete in the Olympics. Prior to that, she and her teammates had won the silver medal in the team competition. Sunisa Lee also won the bronze medal in uneven bars. And MyKayla Skinner, who replaced Simone Biles in the vault final, won silver in that event.
Oozing anal pustules like Piers Morgan aside, Simone has received plenty of support for her choice to withdraw from these events, especially from fellow athletes, and has posted this to her Instagram Stories:
And her latest IG post underscores this support:
While we await Simone’s decision on the balance beam final, the rest of us return to our usual sentinel duty on the upholstered furniture, and the most twisting any of us are doing involves intrepidly curving our tongues around scoops of Ben and Jerry’s and risking freezer burn for Team USA.
Pic: YouTube/CBC News: The National