The Celebration of a Quitter: Simone Biles gives up in Tokyo and is called a hero
Citing mental health issues, Biles withdraws from team and all-around competitions to receive more acclaim than she would have received for winning gold in both events
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles has bee celebrated this week more for being a quitter than she ever was as a gold medalist. (Photo: Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images)
Look. It is simple. Simone Biles is not a hero, despite her highly praised revelation that she just can’t mentally carry on in the Olympic gymnastics competition.
Let me unequivocally and bluntly tell you what Simone Biles is: A quitter.
But from the way Biles is being praised this week, you might think that the decorated superstar put on a heroic display during the team competition in Tokyo and led her squad to a gold medal.
Public accolades have been heaped on Biles from prominent politicians like Ayanna Pressley and Cori Bush. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki expressed “gratitude and support.” Deadspin gushed over “the most impressive move of her career.”
Former Olympians joined in the group hug even though most of them actually reached their goals and never expressed doubt, fear, angst or anxiety as Biles has done this week in Tokyo. Articles have been written extolling her bravery and declaring that her achievements this week have sent a “powerful message” to the world.
CNN called her performance “impactful.” She has been hailed for her strength and for “setting an amazing example” and being a great athlete and role model. Women’s advocacy groups have thanked her.
Excuse me, but past generations of athletes, military figures, suffers of terminal disease, those confronted with dire situations involving life and death would wonder at her willingness to throw away everything — promises and commitment Biles has made to herself, her teammates and her country — because she can’t handle “pressure.”
After struggling in the qualifying rounds, and botching her first event in the women’s team finals, Biles decided to withdraw from the meet. One of the most recognized U.S. Olympic athletes of all time, one of the most celebrated in Olympic history, chose to abandon her team in the middle of the finals. Her teammates would finish second behind Russia, while Biles went on to receive more acclaim than a gold medal would have earned her.
Compare Bile’s pathetic display to that of Kerri Strug, one of the “Magnificent Seven” at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
As the team competition neared its end, Kerri was up last on vault. After shocking spectators by falling and injuring her ankle on her first vault, she managed to stick the landing on her second vault before collapsing in pain.
Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug had to be carried into the gold medal ceremony for the All-Around Competition in the 1996 Atlanta Games, having ignored an ankle injury and sticking her landing in the final vault of the competition. (Photo: Dana Welch/Atlanta Constitution)
Her true bravery — unlike the misappropriated heroism credited to Biles — helped secure gold for the American team. It was a moment that landed Kerri on the front page of newspapers around the world and catapulted her into the spotlight. She was only eighteen years old.
The initial reports concerning Biles’ withdrawal from the team competition in Tokyo suggested she had a physical injury. That simply was not the case. She explained she left the competition in order to focus on her mental health and her “mindfulness.” Biles complained that the Olympics haven’t been “fun” this year.
“This Olympic Games, I wanted it to be for myself when I came in — and I felt like I was still doing it for other people,” she said. Returning to this theme later, she said that it’s important to “put mental health first” because if you don’t then “you’re not going to enjoy your sport.” She complained about the pressure that she’s under.
Though people in all walks of life quit their responsibilities all the time, it is unexpected in the ranks of professionals, athletes, soldiers and others whose commitment is depended on by those equally committed to the common cause they share. People quit things all the time, and they almost always do so because the thing they are quitting is too difficult and not very fun. This is the universal rationale of all quitters everywhere, throughout history.
In this case, there is no doubt that the difficult thing was very difficult indeed. The pressure Biles experiences as a world famous athlete on a global stage must be quite burdensome on both an emotional and physical level. This is what makes quitting understandable. Yet thousands of Olympic athletes dating back to ancient Greece held the cause of the Games in higher esteem than they did their own stress, injury or pain.
Therefore, the one thing that Biles’ quitting cannot be is admirable.
If Simone Biles had bailed on her team and apologized after the fact, and the public had reacted appropriately to the news, then there wouldn’t be much to else to say on the matter. It is hard to compete in the Olympics. It is hard to live up to high expectations.
Lots of people quit when things are hard. We all have, at one time or another. That is why, when someone quits, we normally shake our heads and say, “That’s a shame,” and then we move on with our lives. Nobody is suggesting that athletes who quit ought to be tarred and feathered in the street. It is enough to be disappointed and be done with it.
The problem is that now we are exhorted not simply to understand why someone quits, but to actively applaud them for doing so. What makes the Simone Biles story troubling is not that the women’s gymnastics team had to settle for a silver medal, but that our cultural powers-that-be want us to celebrate cowardice.
Before Simone Biles’ odd withdrawal for mental health reasons, U.S. tennis star Naomi Osaka had ventured into controversy over her mental state, refusing to do media conferences during the French Open. Her problems continue, as she is an early elimination from the Tokyo Olympic competition this week. (Photo: Vincent Thian/Associated Press)
As always, it is not enough to merely tolerate another person’s decision or to be compassionate towards their struggles. We are meant, now, to rise to our feet and joyously cheer what all people throughout history, and most people living in the world today, would consider shameful and unfortunate.
It is one thing to say: “Simone Biles quit, but let’s have some empathy.” It is quite another to say: “Simone Biles quit. Isn’t that so brave?”
No, no it is not brave. It may be human, it may be relatable, but it is the opposite of brave. To be brave is to refuse to quit precisely when most people would. Again, consider Kerri Strug.
That is why we admire people who persevere: They are rare. Quitters are a dime a dozen. Cowardice is in no short supply in our world, and it will become even more common now that we have rebranded it as courage. Indeed, if we will grant to cowardice the rewards of courage without the effort and sacrifice, why bother with courage at all?
The many defenders of Simone Biles have said that she is right — a role model, in fact — for prioritizing her “mental health” above all else. In the era of the Psychological Man, when there is nothing more important than the self’s opinion of itself, it is perhaps no surprise that we should congratulate a woman for explicitly putting herself before her team and her country,
Yet and still, one wonders how consistently this new moral code will be applied. Will Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady receive such worshipful reactions if they leave in the third quarter of a playoff game because they “aren’t having fun” and need to work on their “mindfulness”?
Such a thing is almost unthinkable because it has never happened and probably never will. But there have been cases of sulking professional athletes leaving the field or the court a few seconds early because they were frustrated and sad during a bad loss. We’ve seen this move from LeBron James, for example, perhaps the greatest sulker in all of sports.
There are usually a few people willing to defend this kind of behavior from male athletes, but even they have never been celebrated like a returning war hero the way Simone Biles has been, and Naomi Osaka before her.
Perhaps we will get there one day, though. Maybe we are fast approaching a time when the greatest athletes will be those who manage to feel the best about themselves while competing. At that point, we will not need them to perform any athletic feats at all. They can simply stand in a circle and whisper sweet nothings to themselves and one another.
For now, athletes, soldiers, cancer patients: They all make difficulty decisions in the course of their duties. Yes, it's hard to understand, even to watch Kerri Strug make the choice she made. But her choice was far more inspiring than Simone Biles quitting is.
We want to protect our children from ever having to make such hard choices, whether at a superficial or a life-or-death level. They will nonetheless face times in their lives when they have to make a tough choice, knowing its going to hurt but doing it anyway. It may not be a gymnastics meet, though. It might be far more difficult a decision.
It may be deciding whether to leave an abusive/alcoholic spouse, it may be whether or not to take a new cancer drug that could kill them or it could cure them, it may be choosing to have a child that is "inconvenient" or aborting it. If they have to face those hard decisions, do we want them to be a Kerri Strug, or a Simone Biles?
No parent can protect their children from tough choices. Biles made hers. She has to live with it forever, looking back on what might have been. Strug made hers. She has nothing to regret, being fully healed from a temporary ankle injury and having won gold.
But now, everyone wins in the end, everyone gets a trophy. It may not make for much of a spectator sport, but at least we will know that nobody’s mental health has been damaged.
Mike Nichols is a conservative, a patriot, U.S. Army veteran, behavioral therapist, political enthusiast, sports fan and writer living with his beautiful wife Liz in the Heartland. He is a regular contributor to GenZConservative and has a Facebook presence known at America’s Conservative Voice-Facebook.