Lydia Jacoby! What a swimming performance! What an Olympic moment!
Ok. We must talk Simone Biles and mental health.
I give Simone major support and appreciation for doing something quite dramatic and unheard of for her mental health. Pulling out of the team competition while the event was taking place.
She is quite brave and will now become a roll model for others dealing with stress and emotional strife. She is going to help redefine what it means to be a champion and we should all be grateful for the awareness she is providing.
Japan's Naomi Osaka has also been struggling with dealing with intense pressure of late. I cheer them on for recognizing their mental health struggles, bringing attention to it and putting their health first.
We have no idea how difficult it was for her to withdraw from the team event finals, how much pressure has been placed upon her shoulders. My respect goes to her and her choice to put herself first.
Let's sent her and all the athletes in the limelight or even in the shadows who are also feeling incredible stress a lot of light, healing and love during these games. May they feel supported and cared for, my they find good mental and physical health. May their lights shine brightly.
I hope Simone will be able to compete in future Olympic events. I want that victory for her personally. I am really proud of her right now. May the highest and greatest good come from her actions.
Thank you Simone and I wish you peace, love, healing and gratitude.
@lovendures I think the actions of Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka are manifestations of the "turning". COVID, among other things, has gotten people to stop, look around and see that the pursuit of extreme goals (including major career success) may not always be worth the price of their mental health.
@lovendures @ana I totally agree with you both. @ana I had a similar thought today about Simone Biles (and your mention of Naomi Osaka) as this being a real turning point and manifestation of "the turning." This feels big and like a spotlight moment for sports and as you said other extreme goals or competition to the exclusion of all else that it may not be worth the price paid.
I saw a mention on Twitter today about how the Kerri Strug vault from 1996 has not aged well. At the time it was seen as so "inspiring", but as it was phrased today, the coaches let her vault on a broken foot so that they could win the gold. Not trying to take anything away from that team's accomplishments, but it shows how very far we have come since then to have Simone Biles say today that her mind wasn't in the right place and she didn't want to injure herself. Such strength and self-knowledge to be able to say that and step away like she did! She mentioned a thanks to all the other athletes who have come out publicly in recent years discussing their mental health struggles. It feels very much like we are starting to shift as a society. I find it a very hopeful sign.
Agreed. It is part to the turning. Also, yes, Keri should need have been put in the position of vaulting on a broken leg.
Michele Phelps has a new documentary he narrated about stress on athletes, he has been open about his mental health challenges. We need to rethink our expectations of athletes. Anyone in the line light. Even those not in the line light but just trying to navigate life.
Agreed. It is part to the turning. Also, yes, Keri should need have been put in the position of vaulting on a broken leg.
Michele Phelps has a new documentary he narrated about stress on athletes, he has been open about his mental health challenges. We need to rethink our expectations of athletes. Anyone in the line light. Even those not in the line light but just trying to navigate life.
Mentioning the "limelight" reminds me of the Rush song by that name (I love Rush):
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality beyond the gilded cage
With insufficient tact
One must put up barriers to keep oneself intact"
An explosive WP article came out today about Simone Biles, the USOCP and USA Gymnastics. Keep in mind what Biles recently said about USA Gymnastics and the USOPC in an NBC interview: “If there weren’t a remaining survivor in the sport, they would’ve just brushed it to the side ".
The whole disgusting Nassar child rapist cover-up is even more upsetting than we and even Biles knew at the time. I feel we owe hear a great deal. Let's focus on sending her a lot of healing light and energy during the remaining part of her time at the Olympics and beyond. She deserves our time and attention.
Here is part of that article:
It’s a perilous endeavor to project what Biles, the most uniquely superior gymnast in the world, is feeling or thinking at this juncture. But she has been frank about these things: her profound lingering distrust of USA Gymnastics and the USOPC and her conviction they will not do right by her and other athletes of their own accord. Remember, if it wasn’t for Biles bringing her clout to the issue, these users would still be making women train in the buggy squalor of the Karolyi Ranch, the USOPC-sanctioned hellhole where they were molested.
It was only two weeks ago that the Justice Department’s inspector general released a report on the Nassar case, in which Biles learned in new infuriating detail how corrupt officials hushed up evidence that the gymnastics doctor was a serial sex assaulter and how then-USAG chief Steve Penny traded favors with local FBI agent Jay Abbott to bottom-drawer it.
Documents produced in a long-stalled civil suit against USOPC and USAG have brought other aggravating recent revelations. One in particular is worth looking at, in light of what happened to Biles on the vaulting floor in Tokyo on July 27, 2021. That’s the day Biles became so disoriented on her vault that she couldn’t risk competing in the team finals.
As chance would have it, that’s the same date that, six years earlier, Steve Penny threw her to the wolf.
On July 27, 2015, Biles was an 18-year-old world champion who arrived at USAG headquarters in Indianapolis for a series of appearances to promote one of their events. For two days, Biles signed autographs and did other favors to please USAG officials. Penny personally drove Biles and her mother to some of the functions and had extended conversations with her, according to John Manly, an attorney for Biles and other victims. Biles even appeared at a birthday party for Penny’s daughter.
You know what Penny failed to mention over those two days? In fact, failed to breathe so much as a word of, much less warn her of? The fact that he had credible evidence Nassar was a molester.
If you think conduct like this is past tense for these organizations, think again. Throughout 2020 and 2021, the USOPC and USAG have perpetuated their coverup with civil court motions. They have hidden from accountability with bankruptcy proceedings. They have demanded that in exchange for any civil settlement, Biles and others who suffered Nassar’s assaults issue blanket liability releases that would protect a rogue’s gallery of well-known abusers, as well as Penny. And they have fought to keep the depositions of Penny, Blackmun and former chairman Larry Probst under seal.
Under seal.
Does that sound like these organizations have turned over a new leaf and become more “athlete-centered?” They had the nerve to feign support for Biles this week. They are not her supporters. They are her tormentors.
The price for winning all those gold medals is that Biles now gets to be analyzed by every armchair psychologist in the world. Here’s a bulletin. She’s not doing so well. And exactly how well should she be doing under these circumstances? “It’s like fighting all those demons coming in here,” she said after the team competition.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/29/simone-biles-larry-nassar-fbi/
@lovendures Thank you for posting this information, which is important to share. All I knew was how much I felt for that girl when she decided she could not compete but it is amazing that it was on a significant anniversary of her trauma.
I can attest personally to the negligence of the U.S. Olympic Committee from the experience of a close friend whose son was killed in an Alpine avalanche while training as part of the developmental U.S. Olympic ski team. I'm not at liberty to share details but I think it is obvious from anyone who read the news that these kids had flown to Switzerland as part of the Olympic training and were out by themselves on Alpine trails with no adult supervision, no warnings from coaches, and no tracking gear in case of avalanches. Two of the boys were killed. The Olympic committee kept so much secret about their negligence and more. Nothing detrimental to the USOC came out in the news. So here we are with yet another male dominated lucrative sports enterprise that needs work.
I know we have discussed sunflowers plenty in the last year. @baba had a prediction from August 2020 of "sunflowers in the news" and there have been various confirmations of this with sunflowers representing women's suffrage and this year (2021) being the year of the sunflower (in gardenting.)
But during this Olympics I couldn't help but notice the bouquets that medalists are receiving -- they have sunflowers in them! The symbolism is discussed in this recent article from yesterday (July 21, 2021):
Tokyo Olympics: The medal winners' flowers that pay tribute to 2011 disaster
This really could go in the great turning section.
I am amazed actually.
3 members of the Mens U.S. Fencing team wore pink masks today in honor of victims of sexual assault while their fellow teammate wore a black mask.
A group of six female fencers had written to U.S. Olympic officials less than two weeks after Alen Hadzic, 29, ( The one with the black mask) secured a spot as an alternate on the U.S. Olympic fencing team to express deep concerns about the impact his presence might have on the other athletes. Hadzic has been accused of rape and sexual assault.
This photo is worth a thousand words.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-fencing-pink-masks_n_61055c02e4b000b997e24747
A Belarusian sprinter was under the protection of Japanese authorities Monday, a day after she made a dash for freedom at a Tokyo-area airport, claiming her team was forcing her to return home after she publicly criticized her coaches at the Olympics.
The Polish government was the first to offer Krystsina Tsimanouskaya a safe haven.
The Czechs also offered to take in Tsimanouskaya, and the BSSF said she may seek asylum in Germany or Austria.
A Belarusian sprinter was under the protection of Japanese authorities Monday, a day after she made a dash for freedom at a Tokyo-area airport, claiming her team was forcing her to return home after she publicly criticized her coaches at the Olympics.
The Polish government was the first to offer Krystsina Tsimanouskaya a safe haven.
The Czechs also offered to take in Tsimanouskaya, and the BSSF said she may seek asylum in Germany or Austria.
Following up on the Belarusian sprinter. She is now in Poland and shared more of her harrowing journey today. She was forced to leave the games by her higher ups and on the way to the airport, her grandmother warned her it was unsafe to go back to her country. The media there was saying she had mental issues and the public was encouraged to write distressing social media posts about her.
The athlete said she used Google translate to show officials a translated plea for help on her phone as she tried to avoid being put on a plane back home.
The 24-year-old said she decided to go to Poland in hopes of being able to continue her sports career.
She also said that she chose to seek refuge in the country because she knew her parents and husband would not have trouble visiting the country.
Why Simone Biles Matters.
Sometimes my intuitive self will say: "Pay attention, this thing which is happening is really important."
I have learned to pay attention. My intuitive self told me to pay attention when the first rumblings of Covid began to surface the first week of January 2020. I searched the internet for news ( Thank you The Guardian news, for being on top of the virus in the early stages) and created the first Covid thread here on Jeanne's site. I couldn't prove it was important, I just felt it was important.
I paid attention when Simone withdrew from the team competition. It was a "knowing" that this was a really important action. I believe I stated here in this thread it was important. I was more than the "Greatest gymnast of all time" withdrawing. It was knowing that her withdrawal mattered. That it would have a ripple effect that would be impactful.
@lovendures - I read a recent article in NY Times about the Japanese athletes competing. They apologize to their country and families when they don't win the gold, even if they won silver or bronze. It made me sad to think of these wonderful, talented young people whose efforts are not appreciated. I was taught that win or lose, do my best and my parents will be proud of me and I should be proud of myself.
There may be some here who will say this is cultural and I should not judge through my American culture eyes. That may be so; yet I think anyone who just gets to compete in the Olympics has already shown they are exceptional athletes.
Agreed. I do respect the beautiful differences of so many cultures. However, feeling the need to offer an apology when not winning at the Olympic is very sad indeed.
Yes, yes, yeppity-yes to everything you said! I had the same intuitive feeling as the news about Simone's withdrawal played out over the last week(s). As you said, "This in turn is opening eyes. IT WILL CHANGE HOW WE TREAT ALL SORTS OF ATHLETES MOVING FORWARD."
Weirdly, it felt very much like it all happened as it should, and the way it played out definitely provided a much larger platform and impact than it would have otherwise. I completely agree that it felt very much like a large tipping point.
When the pandemic first started, I posted a message on a forum for my AmeriCorps co-members in Massachusetts. I basically said that we had to drop the pretense of our unflappable young professional selves and focus on self care as we head into the maelstrom. Biles basically said the same thing but amplified the message by 1,000,000,000. She is not just a role model for athletes or other public figures; she is telling everyone that it's okay to fall apart a bit.
I don't think anyone can get through these years of transition unless they bend with the storm, and "bending with the storm" sometimes means assuming the fetal position, so to speak.
The men’s and women’s marathons were moved to Sapporo in order to avoid Tokyo’s sultry heat. But on Saturday during the women’s marathon the temperature in Sapporo will be the same as Tokyo - 90 degrees. A reminder that formerly cool places are no longer reliably cool.
On a lighter note, I really enjoyed skateboarding’s debut. I stayed up to watch live coverage of both the men’s and women’s park finals, and watching those events was a huge antidote to the palpable tension of other Olympic contests. The camaraderie between the skaters was great; they clearly love the art form and were celebrating being at the Olympics, regardless of whether they medaled.