Olympics Thread
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@canefan said in Olympics Thread:
Biles withdrew from the teams event citing mental health reasons. Her body language didn't look good during qualifying, sound like the pressure just got too much. ROC/ Russia get their first gold in decades. She will have a chance to reset and see if she can still compete in the individual competitions
I am fucking raging about this.
Firstly, let me caveat - Biles is arguably the GOAT. She's one of the very very best and has proved herself time and time again. She owes nobody anything, and has not one single thing left to prove too anybody.
But to play the mental health card at the fucking Olympics? Get. Fucked. Top level sport, the epicentre, the best of the best, the 0.1 of the 0.1% is almost ALL mental ability. Thats what separates the cream, thats what wins the gold. If you haven't got it, you shouldn't' be part of it. If you have got it and you are losing, you fucking lose like a winner. You acknowledge the opposition was better, maybe say some salty comments, but you don't get to claim mental health. No way. If you haven't got the mental ability on a day, you don't deserve to win, and you are the second place getter. All the pulling out due to mental health claim has done, is put a ? on the winners. I.e - "US probably would have won if Simone's mental health had been ok". Nup, fuck that.
She deserves no praise for this at all.
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@majorrage it's a tight line to walk but
on this one, i really do agree with you, and based purely on her own statements. She mentally didn't have it when it was most needed. That's not mental health, that's top level sport.
I'm not going to rip her for it, but she shouldn't just get a free pass either. She quit on her team because she mentally didn't have it this time when it was needed.
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@mariner4life Shades of the Aussie rower Lay Down Sally. Something completely foreign to the fighting spirit not matter what always previously associated with Aussie sportsmen. Even Greg Norman's meltdowns did not see him quit mid round.
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@higgins said in Olympics Thread:
@mariner4life Shades of the Aussie rower Lay Down Sally. Something completely foreign to the fighting spirit not matter what always previously associated with Aussie sportsmen. Even Greg Norman's meltdowns did not see him quit mid round.
actually we had a bit of an example of this yesterday from one of our lady Tri competitors - if you didn't watch you probably heard she was out due to a crash.
the crash was at about 5kph where she basically got in a bit of a tangle on a slow wet corner and didn't unclip in time. The type of incident if your kid had on a bike you'd just put them back on and say 'you're ok away you go'.. but nah she just sat there then walked off.
Was never going to medal but no reason to stop at all.
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@williethewaiter That was a bit disappointing but she never held such a high number of wins and long period of domination as Ms Biles so it is not as if she could be accused of sulking because she was not going to win in that particular instance. About the only parallel you could put against kiwi sportsmen would be if Messrs Murray and Bond chucked it in mid race if it ever became obvious they would not win that race and thus lose their undefeated international record. I am surprised that @stargazer has not brought up the fact the Eric Murray was born in Hastings!
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@higgins said in Olympics Thread:
@williethewaiter That was a bit disappointing but she never held such a high number of wins and long period of domination as Ms Biles so it is not as if she could be accused of sulking because she was not going to win in that particular instance. About the only parallel you could put against kiwi sportsmen would be if Messrs Murray and Bond chucked it in mid race if it ever became obvious they would not win that race and thus lose their undefeated international record. I am surprised that @stargazer has not brought up the fact the Eric Murray was born in Hastings!
yeh fair enough bad comparison but was still utter shit - there was a fair bit of controversy around the naming of the tri team - so to just give up for the most trivial of reasons was fucking pathetic and a slap in the face to those who didn't get to go.
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@williethewaiter Agreed. There have been heaps of instances of people carrying on after suffering painful injuries, particularly amongst cyclists who think nothing of carrying on with massive abrasions or bone injuries after crashes. It is most un kiwilike to give up so easily.
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@higgins said in Olympics Thread:
@williethewaiter Agreed. There have been heaps of instances of people carrying on after suffering painful injuries, particularly amongst cyclists who think nothing of carrying on with massive abrasions or bone injuries after crashes. It is most un kiwilike to give up so easily.
And four-five fucking years of effort to get there, you would want to get the most out of it.
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Just on that Biles thing, surely there’s more to it than just giving up? Was she carrying an injury? I’m 100% sympathetic about mental health, but this is pretty unprecedented. There are loads of times that athletes realise it’s not their day or aren’t in form but they tough it out. This is particularly incredible when considering it’s a team comp. Shades of Osaka at the French Open. Is this a generational thing where it’s ok to pull the pin if you’re just not feeling it that day?
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@rancid-schnitzel said in Olympics Thread:
Just on that Biles thing, surely there’s more to it than just giving up? Was she carrying an injury? I’m 100% sympathetic about mental health, but this is pretty unprecedented. There are loads of times that athletes realise it’s not their day or aren’t in form but they tough it out. This is particularly incredible when considering it’s a team comp. Shades of Osaka at the French Open. Is this a generational thing where it’s ok to pull the pin if you’re just not feeling it that day?
She intimated that she was having panic attacks before the competition started. We can't hope to know behind the scenes but she doesn't have the reputation that would have suggested she simply gave up. She was fully involved in coaching and cheering her team mates on, and was the first to congratulate the Russians. So it wasn't like she took her ball and went home
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I find it easier to accept a 2nd when the winners (well one of them) were hot
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@canefan said in Olympics Thread:
@rancid-schnitzel said in Olympics Thread:
Just on that Biles thing, surely there’s more to it than just giving up? Was she carrying an injury? I’m 100% sympathetic about mental health, but this is pretty unprecedented. There are loads of times that athletes realise it’s not their day or aren’t in form but they tough it out. This is particularly incredible when considering it’s a team comp. Shades of Osaka at the French Open. Is this a generational thing where it’s ok to pull the pin if you’re just not feeling it that day?
She intimated that she was having panic attacks before the competition started. We can't hope to know behind the scenes but she doesn't have the reputation that would have suggested she simply gave up. She was fully involved in coaching and cheering her team mates on, and was the first to congratulate the Russians. So it wasn't like she took her ball and went home
i read somewhere this morning she's still entered for a couple more events this week so defo not injured - but will see how she feels ahead of them
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@williethewaiter said in Olympics Thread:
@canefan said in Olympics Thread:
@rancid-schnitzel said in Olympics Thread:
Just on that Biles thing, surely there’s more to it than just giving up? Was she carrying an injury? I’m 100% sympathetic about mental health, but this is pretty unprecedented. There are loads of times that athletes realise it’s not their day or aren’t in form but they tough it out. This is particularly incredible when considering it’s a team comp. Shades of Osaka at the French Open. Is this a generational thing where it’s ok to pull the pin if you’re just not feeling it that day?
She intimated that she was having panic attacks before the competition started. We can't hope to know behind the scenes but she doesn't have the reputation that would have suggested she simply gave up. She was fully involved in coaching and cheering her team mates on, and was the first to congratulate the Russians. So it wasn't like she took her ball and went home
i read somewhere this morning she's still entered for a couple more events this week so defo not injured - but will see how she feels ahead of them
She qualified for the individual all round and all of the individual apparatus comps as well. So gonna need a hard reset to get up for those. She basically baulked out of the vault, one of her best events. Chose to do a vault with much lower difficulty than the one she was listed to do, and that was it
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@canefan said in Olympics Thread:
@rancid-schnitzel said in Olympics Thread:
Just on that Biles thing, surely there’s more to it than just giving up? Was she carrying an injury? I’m 100% sympathetic about mental health, but this is pretty unprecedented. There are loads of times that athletes realise it’s not their day or aren’t in form but they tough it out. This is particularly incredible when considering it’s a team comp. Shades of Osaka at the French Open. Is this a generational thing where it’s ok to pull the pin if you’re just not feeling it that day?
She intimated that she was having panic attacks before the competition started. We can't hope to know behind the scenes but she doesn't have the reputation that would have suggested she simply gave up. She was fully involved in coaching and cheering her team mates on, and was the first to congratulate the Russians. So it wasn't like she took her ball and went home
But she did simply give up. That’s literally what she did. If she was physically able to continue then she should have. She goes around wearing gear with a picture of a goat on it. What GOAT has ever done something like this?
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@rancid-schnitzel said in Olympics Thread:
@canefan said in Olympics Thread:
@rancid-schnitzel said in Olympics Thread:
Just on that Biles thing, surely there’s more to it than just giving up? Was she carrying an injury? I’m 100% sympathetic about mental health, but this is pretty unprecedented. There are loads of times that athletes realise it’s not their day or aren’t in form but they tough it out. This is particularly incredible when considering it’s a team comp. Shades of Osaka at the French Open. Is this a generational thing where it’s ok to pull the pin if you’re just not feeling it that day?
She intimated that she was having panic attacks before the competition started. We can't hope to know behind the scenes but she doesn't have the reputation that would have suggested she simply gave up. She was fully involved in coaching and cheering her team mates on, and was the first to congratulate the Russians. So it wasn't like she took her ball and went home
But she did simply give up. That’s literally what she did. If she was physically able to continue then she should have. She goes around wearing gear with a picture of a goat on it. What GOAT has ever done something like this?
I sympathise with that opinion mate, I don't have an answer for you. It was very out of character. She was heavily involved in the battle vs US gymnastics over that sexual predator who had been abusing athletes for years. This couldn't possibly be a nuclear fuck you move against the organisation surely? I don't think she would have compromised her team mates just for revenge
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@canefan In regards to mental health, well I think there's a level of responsibility to know where your mental health is at and whether you can cope or not, especially if other people are depending on you. It takes a certain level of courage to face up to those people, say your not in a good place, you need help and perhaps there's someone better that can do the job instead of you.
Personally I think the much braver decision would of been for her to withdraw from the team prior to the Olympics and given her spot to someone else who was mentally up for it rather than just giving up at the pointy end of the competition.
It's highly unusual for metal health issues to appear suddenly out of the blue i.e. mid competition unless you've been exposed to sudden trauma...It's a little bit selfish of her to keep her spot, she would have know she was struggling, she would have known she wasn't up to her prior levels of performance.
As it is she's deprived someone of a chance who would have done better (considering she quit) and then just given up. Whilst sad and unfortunate I can't find much admirable about it.
