Well done Simone Biles (with props to Naomi Osaka)!

It's a shame that nobody seems to be watching these Tokyo 2020 Olympics. I know it's hard with so many people having cut the cord and needing to find the appropriate place to stream the various events. Just a few days into the Olympics there have already been so many great stories. A 13 year old Japanese girl took home the gold in skateboarding (頑張って). On the other hand of the spectrum, Oksana Chusovitina, a 46-year-old gymnast from Uzbekistan, competed in her eighth Olympic Games this week. But the story so far (or story 1.b. after Naomi Osaka lighting up the Olympic flame) has to be the decision overnight by Simone Biles.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics the great Simone Biles withdrew from the gymnastics team finals after her first rotation. Initially it might have appeared that her decision was brought on by a physical injury. The ultimate decision didn't have much do with with anything physical, but rather entirely mental. Team USA was already trailing the Russian Olympic Committee after the first day and this decision basically stuck a fork in any chance that Team USA was to be able to catch up on day 2. Sure enough, Team USA finished with the silver medal and this has to be considered one of the biggest upsets of the Olympics thus far.

I would like to applaud SImone for her decision to do what is best for her, and a result, her team. She cited the mental fatigue, pressure and stress. One could be lulled into thinking that the greatest gymnast of all time, with 4 Olympic gold medals to her name and 20+ other major gold medals at major world championships, would be used to this pressure and should easily be able to cope with this. Well no. It's hard. And it makes their accomplishments that much more impressive. She even cited Naomi Osaka as an inspiration. I wrote this about Naomi's situation last month:

https://thrivingwithinterest.blogspot.com/2021/06/some-thoughts-on-naomi-osaka-situation.html

As a father of two gymnasts who have reached pretty high levels (Level 10 according to USAG) and competed against some of the best in Florida, California and the US, I have had a front row seat to this sort of thing. I have been so impressed by how teenage boys and girls are able to cast aside the pressure of parents, judges, coaches, teammates, etc... and go ahead and land their routines. Or even more impressively, how they are able to bounce back from missteps and errors to then go back out there and continue with their next apparatus. As the old saying goes, success isn't measured by how high you go, but how you bounce back from failure.

I am so impressed with Ms Biles' decision to step aside and let her teammates take the reins for the remainder of the competition. Hopefully she is able to cast aside those doubts, regroup, and come back stronger for the All Around competition later this week. Although a Silver medal may not have been the goal when the gymnastics competition began this week, we should still applaud the team for a job well done and wish them, and Simone, all the best for the remainder of the Olympics...