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Unaccomplished idiots are mad about Time magazine naming exceedingly accomplished gymnast Simone Biles “Athlete of the Year”

So Time magazine has labeled greatest-of-all-time gymnast Simone Biles as the “Athlete of the Year,” not so much for her athletic prowess, which is considerable, but for taking herself out of several Olympic events when she knew she wasn’t mentally prepared to compete — thus starting a national conversation about athletic competition and mental/physical health.

Biles didn’t drop out of the events because she just didn’t feel like competing that day but because she had come down with a case of “the twisties” — which, despite the silly name, is a strange and dangerous affliction in which gymnasts and other athletes lose their focus and their sense of spacial awareness, not a good thing when you’re upside down on a balance beam. Indeed, Biles could have easily injured herself seriously had she continued in the events.

Ignoring the basic facts of the case, more than a few on the right used Time’s award as an excuse to shit on Biles and lament America’s alleged liberal “softness.”

“The old adage was that ‘winners never quit and quitters never win,'” wrote Jack Davis at the right-wing Western Journal. “But in 2021, quitters can be named Athlete of the Year.”

On BigLeaguePolitiics.com, meanwhile, writer Shane Trejo threw shade on Biles and what he called her “disappointing and pathetic display during the Olympics” — as well as the “myriad of lame excuses” she gave “for why she let her country down.” He blasted Time for enabling this sort of behavior with the “many absurd rationales [they used] to justify Biles wilting in the limelight.”

Apparently Trejo wants gymnasts to risk serious injury for a chance at a Gold medal, which is not going to go to a gymnast with the “twisties” in the first place.

Trejo continued on with a bizarre tirade that managed to work COVID into the mix:

The article makes the claim that selfishness and surrender are virtuous acts in this day and age, using the mental health decline due to COVID-19 mass hysteria that has been fomented by the media as the excuse to lionize Biles for her Olympic collapse.

He wound up the article by suggesting that Biles was cashing in on something he called her “minority privilege.”

Perhaps Biles’ failure is an example of minority fragility on display and the excuses for her are an example of minority privilege. Biles couldn’t measure up on the stage and live up to her hype. This is a stain on her record, not a reason to celebrate her.

Over on thepostmillennial.com, Erin Holmes went so far as to suggest that Biles and her supporters could very well hasten the downfall and ultimate collapse of American civilization.

Let’s just say that Holmes isn’t happy with athletes speaking up about pretty much anything, from racial justice or their own physical safety. Unlike Biles and other “woke” athetes, Holmes wrote,

There are dozens of stories of athletes who stood for God, family, country, or team, who stood apart from the social justice crowd that stands for individualism. American wokeism normalizes hatred for patriotism, and on a world stage, protests make the country look unstable.

And then she started talking about the fall of Florence — the city-state, that is, not the Progressive insurance lady — declaring that

replacing meritorious competition with righteous indignation, makes the eventual disintegration of fair competition imminent, just as it did in Florence’s Medici era.

Okey dokey then.

I checked out Reddit to see if any of the usual suspects were talking about l’affaire Biles, and found the most, er, lively discussion in the Red Pilly “walkaway” subreddit, devoted to those “who can no longer accept the current ideology of liberalism.”

A commenter called Necessary-Window5649 wrote:

Remember when athelete was a term used as someone who outperforms due to incredible will and determination. Now those qualities are seen as “privelage” or “exclusinary” because it excludes regular people. That’s the whole point of athleticism and it’s rewards; To see people outperforming basic limitations of the human body.

By 2030 the only athletes will be overweight and trans

idkmanseemskindagay broke Godwin’s Law with their comment, noting that Time “also put Hitler as person of the year before, so this isn’t surprising.” Which is true — though that “award” only reflected his world-historical importance; they weren’t giving him a pat on the back. Is idk here comparing Biles to the H-man?

But the best comment, by which I mean the worst, came from somebody calling themselves senorbonerbritches. suggesting that next year the award could go to

a hobo that jumped over a puddle to suck some dick for crack. That’s pretty much the level of respect I have for this whiney twat.

I’m sure the feeling would be mutual, my dude, if Biles knew or cared who you are.

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weirwoodtreehugger: chief manatee

*WWTH the hardcore gymnastics fan comes crashing in like the Kool-Aid man*

Simone Biles won every World Championship all around, US Championship all around and Olympic all around from 2013-2019 except for 2017 when she didn’t compete. That is unheard of in “modern” gymnastics. She also still won the US Championships in 2021 and won a couple of Olympic medals despite not competing in most of the events. She did all this while having being sexually abused by the USAG team doctor, the USAG actively covering up, and while having ADDHD and being outed about that by a hack.

Anyone who thinks she’s weak or overrated has absolutely no clue about either the sport of gymnastics or about Simone Biles and they can just fuck off into the sea.

rusalka
rusalka
3 years ago

The mental gymnastics necessary to call Simone Biles “soft” are worthy of a gold medal – for idiocy.

Kat, ambassador, feminist revolution (in exile)
Kat, ambassador, feminist revolution (in exile)
3 years ago

The right wing death cult, who eschew masks and embrace guns, are certainly angry about a black woman taking the steps necessary to prevent her own death. Members of this cult don’t value their own lives. Where does Simone Biles get the nerve to value hers.

Jon
Jon
3 years ago

It is always interesting to see conservatives pretend like they’re individualists especially whilst they impugn others for not being as nationalistic they purport to be.

SpecialFFrog
SpecialFFrog
3 years ago

I’m sure these same people were also mad a few years ago when Serena Williams won this accolade instead of a horse.

If Biles had competed and won they would still find a way to consider her unworthy.

Victorious Parasol
Victorious Parasol
3 years ago

Simone Biles is weak?

Bro, do you even somersault?

Surplus to Requirements
Surplus to Requirements
3 years ago

replacing meritorious competition with righteous indignation, makes the eventual disintegration of fair competition imminent

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Amadaun
Amadaun
3 years ago

There are dozens of stories of athletes who stood for God, family, country, or team, who stood apart from the social justice crowd that stands for individualism.

Wait, I keep getting told that when I say people should mask or vax that I’m an evil marxist SJW collectivist. Now I’m an evil marxist SJW individualist?

Tabby Lavalamp
Tabby Lavalamp
3 years ago

“…protests make the country look unstable.

The US is unstable. The republic is dying and Republicans have a pillow on the face of democracy as we speak. There is no coming back from the partisan divide that exists right now.

Dalillama
Dalillama
3 years ago

@Tabby

The republic is dying

The Republic is in the same state it always was and was designed to be: a slaveholding oligarchy run by and for rich white men.

Tabby Lavalamp
Tabby Lavalamp
3 years ago

@Dalillama

The Republic is in the same state it always was and was designed to be: a slaveholding oligarchy run by and for rich white men.

Yeah, I guess I would have been more correct saying “the appearance of a republic is dying”.

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
3 years ago

Athletes usually make terrible role models, but she’s a good one.

Letting the alternate compete, and having a small enough ego to step back when it might hurt the team is so unbelievably considerate and mature. Not to mention prioritizing her physical health by, I dunno, NOT FALLING ON HER HEAD because of the twisties.

Meanwhile, these assholes are sitting on their computer chairs shoveling junk food in the same maw they spew nonsense out of, instead of spending years becoming the best at their sport in the world, while overcoming everything @WWTH mentioned.

I’m surprised these fash-adjacent (at best) creeps aren’t bigger fans of the Medici. They got shit done and were ridiculously rich and powerful. But I guess being patrons of the fine arts disqualifies them for worship by the fashies?

But these chuckleheads are never going to give a Black woman credit for anything.

Full Metal Ox
3 years ago

@GSS ex-noob:

But these chuckleheads are never going to give a Black woman credit for anything.

Note that “Vice-President” (heck, “President”) and “Princess” aren’t sufficient titles to earn immunity from those chuckleheads’ racist poop-flinging calumny.

Nequam
Nequam
3 years ago

The “social justice crowd… stands for individualism”, you say?

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Nequam
Nequam
3 years ago

To clarify my previous comment: I’ve been reading the Herman Cain Awards where there are many fine examples of those who prize individualism over everything else.

Elaine The Witch
Elaine The Witch
3 years ago

I fucked up my shoulder so bad a few years ago because I was doing aerial silks, and I was upside down. When you are upside down, you forget which is left and which is right. So I let go with the wrong leg while upside down and completely fell out of my silks. my shoulder fell like maybe 3 feet. it wasn’t that much. I was fucked up for months after that. Doing what Simone does, if she makes a mistake while doing her show, she will die. she will break her neck or split her head open, and she would die. There is no powering through that, there is just stopping before you cause an injury that takes your life

Buttercup Q. Skullpants
Buttercup Q. Skullpants
3 years ago

minority fragility 

Oh, are we talking about the “minority fragility” where PoC have to be ten times as smart, ten times as hardworking, ten times as lucky just to get to the same level of accomplishment as, say, a mobbed-up racist white drug-addled criminal deviant with tangerine hair, and even then they forever get disrespect and racial slurs flung at them from chuckleheads like this?

Or are we talking about the “minority fragility” that withstood centuries of slavery, abuse, mistreatment, forced separation, backbreaking unpaid labor, Jim Crow laws, subpar education and healthcare, firehoses and police dogs, just to provisionally get some of the same basic human rights that white people have always taken for granted?

Or is this really “white fragility”, that can’t abide it when athletes like Simone Biles stand up and say no, we are not going to endanger our bodies and our well-being and risk our lives for your entertainment?

There are dozens of stories of athletes who stood for God, family, country, or team, who stood apart from the social justice crowd that stands for individualism. 

“Take one for the team!” cry the same people who refuse to put on a cloth mask to protect their neighbors.

Full Metal Ox
3 years ago

@Elaine the Witch:

I fucked up my shoulder so bad a few years ago because I was doing aerial silks, and I was upside down. When you are upside down, you forget which is left and which is right. So I let go with the wrong leg while upside down and completely fell out of my silks. my shoulder fell like maybe 3 feet. it wasn’t that much. I was fucked up for months after that. Doing what Simone does, if she makes a mistake while doing her show, she will die. she will break her neck or split her head open, and she would die. There is no powering through that, there is just stopping before you cause an injury that takes your life.

What’s betting that these guys regard action blockbuster movies and video games as setting reasonable expectations for athletic prowess? (Oh, wait—an action blockbuster would expect Biles to do all of the above in heels and a thong. Before sacrificing herself to hold off the bad guys to cover the white leading lady’s escape.)

LouCPurr
LouCPurr
3 years ago

These guys probably don’t even take gymnastics seriously as a sport. If your average USian straight man talks about gymnastics at all, it’s either to sneer at it (it’s so girly!) or to discuss the fuckability of the female gymnasts.

contrapangloss
3 years ago

Gymnastics takes a hell of a lot of strength, mentally and physically.

Time made a good choice for athlete of the year. I’ve got nothing but respect for Simone Biles; she made the absolute right call for herself AND her team. It couldn’t have been easy.

These guys are petty and clueless jerks who have no concept of athleticism, integrity, or witty banter.

Surplus to Requirements
Surplus to Requirements
3 years ago

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/13/jeca-d13.html

I hate this world.

I don’t suppose it’s still under warranty? I know it’s four and a half billion years old, but it is clearly defective and I’d like to return it and get a new one now.

Big Titty Demon
Big Titty Demon
3 years ago

@Surplus

So I don’t doubt AT ALL that there were US killing squads targeting civilians and that the US has done war crimes in those wars. However, I’m going to go ahead and say that’s a suspect publication when it has phrases like:

Similarly, over the past year, the American media has been full of charges against the government of China, claiming, with no evidence, that Beijing is guilty of genocide because of its repression of Uyghur nationalists in Xinjiang.

There’s plenty of evidence of that, from, you know, all the people that escape the concentration camps and talk about it.

jenninsb
jenninsb
3 years ago

Love the article. But Simone didn’t start this conversation this year. Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open earlier this summer to preserve her mental health. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/2021/07/08/naomi-osaka-opens-up-french-open-withdrawal-mental-health/7899251002/

She also received a load of crap about it. 🙁

rusalka
rusalka
3 years ago

@ Big Titty Demon

Here’s the original story: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/12/us/civilian-deaths-war-isis.html

Although drones being operated like computer games by bushy bearded dudes wearing birkenstocks as they bomb buildings isn’t exactly news I think. No less horrifying though

Surplus to Requirements
Surplus to Requirements
3 years ago

Yes, I know, wsws has its own blind spots, but that just makes the world even worse. History is just full of this shit, massacre after massacre of innocent and helpless people whenever someone with a bullying mentality gets handed a weapon and sent off to “pacify” some region.

It’s almost enough to make you root for the damn virus.