Tokyo Olympics - The 2020/2021 Summer Games

[misplaced validity]

Simone is hurt and pulled out of the team event entirely. Wow.

[misplaced validity]

U.S. keep going out of bounds on floor. Each of their first two gymnasts.

[Above the Title]

(07-27-2021 10:05 PM)misplaced validity Wrote:  Simone is hurt and pulled out of the team event entirely. Wow.

The NBCSN broadcast commentators said it was mental and not a physical injury. The pressure. She balked on her vault, which was "only" going to be the Amanar (not the YDP) and from those who saw the warm-up, she balked then too. Twitter was already acting concerned when they flashed the Amanar start value because her go-to single vault is usually the Cheng. The courage and conviction it must have taken to tell them to scratch her knowing what it probably meant for the team, but also knowing a balk is potentially scarier than fall in terms of potential for injury. I am so worried about her. The fishbowl is just too much.

I am proud of these athletes and this team. It's not their fault they were set up to have an uphill battle and an Olympic silver is a wonderful accomplishment. I know Chiles will be hard on herself with that fall in the final rotation but, like with Sacramone in 2008, they were going to come in second even without that. She hit two amazing routines on apparati she wasn't supposed to be going on. Suni anchored floor wonderfully not thinking she'd be competing there. There is a lot to be said for the arrogance of USAG and Forster that their strategy was rely on the 2-3 point start value cushion for Biles. She is a human being. They are all human beings. Anyone can have a bad day (even the GOAT), anyone can get injured, it's the Olympics. And they were just not paying attention to the way in which the pandemic changed the Russian team...Urazova and Listunova aged in with the aged year and they're rock solid. The days of "we can send our B team and also win gold" are no longer here. The field has caught up to the US other than Biles individually.

But, yeah. It's agonizing. I'm physically nauseous.

[misplaced validity]

(07-27-2021 11:33 PM)Above the Title Wrote:  

(07-27-2021 10:05 PM)misplaced validity Wrote:  Simone is hurt and pulled out of the team event entirely. Wow.

The NBCSN broadcas commentators said it was mental and not a physical injury. The pressure. She balked on her vault, which was "only" going to be the Amanar (not the YDP) and from those who saw the warm-up, she balked then too. Twitter was already acting concerned when they flashed the Amanar start value because her go-to single vault is usually the Cheng. The courage and conviction it must have taken to tell them to scratch her knowing what it probably meant for the team, but also knowing a balk is potentially scarier than fall in terms of potential for injury. I am so worried about her. The fishbowl is just too much.

Well, and all of this plays back into the point that I think you made that the U.S. team "strategy" was too dependent on Biles. I don't even mean that for medal purposes, but for the mental weight that then puts on her.

[Sanny]

That was heartbreaking to watch (I gasped when I watched Simone's vault) but silver is damn good considering the US lost their best athlete. Russia brought their A-game and fully deserved their gold. I suppose the silver lining to this is that from here on out it's Simone doing it for herself so at least some of that pressure of carrying the is off her back.

[Above the Title]

Yep. It should have NEVER been like this for her. And that interview with Hoda Kotb they replayed the other night in the primetime NBC airing where she says she decided to come back for another Olympics because she felt USAG was likely to sweep everything under the rug if a survivor were no longer competing. When the Olympic delay happened, she said she felt confident she could stay physically ready/uninjured but she was worried about the mental weight of continuing to compete for an organization that let them get molested for decades. She has been carrying this organization on her back for years now and it's unfair and I am upset but not altogether unsurprised this happened. It's wrong to speculate on somebody else's mental health unless they make a statement about it, but some fellow gymnasts on Twitter are saying from the balk, it looks like she might have what they call "the twistys," which is when you get confused in the air and can't figure out where to spot. Very very dangerous and unsafe, can happen to anybody no matter if you're the GOAT, and from the footage, she seemed to be the one telling the staff to scratch her. She's an adult, she made the safest decision, she knows her own physical and mental health better than anybody else, and the team is a TEAM so they did what they needed to do without bitterness.

I know she is her own biggest critic and she wants to compete in the AA/EFs if it's safe for her to do so, so I hope she will get that chance if that's still what she wants. As you said Sanny, maybe the weight that it's "just" for her will provide her with some solace, but I know there has been an obsession with the 5 golds marker (which she didn't do last time and now can't do this time)/first AA back to back since 1960. I think and hope she is smart enough and secure enough in her own legacy to know it doesn't matter. Medals are medals - her status as GOAT is absolutely unqequiovcally undeniable.

It's just...the entire thing was heartbreaking.

[misplaced validity]

(07-28-2021 12:03 AM)Above the Title Wrote:  And that interview with Hoda Kotb they replayed the other night in the primetime NBC airing where she says she decided to come back for another Olympics because she felt USAG was likely to sweep everything under the rug if a survivor were no longer competing. When the Olympic delay happened, she said she felt confident she could stay physically ready/uninjured but she was worried about the mental weight of continuing to compete for an organization that let them get molested for decades.

Wow. I missed all of this. It makes sense, I just hadn't seen it.

[Above the Title]

https://www.today.com/news/simone-biles-...d_td_tw_ma

Not injured, withdrew herself after the balk. Said she'd never experienced a warm-up before a competition like that before and had to focus on her mindfulness. The girls were crying and she told them they could do it, just nail everything like they'd been doing in practices.

[NUguy514]

I woke up (and will try to go back to sleep), and I just couldn't help peeking. I am devastated for and completely awestruck by all four of our ladies. Each and every one of them. I want to give Suni, Jordan, and Grace huge hugs for doing the very best they could do and Simone an even bigger hug for making what had to be one of the most difficult decision she's ever made for the sake of her own safety. That silver medal feels like sixteen golds given the circumstances.

And then, I'd like to use Tom Forster's face as a punching bag and find every member of USAG and torture them slowly. He and the people in the USAG have done nothing but abuse these women in ways big and small.

I don't think I will be able to watch the competition. It will be too devastating, and I know the vultures at NBC will show Simone's withdrawal a billion times from now on. I'm sure ROC deserved it, but I can't watch it.

[Above the Title]

NU, I am hesitant to post here but...did you see the screenshots of Lori Forster's (Tom's wife) Facebook post yesterday?