In a divided US, it’s no surprise some see Simone Biles as a villain
Two days ago, when it was impossible to imagine Simone Biles would pull out of the Olympics team competition – and then later the all-around – it would have nonetheless been easy to predict the reaction in the United States. And, as with so many things in America, opinion was often divided along political lines.
The immediate reaction was overwhelmingly positive. USA Today called Biles’ decision “important” and a “powerful message”. The New York Times lauded the 24-year-old for putting her “mental health first and the expectations of others, at best, second”. And after Biles spoke about the mental exhaustion endemic to being the best, the Washington Post asked, “What are we doing, breaking our athletes?”
On NBC’s primetime broadcast, swimmer-turned-commentator Michael Phelps, who has been candid about his own mental-health struggles, spoke supportively of Biles, telling viewers her story “broke my heart”. He added: “I hope this is an eye-opening experience … an opportunity for us to jump on board, and to even blow this mental health thing even more wide open.”
Phelps knows all too well the pressures of being the GOAT, of extending an Olympic career, of exhausting oneself to remain the best. But that’s only part of Biles’ experience. Last summer was supposed to be her swan song, but the pandemic delayed the 2020 Games and necessitated another year of training, of pushing her body to master gravity-defying stunts that come with perhaps the greatest injury risk of any sport.
On top of that, Biles is a Black woman in a country facing a racial reckoning, where her gender still battles for equality in every arena of public life. She’s also a survivor of abuse, a former patient of Larry Nassar, the disgraced Team USA physician who will spend the rest of his life in prison for crimes related to his sexual abuse of underage gymnasts.
Despite her obvious burden and the fundamental importance of mental health – which Biles, Naomi Osaka and others have spotlighted – some have portrayed Biles’s decision to withdraw not as a brave stand but rather as quitting in the face of adversity. In the media, that dialogue (with the exception of a Piers Morgan column in the Daily Mail that accused Biles of being selfish and unable to withstand the rigor of Olympic competition) has almost entirely come from right-leaning US platforms.
Related: Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka highlight the untenable pressures of Big Sport | Barney Ronay
On Fox, a growing cadre of white, male rightwing sports talking heads sharpened their claws, ignoring the racial and gendered nuance of Biles’ experience. On his Fox Sports radio show Doug Gottlieb claimed Biles hasn’t faced criticism in her career. “For years, women have said, all we want to be judged as is equal,” he opined. “Generally, we don’t have any sort of critique for our female sports teams. On one hand you want to be viewed, treated, and compensated the same as the men, but on the other hand whatever you do, just don’t be critical of us.”
Clay Travis has taken over many of the radio slots occupied by Rush Limbaugh since the conservative commentator’s death. On another Fox show, Travis also said that Biles has been held to a different standard and said she should apologize to her fellow gymnasts for quitting. “She wasn’t there for them, and that represents a fundamental breach of the most important aspect of team sports.” And uber-conservative pundit Charlie Kirk went even further on his podcast, calling Biles “selfish”, “immature”, “a shame to the country” and a “sociopath”. He added: “Simone Biles just showed the rest of the nation that when things get tough, you shatter into a million pieces.”
Is it that hard to be supportive and empathetic to what others are going through? This is someone’s daughter and her health your referring to. Wonder if he has kids and how he would feel as a parent someone talking about his kids this way. Cause I’d be DAMNED. Simone is a hero! https://t.co/kJWnXK2tlk
— Jayson Tatum (@jaytatum0) July 28, 2021
On Wednesday, Boston Celtics star and Team USA member Jayson Tatum retweeted a video of Kirk’s show. “Is it that hard to be supportive and empathetic to what others are going through?” he wrote. “This is someone’s daughter and her health [you’re] referring to. Wonder if he has kids and how he would feel as a parent someone talking about his kids this way. … Simone is a hero!”
To half of America, at least. And the other half, and its rhetoric, make it easy to understand why this hero struggles to shoulder her burden.
