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Tokyo Summer Olympics 2021... I mean 2020 Thread

Since they don't twirl around in the air and risk a major injury, they'd get deserved shit.

Don't get me wrong I don't think she's a hero for this. It's prudent decision that deserves everybody's respect. There is a reason they have backup gymnast for these things.
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AJUMP23

Gold Member
I recommend watching the highlights of the 3x3 women and men's matches. The US announcers were pretty funny. "Stopping her is like trying to drown a shark"
 

DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
But she didn't. She could have walked off that mat, but didn't. And instead, pushed far beyond her limitations and became an absolute LEGEND. She transcended sports and became truly great. That is the point. Don't discredit what she did to give support to whatever you want to argue about Biles.

Just think about what you did. You discredited someone's individual achievement that is truly one of the most bad ass things to have happened in sports, so you can argue the decision made by someone else 25 years (or so) later. That's pathetic.

I'm not discrediting her NOR her accomplishment. Streets said she made the choice... She didn't. She was pressured into it. She could have walked out? Have you read about mentally abusive and manipulative Karolyi was? She didn't have a choice! That's what I'm pushing back against. The difference is .. Biles HAD that choice because there's no Karolyi type figure on team USA.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I'm not discrediting her NOR her accomplishment. Streets said she made the choice... She didn't. She was pressured into it. She could have walked out? Have you read about mentally abusive and manipulative Karolyi was? She didn't have a choice! That's what I'm pushing back against. The difference is .. Biles HAD that choice because there's no Karolyi type figure on team USA.
As I said. All assumptions. You have a knack for doing that.

Are you going to assume saying she's lying?


5. Who made you do the second vault?
No one made me do the second vault. My coach, Bela Karolyi, encouraged me to do it by yelling positive affirmations to me such as, “Kerri, you can do it!” I was the one that decided that I would and could do the vault again. I wanted to show the world how hard I had worked, that I could do the vault well, and to make sure we would win the team gold.
 

Raven117

Member
I'm not discrediting her NOR her accomplishment. Streets said she made the choice... She didn't. She was pressured into it. She could have walked out? Have you read about mentally abusive and manipulative Karolyi was? She didn't have a choice! That's what I'm pushing back against. The difference is .. Biles HAD that choice because there's no Karolyi type figure on team USA.
You are absolutely discrediting her. You should be ashamed of what you are doing. Pathetic.

You want to talk about the issues with coaching 25 years ago, fine (I wont engage, because I don't care)...But you are absolutely taking away one the greatest sports moments in history from Strug for you to try and win some online argument.

5. Who made you do the second vault?
No one made me do the second vault. My coach, Bela Karolyi, encouraged me to do it by yelling positive affirmations to me such as, “Kerri, you can do it!” I was the one that decided that I would and could do the vault again. I wanted to show the world how hard I had worked, that I could do the vault well, and to make sure we would win the team gold.
LOL, See Deaf, you are making shit up. Taking away one of the greatest sports moment ever so you can win some point. Seriously man....go outside and think about what you are doing.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
You are absolutely discrediting her. You should be ashamed of what you are doing. Pathetic.
The funny thing is it doesnt even matter if she did it on her own or was beaten with a stick into submission. When you got a gimped ankle and torn ligaments (which obviously killed) and you got to run as fast as possible, twirl and land on your gimped feet somehow doing it fantastic, thats a warrior.

Thats like telling anyone with a broken ankle to run as fast as possible down the sidewalk, jump high and land on your feet perfect. A WWE wrestler would cry in pain. Strug did it.

All the while Biles quits and next thing you know she's already on Twitter gabbing because she wasnt "mentally fit".

Biles choked and decided to bail ship. The face of the Olympics and quit mid-way through a team event despite being still so close with Russia. Couldnt even wait an hour and do maybe two more runs to end the event, and then call it quits.

Quit on the spot kind of person.
 
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Raven117

Member
The funny thing is it doesnt even matter if she did it on her own or was beaten with a stick into submission. When you got a gimped ankle and torn ligaments (which obviously killed) and you got to run as fast as possible, twirl and land on your gimped feet somehow doing it fantastic, thats a warrior.

Biles choked and decided to bail ship. The face of the Olympics and quit mid-way through a team event despite being still so close with Russia. Couldnt even wait an hour and do maybe two more runs to end the event, and then call it quits.

Quit on the spot kind of person.
I totally agree. Regardless of why she did it...she did it...And became a LEGEND. A freakin warrior. An inspiration for people (like me), who don't give too flips about gymnastics but recognize greatness when I see it. People like Deaf (and their ilk) just dont see it. They never will. Thats how they view the world and themselves. Its a loser mentality making excuses. (and then they try to discredit her accomplishment to win some internet argument. pathetic).

What happened with Biles is very unfortunate. Biles is more of a decorated gymnast than Strug ever hoped to be...There should be more support for the mental game by U.S. Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic committees to help athletes with this insane amount of pressure. But Strug is truly great....she did something that transcended the sport...Biles...well, she is the most decorated gymnast who completely choked and buckled under pressure towards the end of her career.
 
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She don't "try" in the middle of a competition when she compete with a team. She already failed the vault with a low score and she couldn't "try" the floor exercise with another low score. They finished second with a short margin from GB and Italy, another mistake and bye bye medals.
By “try” I mean as the an athlete who embraces the title “greatest of all time”. As in, you’re the leader and star of the team, your teammates are counting on you, you made a commitment not just to yourself but to them and you need to see that through. If you choose, as she did, to go back on your commitment to your teammates, it’s just not good. It’s not commendable. It’s shrinking in the face of adversity. It’s not an example anyone should be following. And it’s just not what sports are about.


I'm not discrediting her NOR her accomplishment. Streets said she made the choice... She didn't. She was pressured into it. She could have walked out? Have you read about mentally abusive and manipulative Karolyi was? She didn't have a choice! That's what I'm pushing back against. The difference is .. Biles HAD that choice because there's no Karolyi type figure on team USA.
And you are full of shit. Don’t try cast some sort of shadow on greatness. There are a lots of loser trying to do this to feel better about themselves. “See, no one should struggle to overcome, we should all just be ok with being mediocre, like me.” Most of us are mediocre. But I love to see true greatness. It’s a big part of watching sports. Every once in a while you see someone reach heights even they didn’t think they could reach. You don’t get to see it a lot in life. Don’t take it for granted with this weak shit.
 
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Raven117

Member
And you are full of shit. Don’t try cast some sort of shadow on greatness. There are a lots of loser trying to do this to feel better about themselves. “See, no one should struggle to overcome, we should all just be ok with being mediocre, like me.” Most of us are mediocre. But I love to see true greatness. It’s a big part of watching sports. Every once in a while you see someone reach heights even they didn’t think they could reach. You don’t get to see it a lot in life. Don’t take it for granted with this weak shit.
This right here.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
By “try” I mean as the an athlete who embraces the title “greatest of all time”. As in, you’re the leader and star of the team, your teammates are counting on you, you made a commitment not just to yourself but to them and you need to see that through. If you choose, as she did, to go back on your commitment to your teammates, it’s just not good. It’s not commendable. It’s shrinking in the face of adversity. It’s not an example anyone should be following. And it’s just not what sports are about.



And you are full of shit. Don’t try cast some sort of shadow on greatness. There are a lots of loser trying to do this to feel better about themselves. “See, no one should struggle to overcome, we should all just be ok with being mediocre, like me.” Most of us are mediocre. But I love to see true greatness. It’s a big part of watching sports. Every once in a while you see someone reach heights even they didn’t think they could reach. You don’t get to see it a lot in life. Don’t take it for granted with this weak shit.
Totally.

Biles seems like one of those people when things crack, she's out. 99.9% of other athletes stick with it win or lose.

Look at any global tournament (especially team sports since they get coverage), you always get a dominating team thrashing some small weak country 12-0. I know that happens in hockey. And it used to be even worse 10 or 20 years ago. Team Canada mens or womens will win by double digits outshooting them like 62-8.

Everyone knows that weak team is going to be tossed in the dumpster. They know it too. But they still show up and play the whole match.

Since gymnastics arent shown on TV a lot, but traditional team sports are, when was the last time you ever saw a star athlete just walk out mid game?
 
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DeviantBoi

Member
Man, so much air time dedicated to justifying why it was okay for Simon Biles to quit on her team.

I’d rather hear about the winners that did not quit… like Tom Daley, who after 14 years of not quitting finally earned a gold medial.

If the media is gonna keep talking about it, let’s get to the root of the problem. What caused her mental breakdown? What needs to change? Cause the message can’t be “It’s okay to quit on your team if you’re not feeling it.”
 
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Man, so much air time dedicated to justifying why it was okay for Simon Biles to quit on her team.

I’d rather hear about the winners that did not quit… like Tom Daley, who after 14 years of not quitting finally earned a gold medial.

If the media is gonna keep talking about it, let’s get to the root of the problem. What caused her mental breakdown? What needs to change? Cause the message can’t be “It’s okay to quit on your team if you’re not feeling it.”
“But sometime I call off work when I’m not feeling it. I’m just like Simone Biles.”
 
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JayK47

Member
On one hand, I get that the "2020" Olympics are a stressful mess. On the other hand, honor your commitments. I hope it doesn't become a trend.
 

Raven117

Member
Guess we are just ignoring the twisties article but okay.
Doesn't change a thing about what we are discussing. And even the article you mentioned it still comes down to pressure. Few of us are saying her decision itself wasn't the right one. The issue is that she still cracked under a crazy amount of pressure....it just manifested itself in the twisties... (its not like she "caught the twisties" like it was a common cold)

U.S. Olympic Committee and U.S. Gymnastics needs to have better support for their athletes when it comes to the mental game. I think we can all agree on that. The pressure on Biles must have been astronomical. But, that said, other atheletes have had that kind of pressure on them....and they overcame it...

But okay.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Mens gymnastics is on (not sure if live or replay). They are doing high bar and turns out you get deducted 0.3 pts if you dont salute the judges when you land! Didn't know that.

You must salute judges after you land before you can celebrate your good run. So a Chinese guy let out a nice gung ho cheer for a good run, but got deducted pts since he forgot the judges.
 
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DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
Guess we are just ignoring the twisties article but okay.

I was about to comment on it. Yep... Ignoring it just so they can talk smack about Biles...

Also about the Strugg thing, I'm wrong and I admit it. But Karolyi was definitely abusive...





It wasn't my intention to discred Strug. But by the same token, that's what y'all were doing THIS WHOLE TIME before I even posted in here
 

Tschumi

Member
Anyone else sick of Irie pacing himself in the backstroke? Probably not. But i am privately annoyed at him trying to squeak through with the bare minimum of times to conserve energy for finals, he didn't get past his heat a few days ago (might have been a semi, either way he didn't make the final) and he just came 4th in the semi for what must be one of his last, if not his very last, discipline (200m) .. seriously dude bust a fucking nut

Edit: well he just snuck in dead last for the final, guess he's either going to explode to gold or be a total nonentity, my money's on the latter
 
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They didn't televise the surfing and all I could watch were replays of the qualifying heats and the finals. Missed everything in between and it was a great event.
 

Tschumi

Member
Glad the Chinese girl won in the butterfly , nice to see the golds being spread around a bit
 
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Raven117

Member
I was about to comment on it. Yep... Ignoring it just so they can talk smack about Biles...

Also about the Strugg thing, I'm wrong and I admit it. But Karolyi was definitely abusive...





It wasn't my intention to discred Strug. But by the same token, that's what y'all were doing THIS WHOLE TIME before I even posted in here
I don’t think anyone was saying he wasn’t as an overall coach.

Fair enough on Keri and we can leave it. (She is awesome…. And just watching that video again is inspirational).

Only idiots would discredit the achievements of Biles. Not even worth engaging. The discussion to be had is really about the mental game of all athletes and what the US Olympic/ gymnastics can do to help their athletes perform at their highest level which also means the mental game.
 

Tschumi

Member
Caleb Dressel easier to like than past US greats like Phelps, just seems starry eyed and relieved... Kyle Chalmers had him beat if he just kept his power up for a second longer
 
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Amory

Member
Every golfer on the course making 30+ foot bombs all over the greens, except Justin Thomas who hasn't made a single putt all day.
 

Tschumi

Member
Cause the message can’t be “It’s okay to quit on your team if you’re not feeling it.”
I'm not usually a booboy to professional sportspeople, but yeah if she wasn't injured then that's pretty rank.. sounds like the goat not wanting to try if she's not nailed on for gold.. sour taste

That said, i have no fucking idea what her mental troubles are and they could be entirely, 100% just causes for abstention. I don't know, and i won't assume.
 

Xenon

Member
I respect Biles decision to pull out, it is her choice. I ended up watching the whole thing on the replay. The one thing that really struck me when watching it was the reaction of the sports announcers and journalists. They kept on saying that she was under so much pressure from the country.. But the funny thing is it wasn't the country who was propping her up on a pedestal and making it seem like she was the greatest athlete ever, building expectations to almost unrealistic proportions. It was them. But now that that pressure resulted in her leaving the competition , they throw the blame on the country. These people have 0% self awareness.

When I saw what happened and heard heard about her pointing out put the 1st thing that went into my head was safety. That makes sense to me, but she herself never really said that. So I'm not really sure what to think here. But I do agree that this is not some heroic thing. Matt Walsh has a pretty decent video on it. The example at the end is especially poignant considering I witnessed it live. Though I think she does deserve credit for going back on that floor and supporting her team throughout the rest of the competition.

 
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Amory

Member
I respect Biles decision to pull out, it is her choice. I ended up watching the whole thing on the replay. The one thing that really struck me when watching it was the reaction of the sports announcers and journalists. They kept on saying that she was under so much pressure from the country.. But the funny thing is it wasn't the country who was propping her up on a pedestal and making it seem like she was the greatest athlete ever, building expectations to almost unrealistic proportions. It was them. But now that that pressure resulted in her leaving the competition , they throw the blame on the country. These people have 0% self awareness.

When I saw what happened and heard heard about her pointing out put the 1st thing that went into my head was safety. That makes sense to me, but she herself never really said that. So I'm not really sure what to think here. But I do agree that this is not some heroic thing. Matt Walsh has a pretty decent video on it. The example at the end is especially poignant considering I witnessed it live. Though I think she does deserve credit for going back on that floor and supporting her team throughout the rest of the competition.



I've fully come around on Biles withdrawing to protect her mental and physical well being. Who am I to judge? I'll even refrain from calling it quitting. I know literally nothing about being a gymnast.

But Christ lets not pretend the mental health of these athletes is something everyday people need to bother themselves with or educate themselves about. The media can fuck off with trying to make this a "conversation about mental health". We all have our own issues to deal with and no one cares about Average Joe's problems. Some of us don't even have health insurance.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Didnt know this till now (and I googled it for confirmation). Mens boxing has no more head gear. They got rid of it in 2016 Olympics. The reasoning was that head gear lead to more concussions?!?! But here I am watching a match between some French guy and Tajikistan guy (never knew this was a country).
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
They didn't televise the surfing and all I could watch were replays of the qualifying heats and the finals. Missed everything in between and it was a great event.
I didnt think surfing was great at all. At least the segment I saw on TV. They showed some surfing the other day on one of the channels where I live.

All these channels (I got a mix of NBC, CBC and some sports channels) are constantly shifting around from event to event. You never know what they'll show and when they'll cut out to something else. Sometimes they show the full segment, sometimes they move around and show an event, show something else, then come back to it later. It's all over the place.

Right now on TSN, it looks like they are showing mens heavyweight boxing matches in full.
 

reksveks

Member
Doesn't change a thing about what we are discussing. And even the article you mentioned it still comes down to pressure. Few of us are saying her decision itself wasn't the right one. The issue is that she still cracked under a crazy amount of pressure....it just manifested itself in the twisties... (its not like she "caught the twisties" like it was a common cold)

Except alot of people in this thread are discussing it like the outcome of continuing is just doing the apparatuses badly. That's not the case, you sometimes end up doing the wrong move and then are liable to pick up a serious injury.
 

UnNamed

Banned
Man, so much air time dedicated to justifying why it was okay for Simon Biles to quit on her team.
As people said, she did it for the score and physical safety (before mental) to not hurt the team, simply there are valid reasons and you don't like them.

Different is with the AA and the other finals, she could do simplified programs.
Danusa Francis from GB did the bars with a broken cruciate ligament, just few elements to show everyone she was there at the Olympics.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
it happens all the time in biking and ice skating where people pull out because they wanna put there eggs in another basket. Dunno why this is such a big thing even remotely.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
it happens all the time in biking and ice skating where people pull out because they wanna put there eggs in another basket. Dunno why this is such a big thing even remotely.
Good point. But that sounds more like a strategy for success later. Like a boxer or MMA fighter quitting for a few rounds doing nothing to save energy for the later rounds.

Biles wasnt saving energy for other events.

She literally quit the entire Olympics (even the individual event).
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Has it been confirmed that she has pulled out of the individuals events?

Biles has yet to confirm whether she will compete in the individual apparatus finals, which start on Sunday, saying she will take "each day as it comes".

From https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58008278
She stated she's quitting yesterday in the afternoon.

 

reksveks

Member
She stated she's quitting yesterday in the afternoon.

That's referring to the all-around competition, not the individual apparatuses later this week.

USA Gymnastics said Biles will be evaluated before deciding if she will participate in next week's individual events.

From the article
 
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Kenpachii

Member
Good point. But that sounds more like a strategy for success later. Like a boxer or MMA fighter quitting for a few rounds doing nothing to save energy for the later rounds.

Biles wasnt saving energy for other events.

She literally quit the entire Olympics (even the individual event).

If that prevented somebody else from competing otherwise in her spot, she should be banned from future Olympics then. that's a scuffed move, unless u got some heath issue's created by a event on the olympics like injuring yourself.
If nobody else suffers from that decision, she can just go and call it quits.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
That's referring to the all-around competition, not the individual apparatuses later this week.

USA Gymnastics said Biles will be evaluated before deciding if she will participate in next week's individual events.

From the article
Not sure what you mean. She's not doing the event later today. Is there more women's events after it?

That article I posted is about the event later today.
 
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