I casually watch and follow the olympics. It is interesting to watch sports that I didn't even know existed (3 on 3 basketbal is a thing now? The US won their first Fencing Gold? Okay, that's cool, en garde and whatnot.)
But just about every story in the past week was about Simone Biles, a cocky gymnist who self-styles herself as a "GOAT" (Greatest of All Time for thoose unfamiliar with the term) to the point she had it put on her gymnast attire, decided to tap out after a poor performance at the games. Personally, I just see it as just another athlete who buckled under the pressure and couldn't take the prospect of losing after hyping herself up as some kind of hero.
But i wouldn't be discussing it here if it was not for the excuses made for her shortcomings, and it is something I've been harping on for years.
When a person achieves victim status, you achieve an exalted status. You're even more exalted if you are famous. Obviously Simone Biles is famous for being a black gymnast who won some medals, which is apparent rare in that sport, it seems. But apparently, she's also became known as an alleged victim Larry Nassar, who allegedly used his status as a sports doctor to abuse young women. Apparently this didn't stop Biles from competing in the past, but this time it is different.
It didn't take long for those who worship at the alter of Our Lady of Perpetual Victimhood to start making excuses for Biles after she tapped out of the competition.
Danielle Campoamor of "The Cut" writes:
Biles traveled to Tokyo to compete after a years-long delay due to COVID-19, and not just to help her team rake in the medals: She came for fellow survivors. Earlier this spring, Biles revealed that she was dedicating her performance to sexual-assault survivors — she told Today anchor Hoda Kotb, “I feel like if there weren’t a remaining survivor in the sport, they would’ve just brushed it to the side”— as well as “Black and brown girls over the world,” as she told the New York Times in a phone interview. “At the end of the day, I am not representing USA Gymnastics.”
Biles is, in fact, the only victim of former Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar — who was sentenced to 175 years in prison after more than 140 girls and young women he had abused came forward — representing Team USA. And while Biles went on to tell Kotb that the abuse she endured caused her to sleep “so much because, for me, it was the closest thing to death without harming myself,” she still felt she had an obligation to return...
By choosing to withdraw from the overall team-final competition and the individual all-around gymnastics final to focus on her mental health and prioritize her well-being, Biles reminded the nearly one in five women and one in 75 men who are victims of sexual assault that our stories, our bodies, and our minds do not need to be sacrificed at the altar of social justice. That it’s okay if we know deep in our bones that we can’t do what is required of us; that pushing through would cause us harm; that the pain, physical or not, simply is not worth it."
If Biles didn't have her heart in it, then she should've bowed out in the first place and allowed someone else to step up. But the funny thing about victim status is that you're celebrated for your failures as much as your successes. Had Biles competed and actually earned the medal she got for being there, I'm sure Danielle Campoamor would have wrote a story about how she "overcame the abuse" to win.
But Biles choked, as even the so-called "GOATs" do. Tom Brady lost Super Bowls. LeBron James lost at NBA Finals. And Simone Biles would have lost at the Olympics had she not taken the easy way out. She could not be truly brave and say that she quit. Admitting you can't do something takes more courage than making bullshit excuses for something that was obvious to everyone but blind loyalists and sports hero worshippers.
But Biles is being celebrated for choosing to quit, with her supporters using victim status as the reason for being brave. That sends the wrong message.
Too many people spend time playing the victim, be it BLM, MeToo, Conservative Christians, or those whining about having to wear masks in Walmart. These folks whine about perceived diminished rights but would cheer if the rights of their opponents are diminished. Despite what right-wingers claim, what we call "cancel culture" existed long before the term existed and both sides are guilty of it. But "Cancel Culture" is just a symptom of the larger cancer that is "Victim Culture."
A self-professed GOAT like Simone Biles should not need such pathetic excuses for failure. Own up to the fact today was not your day and move on, or next time, stay out of the way and let someone better do the job. Stop playing the victim.
