2020, uh, 21, uh, who knows Tokyo Olympics thread

Flip side: Isn't mental toughness considered an attribute of a champion? The ability to deal with pressure and adversity? To shrug it off and perform? To "meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same," as the Kipling quote posted at Wimbledon's Centre Court says?

 

You know, after the last 17 months, if you’re NOT somehow broken I’m suspicious of you. Good for Biles for standing up and admitting what has to be true for most of us.

 

Listen, there's nothing wrong with getting out if your anxiety gets the best of you. No one needs to be vilified or mocked. But I don't know anything necessarily needs changing. Those who can handle it will do so. If not, it's just like an injury. It prevents you from performing and you work to heal. When you do, you come back. If you can't, you don't.

 

Beauty of Olympics is seeing an Alaskan swimmer get gold.

 

Which journalist in Tokyo is writing this asshole column?

 

I’m so old I can remember when columnists with followings wouldn’t write about an event if they weren’t there. But those days are long gone.

 

So, what most of you are saying is ...



Leave. Simone. Alone.

 

I don't know. I bet I know some stateside who cracked their knuckles and pulled up to their desk with a ribs-eating grin this morning, though.

 

I’m groaning because the shitty people in our society will make a feast out of it. But I personally am not really wrapped up in Simone Biles’ life or accomplishments.

 

There’s only a handful of people right now who could talk to Biles right now and get her through this and possibly get her mind straight and compete this week.

And I’m pretty sure all of them are on different continents.

She needs to talk with other athletes, black athletes, in other sports who understand the brightest spotlight and how to deal with a setback.

Durant might work, but he’s never been under the same microscope.

This is sad, crazy, fascinating…

 

I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around it. It's like Michael Jordan stepping up to the free throw line with 1 second on the clock and the score tied in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, handing the ball back to the ref and walking off the court. Jimmy Piersall in a leotard.

How Simone Biles -- the best gymnast in the world and perhaps one of the greatest female athletes of all time -- could get to that point, mere minutes before her team was to take the floor, and realize she couldn't deal with the pressure might just be the most courageous thing I've witnessed. I doubt most other people in the industry will perceive it that way. "She cost them the gold!" Well, as she said, she might have cost them any medals at all.

I hope for her sake, she gets the professional help she needs to regain her life balance, whether that means she ever competes again or not.

There is life outside of sports. And none of us have been in a situation where the entire world is watching to see if we succeed or fail.

 

First time hearing that phrase.

John Facenda would have used such a phrase.

" ... as the Iron Curtain flashed a ribs-eating grin and devoured Staubach and the rest of the Cowboys offense ... "