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

Kerri Strug was not molested by Larry Nasser
Simone Biles was

 

Without a doubt.

 

Imagine the NBC execs are buying TUMS by the truckload these days.

 

There was a Russian doing floor exercises as Strug was going through her vaults. Given the Russian's score (which was relatively low for her), the medal was clinched, but had the Russian scored well Krug's good (second) score would have been needed.

 

I’m not real sure how to express that I think there’s a middle ground where she isn’t a hopeless snowflake weakling for what she did but she isn’t some kind of “Yas queen” superhero for it either. She’s just a person going through a health emergency in the brightest possible international spotlight and neither side is doing her a service by turning her into a mascot for their pet arguments.

 

Tom Forster measuring mental fitness seems ripe for criticism, especially if it's the best gymnast in the world.

What Biles did was necessary for her, and, according to her, beneficial to the team. But the decision is on her.

 

Twitter. Lololol.

 

I’m with @TigerVols as well on this.

I suppose I’m part of the simpletons who say “she’s been doing this for 20 years and she’s backing out at the biggest stage?”

Fast Eddie Felson did the same thing in Color if Money and cranky old white dudes like me love that movie.

With elite athletes in these individual sports (Biles, Phelps, Osaka), I don’t really care if they drop out. Ultimately, that impacts them. I do care about the last gymnast cut in the trials who would have given anything to perform in the Games in a team setting.

I guess I wonder how much of this was her losing her fire/getting burned out and not as into it the last few years but still doing all the work and the endless hours to prepare.

It could be just getting older. It could be Nassif. It could be anything, I suppose.

If she spent the last few years feeling like she had to keep doing this if she didn’t want to just to satisfy some legacy, sponsors, family, fans or anything else, that’s the real tragedy.

 

I know a lot of the NBC coverage is time-shifted, but why are the studio hosts giving spoilers right before the replay starts? USA-Hungary women's water polo just started on NBCSN, before it did the studio host talked about how it was a massive upset as the Americans lost for the first time since 2008.

 

Good coverage in the WSJ ...

‘I Need to Call It’: Behind Simone Biles’s Stunning Olympic Withdrawal

What Simone Biles Was Saying

 

Good explanation of what Biles might be experiencing with the "twisties."