“That’s why we have teammates, because if somebody’s feeling down, you have to step up. And they did just that. So kudos to them…They did it without me, and they’re Olympic silver medalists.” — Simone Biles, 2021 Olympics
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The most decorated, accomplished Olympic gymnast in history, Simone Biles, pulled out of the women’s team final yesterday and the individual all-around competition today stating her “mental’s not there.” The public response ranges from disdain that she’s not “tough enough” to praising her for publicly prioritizing her mental health, and by proxy, validating and giving permission for all of us to do the same. That is her true greatness. Though her triple-double or double-layout, double-tuck where she jumps into the air, does two backflips, lands, then immediately launches into two backward, airborne somersaults is pretty outstanding.
In her 2016 memoir, “Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance”, Biles allows an inner glimpse into what motivates—and weighs her down. From her early life in and out of foster care with her three siblings, she survived by resisting the path that could have been her future: lost and uncertain. After her grandfather and his wife adopted her and supported her passion for gymnastics. In high school, the bulky muscles that allowed her to flourish as an athlete also became the cause of her being bullied.
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Unfortunately, her hardships continued, as she was one of the 100 gymnasts who were sexually assaulted by team doctor, Larry Nassar (now serving up to 100 years for his crimes). The violations she experienced led to thoughts of ending her life, but she resisted, and is the only survivor of the Nassar sexual abuse scandal to return to the Olympics.
In addition to her brother’s acquittal of a fatal shooting last year and the community trauma of the pandemic, Biles has also endured the racial trauma of being a black woman in the Olympics. Peer competitors stating, “Well maybe if we paint our skin black we’ll win too” is likely only a small glimpse of the racism she experiences at an intimate level, as the Eurocentric International Olympic Committee continually fails black women. Another example? When the international swimming federation banned the Soul Cap, designed to accomodate thicker, curlier hair.
When mocked for her success, Biles leans into it by bedazzling her leotards with GOATs, as in “greatest of all time.” She resists the cultural attempts to be smaller, deferential to, or embarassed of her success, and instead owns it. And in doing so, repairs the struggle with cultural censoring.
“You only see the men doing it. And they’re praised for it, and the women are looked down upon for it. But I feel like it’s good (to do) because once you realize you’re confident and good at it, then you’re even better at what you do.” — Biles, USA Today 2019.
We see Simone Biles as a bionic woman, pushing athleticism past boundaries we didn’t think possible. As the first woman in history to ever attempt the Yurchenko double pike on the vault, she baffled judges, who likely scored her lower than what was warranted becuase they didn’t want other gymnasts to risk their safety by copying her. When asked why she would keep doing a move that judges wouldn’t appropriately reward her for, her response? “Because I can.”
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And yet, through her resistance, response, and repair, she shows us what it means to be deeply human. Pushing oneself forward to “be better”, to accomplish, achieve, strive, she shows us that while that can be a socially acceptable way to cope, there will be a time when it reaches it’s limits. A time when striving and pushing no longer serves us, but rather harms. Biles is self-aware enough to recognize her own boundary, respect and attend to it. And in doing so, she tells us that we can do the same. We can resist the social pressures towards perfection or the organizations or institutions that care nothing about our wellbeing and treat people as disposable, and move towards repair—of our own selfhood and humanity.
Thank you, Simone, for your constant balance of resistance and repair.
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The Resistance & Repair of Simone Biles