Simone Biles withdraws from team and all-around finals, but still greatest of all time | USA TODAY

Simone Biles, a 4-time Olympic gold medalist, withdrew from the team and all-around finals to prioritize her mental health. Despite that, she is still the greatest gymnast of all time.

USA TODAY Sports' Nancy Armour says, "to say that this spoils her (Simone's) legacy, or raises any questions about her legacy, are absolutely absurd. She is the greatest gymnast of all time and this does nothing to change that."

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#Gymnastics #SimoneBiles #Olympics

57 comments

    1. @Megan Oconner Olympics are never “done”…..We still have the fastest humans in the world, sprint, and long distance…competing.
      Longest jumpers, highest jumpers, fastest swimmers, & more.

      Gymnastics, surfing, skating, shooting, tiddlywinks are all sideshows. For elite judges

    2. @Sammy theface we have a bunch of unpatriotic, spoiled elitists that put their “feelings” before performance. Olympic viewing is down 50%. Not suppose to be a forum for political views but it has turned into nothing more than a woke event.

    3. Yes… She is no more a goat now…. She should make a public announcement relinquishing her goat status

    4. @Megan Oconner I really don’t care what an athlete’s political view is…..I only care about, who’s the fastest human on earth….I can easily filter out their beliefs, and enjoy and admire their physical prowess……..and what exactly is a “woke event”?……(I looked it up and got a non answer.)
      and if viewing is down 50%….then more room for my hideous face to watch.

  1. Toooooo much pressure for her. I’m glad she’s taking this time off. Such high expectations when everyone constantly keeps your name in their mouths.

    1. @Desie but it was an injury the first day, and her words the olympics just aren’t fun. She knew what is expected of her not her first olympics . She was paid off to weaken the America. It’s not ok to be a quitter .

    2. @Megan Oconner u Americans…
      Weaken Americans ? Really ? 😂😂
      U guys have so many problems, Simone’s exist won’t even matter in a few weeks. Focus on the deeper issues. My goodness, no wonder why everyone wants to go to Canada instead 🤣🤣

    3. The pressure was on the entire Womans Gymnastic Squad. Only one folded like a lawn chair and said, “I’m out of here.”

  2. She IS human, and I understand exactly what is going on. I left a career in health career due to mental health issues. Once they knew I was seeing a shrink, I began to be under a microscope, making sure I was still competent. The load that was eventually lifted off of my shoulders was huge. I still had a lot of things to work out, but I have a wonderful husband who has always been there for me. It’s good to see that Simone’s teammates seem to understand why she has made her decision, and they seem supportive of her decision, as they should be.

  3. Can the next best qualifier take her place now? Or has she literally taken that spot away from another athlete for nothing?

    1. Jade takes her place, she was the next in line but got 2pc by Suni and Simone, now takes her place

    1. @Captain Quantrill
      Not really. For this competition, only the scores of 3 girls were needed (with Biles being the 4th). If the other girls on the team couldn’t win gold without her, it is their own fault.

    2. @A D yeah three girls, but she’s supposed to be the best. And if she quits, takes herself out of the mix and doesn’t even try then shes screwing the team. No amount of mental gymnastics can make this ok.

    3. @Captain Quantrill This is Team USA, not Team Simone Biles. If without Simone they only get silver, then the USA “only” is the second best country for gymnastics in the world, period. She shouldn’t have to carry the entire team.

    4. Yes… She is no more a goat now…. She should make a public announcement relinquishing her goat status

  4. I hope people in the comments, that are condemning this incredible woman for choosing her own health over the incredible strain of pressure that others expect of her, realize that Simone Biles has nothing to prove to you and your judgemental attitude. In a society where everyone is born into the rat race of succeeding, here is a one in a lifetime, brave and successful woman that is at the top of her game showing you it’s okay to take care of yourself, even in what was supposed to be her most prestigious moment. Everyone is so obsessed with how she will break all the records even though we know for a fact that the biggest reason she is capable of doing these incredible feats of strength and agility is because her body and mind can handle the strain and she has worked her entire life for it. She is so strong and so well trained she is comfortable with going beyond her limits. This is the woman who performed the most difficult floor routine in the world with a kidney stone like nothing happened and comfortably won the gold. A kidney stone! I have seen people with kidney stones on morphine because the things are so painful, and she continued to push herself regardless. She literally pushed herself to the limit of what the human body is capable of and now the one time she puts her own health first you people have the GD nerve to judge her?! None of you have even a percent of the courage and the strength Simone Biles has. Sitting behind your keyboards typing out the most vulgar profanities, it’s embarrassing, vain and unbelievably, unfathomably arrogant.

    Respect her choice, give her the trust that whatever she is going through right now is big enough to validate her choice to retreat. She knows what she’s capable of. Her coaches know what she’s capable of. We know what she’s capable of, so be respectful as you ought to be.

    1. She has already achieved what most people wouldn’t dare even dream about and yet some of those same people slate her now. I find it quite unbelievable.

    2. Exactly. And for all of the haters calling her a quitter and saying she should have just sucked it up and tried to push through like Tom Brady, Lebron James, etc., there’s a major difference. Let’s say Tom Brady wasn’t feeling mentally right before the Super Bowl but played anyway. He may have gotten sacked five times and threw six interceptions in the game and looked like a hackers. Or if Lebron James was playing in game 7 of the NBA Finals and felt off but played anyway, he might miss every shot and have Steph Curry or Jimmy Butler blow right past him on the way to the bucket and be blamed for the biggest choke job in history. Or if back in the day Tiger Woods wasn’t feeling it during the Masters and hit every shot into the bunker, the rough, or every water hazard and missed the cut. All of those would’ve humiliating, but they would survive. But when you’re doing extreme flips 10 to 15 feet in the air and you’re not completely mentally focused on the task at hand, you could potentially hit your head on one of the uneven bars or on the balance beam and break your neck and end up quadriplegic or worse. The only other equivalent I could mention about being totally mentally focused is NASCAR, and we all know if Kevin Harvick or Joey Logano came into race day with anxiety attacks pre-race and tried to brush it off, they could potentially crash and kill themselves. So I don’t blame Simone Bikes at all for dropping out, knowing that there’s more to life than winning another gold medal.

    3. Yes… She is no more a goat now…. She should make a public announcement relinquishing her goat status

      She can instead adopt the status of a lamb

  5. she had so much pressure on her. in 2016 I think the team was more well matched and the pressure was on Aly and Gabby too.

    1. Yes… She is no more a goat now…. She should make a public announcement relinquishing her goat status

    2. Again when she says goat…. women can’t physically do what she can do. This is still true and we she took herself out. That’s fact. Women can’t do her moves. Since every woman can do her movements now…. please video tape it and put it up so we can see. Woman step forward please. Wait hold up…. cause we know we won’t have any women to get up and do some of these moves. Go get your best gymnast and have them to do it. Y’all shut up. Y’all sound so bitter.

    3. @Russell Smith most women are not trained and coddled to be an Olympic athlete . She’s a coward and a disrespectful human . Let her team and America down . Sold out to the woke.

    4. @Megan Oconner sold out by saying that she keep messing up and didn’t think she was in the mental space to compete…. so she stepped down and let them finished so she wouldn’t take their years of training and throw it down drain. Then stood there and support them through each event. Yeah… completely sold out. Lol. Now introducing the 8th place team USA lol. Where are y’all medals? Oh we didn’t get one but we got this USA flag

  6. the real truth is Simone can’t get enough of the new Iron Maiden song “The Writing On The Wall” she just wants to jam and listen over and over to this masterpiece.

  7. Am glad someone like jade carey is taking her spot for the All around finals. Someone’s got to have a taste of and understand how it feels to be in the spotlight

  8. Can you please feature more of the other athletes at the games and not just Biles. I think it’s so insulting to them that one athlete had mental issues under pressure and she is talked about more than the ones who are actually still there competing. Simone Biles is not the sole athlete at the games, we do love her but gosh. We didn’t even get good coverage of gymnastics after her incident. Why? Please move on. The games will go on without Biles. I am SO annoyed with the media coverage of the Games this time.

    1. I had no problems watching the games. I watched the games before Simone Biles medical withdrawal from competition.
      I watched the gymnastics competition with no problems. Looking forward to continuing watching the games

  9. She is NOT the Greatest Of All Time. You have Nadia, Olga, Nastia, MaryLou, Aly, Gabby…People who were able to handle the big stage with big expectations. She is Great but not the Greatest Of All Time.

    1. No, it is not. She is the most decorated gymnast at worlds for both women AND men in history (despite men having more occasions to medal than women).

  10. In history, it has been documented that events (especially regarding sports and entertainment) are rigged. First Simone dominates in her field, then said field changes their scope of scoring as a form of punishment against her conviction to be her very best self in said field: and now I believe other countries felt it “unfair” given her prowess and resolve: per being the best: to convince her to drop out of all of her events in full. Alot of the times in doing this, they would either pay the person off (which wouldn’t work in her case given her self-efficacy to make her own money/living): or they threaten the individual or those that said individual loves….

    I believe she was threatened…because out of all this time: never have said blunders occurred as they did…

    When you see her tweet: the emphasis she makes regarding her family…it is clear she would sacrifice anything for them: even Olympic Gold!!! People literally kill over these games: hence the: “No joke” adage in her tweet. Simone has always been able to perform under pressure: this time shouldn’t have been different: so…yeah I definitely think she was threatened…and that the “mental” issue she had to deal with

    Yep: because the pressures she’s (Simone) talks about: goes beyond just the positive aspirations of that of her family, friends, and/or fans: but the darker side per being the Greatest Of All Time…I mean to be targeted in such a way because you are being your best: as it invokes the worst in someone else…we learn in history people literally kill for attention (or kill to try to keep someone else from obtaining said attention)…all because they felt “deprived” of said attention (per their entitlement to want something for nothing)…
    Simone didn’t ask for said attention she earned it, and she shouldn’t be targeted and/or threatened because of the byproduct (attention) she gains per merely doing/being her best…

  11. With cancel culture and social media…people are scared to criticize Simone. So they go along with the masses and praise her for giving up.
    Also…The goat on her leo was kind of arrogant.

    1. She still is the goat. Whether u want to admit it or not. If she didn’t compete another day, it is still people/ women in general who can’t do what she does.

  12. “greatest gymnast of all time” … who has now added a very important dynamic to the conversation and understanding of what it takes to compete – not just at the most elite Olympic level … but for all athletes at all levels

  13. The fear of failure and fear of letting everyone down is very real. She’s showing everyone how human she can be.

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