2020 Women's Artistic Team Final (Tuesday, July 27, 2021)

[irichluck21]

Thank you for that video. That was heart wrenching.

 

[Kara]

It also sounded like she said I can’t go out like this and do something stupid, then in a post comp interview said she didn’t want to come out on a stretcher. Which to me sounds like she feared in her mental state she was at high risk of getting injured.

 

[glamafonic]

Aimee’s husband had a job offer in Florida and they’d basically put everything on hold because Aimee was coaching Simone to Rio. She knew beforehand that she was leaving afterward. And since Simone’s family owns her gym she wasn’t going to go with her. There’s never been any indication of bad feelings and there’ve been various pictures together and twitter interactions over the years. I even remember before she started being coached by Laurent and Cecile, they and Simone talked with Aimee (and Madison Kocian) about it.

 

[irichluck21]

Women's Gymnastics Final: Simone Biles Says She Wasn’t in Right Place Mentally During Olympic Final (Published 2021)

Biles left the women’s gymnastics final at the Tokyo Games because she was afraid she would be injured if she continued in a rattled state of mind. It is not clear whether she will compete in her individual events.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Hatsumomo]

Oooooh, okay. Glad to know there’s no bad blood.

 

[RedBirdie]

Are Simone and Aimee on good terms? It seemed weird they split ways right after Rio.

I thought they parted on good terms. Amiee’s husband had a job offer in Florida, and Simone wasn’t going to compete in 2017 anyways, so I understand why Amiee decided to leave WCC rather than have her family split.

 

[rlayt]

Aimee had said her husband had offers before but they stayed in Texas for Simone. After 2016 it was his turn.

 

[Sasha]

This is one of those extremely rare moments when I wish I had access to the NBC broadcast. The Aussie stream on CBC covered the situation very poorly; they spent all of the vault rotation and half of the bars rotation trying to understand why Simone was awarded a 5.0 D instead of 5.8, and why she wasn’t submitting an inquiry. And I can’t see the linked vid either. I guess it’s neither here nor there at this point though.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Yes to all of this.

I have a huge amount of respect for what all of the Americans did today, but of course this still leaves the McCallum v Skinner thing wide open. We, me included, have talked up how consistent Grace is, but she had a lot of little errors today that added up to as much as a missed routine, and one of them was before Simone withdrew. It made no difference in the end of, but it could’ve. And naturally Mykayla is going to feel somewhat aggrieved and vindicated given that she’d no doubt prefer to be an Olympic silver medallist than an Olympic nothing medallist, notwithstanding that she might yet end up in the vault final.

It is idiotic beyond belief for anyone from her camp to be liking stuff pointing out the difference in AA totals though. Not least because, as you correctly point out, the answer to this question is actually ‘Jade Carey’.

eta- her husband has now changed his tune, sounds like she gave him a bollocking behind the scenes

 

[Sparklesmom]

Oh wow. That hurts my heart to watch. I hope she is doing ok and getting some rest now.

 

[Dympie]

I think she’s getting off lightly with letting the whole team down. If it was anyone else they’d be absolutely crucified regardless of the problem causing it. It’s the Olympic Games and you are there to represent your country in the team final. There were so many other girls who would have killed to be on that team but Simone felt justified in saying she didn’t feel up to the task when it mattered but oh no she’ll be fine when it’s the individual medal at stake? I don’t understand how she was allowed to call the shots and not compete because she didn’t feel up to it. She basically threw it away for the team. It’s Shocking beyond belief.

 

[upmysleeve]

And it begins.

People who suddenly cannot do their gymnastics skills should not compete. Period. Bottom line.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Out of interest, would you have preferred her to make three more attempts as dangerous as her vault was?

 

[shirai]

If her vault was any indication, her staying on to compete actually would have been WORSE for the team.
She knew once she made the decision a shitstorm would come her way yet she still continued with what made the most sense to do.

 

[glamafonic]

She balked and nearly crashed a vault she’s probably been able to do in her sleep since she was 14. She withdrew because she couldn’t do her routines and didn’t want to make the team miss out on a medal entirely.

Do you think it would’ve somehow done the team some great favor to watch her break her fucking neck?

 

[Kara]

And if she had continued to compete, she could have ended up seriously injured and team USA in last; would that be better? By the time she knew she was unsafe to compete it was too late to substitute another athlete. She didn’t “feel like not competing” because she was bored or something; she feared that she couldn’t do safe gymnastics.

 

[rlayt]

She basically threw it away for the team.

It wouldn’t have been better for her to try and have a devastating injury. If BC she performed other events the way she did vault and didn’t kill herself her scores would still have been as low as what they ended up with. Mental composure is a big deal.

 

[RedBirdie]

Just for funsies, AA results from today

1. Melnikova, 56.065
2. deJesus dos Sanots, 55.966
3. Urazova, 55.331
4. McCallum, 55.166
5. Murakami, 54.865
6. Kinsella, 54.565 (tie broken on e score)
7. Alice D’Amato, 54.565
8. Asia D’Amato, 54.232
9. Chiles, 53.965
10. Tang, 53.699
11. Heduit. 53.599
12. Verest, 51.198

 

[tarotx]

I wish we could leave out the other US gymnasts when discussing if Mykayla should have been on the team. The girls did what they could do. I personally don’t think Mykayla should have been rewarded with the way she encouraged her fans to go at Gabby. But she is a great gymnast. Her finishing off of the team but being given the chance to shine on her own was the best results for me personally. I know I’m petty.

The US judges put out a good team. And after all the hell of Marta selecting the top 4 was the right decision. That is what Tom does best anyway. Going forward The US needs a better “head coach”. And I mean that in every way. Someone who can lift the girls mentally and create & select the best teams.

Simone shouldn’t feel guilty for not chancing her own health for an organization that abused her and all those other girls (This is my thinking since I have no idea what’s going on in her head). Her teammates were good enough to get their own medal without her scores. I’m sure she wished she was in a better mental spot but sometimes you can’t fix it. Better allow the other girls the chance to earn their medal than Simone lose it for them by not being able to hold it together. When she’s risking for herself it’s her own risk and not the 3 other women.

 

[Puffin]

Totally disagree. I don’t think that she should be forced to risk death/serious injury to prove her selection. Would you prefer her to crash her next 3 routines, get injured and cost the US any medal?

I think that that Simone took an incredibly mature decision to recognise that she was a risk to herself and a team medal and withdrawing rather than risk baulking in routines by trying difficulty that she was in no headspace to attempt