What will Simone do after gymnastics?

[Sasha]

What appears to have happened, however, is that commentators immediately started characterizing it as a “mental health” problem Simone had and I think Simone just kind of went along with it for whatever reason.

Pretty sure it was the other way around: Simone said after TF that she was stepping back for mental health reasons. She laid the foundation for this narrative, not the media.

Based on what she’s said, I assume that Simone understood her twisties to be a manifestation/consequence of mental health issues she was struggling with at the time. I don’t think we can ever definitely prove (or disprove) this link, but honestly if that’s what Simone says, I see no need to contradict her. We all saw her struggling at Trials, and crying after a sub-par beam routine, so it’s not as if there is no other evidence of mental health struggles around the same time.

 

[onodian]

Seriously, people like this are why no one wants to speak about mental health issues. Unless JaJa is Simone or her healthcare provider they have no idea what she was dealing with in Tokyo.

Well he must be doing a piss-poor job if he’s the reason people don’t want to talk about mental health issues, I certainly don’t know of another moment in history where people were more open and ready to talk about these things.

As for Simone, it is a fair point that none of us know what was going through Simone’s head. My only problem with the way they’re framing this is that the casual viewer (aka, everybody more or less) know thinks what Simone had in Tokyo is something like depression or OCD or an eating disorder, which, as far as I know, it’s not, because people have had this without it being a direct result of incredibly stressful situations. Although I may very well be wrong about that, please anybody correct me if it is so. It just feels like a very general way to refer to it, and yes, it doesn’t help that mental health is a buzzword at this point. At the end of the day, she stepped to the side because she was in physical danger because of the twisties, not because of the many other things that might have been going on at the time, no?

 

[navyblue]

Answering on behalf of JDB: Yes. Absolutely.

 

[JaJa]

Seriously, people like this are why no one wants to speak about mental health issues.

Not sure how my opining that the twisties is not a “mental health” issue in the usual sense turns into “people like me” are the reason people do not want to talk about mental health issues. But conversations like this are the reason many people do not engage in online message boards. Because people get nasty a little too quickly. But then again, “people like me” deserve it I suppose.

 

[irichluck21]

So I wonder if we will see Biles this year…
I would pretty much guarantee at this point. Especially since bestie Chiles has confirmed her intentions to compete elite this summer and go for Worlds.
It makes sense they will train together, unless Chiles stays at UCLA.

 

[makam]

she posted a picture of an engagement ring protector, can you do gymnastics with a ring on? i wouldnt think bars at least. maybe she is just in conditioning mode. i know i expected her to take at least a year off, but with her go-go-go personality, maybe it isnt surprising.

 

[QuietColours]

Never, ever do bars with a ring on. You can end up basically sheering all the skin and muscle from the finger, similar to the kinds of injuries you can get using lathes. Don’t do a google image search. But there are alternatives, between storing the ring someplace safe or putting it on a short chain or similar.

 

[RedBirdie]

Chiles already said she’s going back to WCC to train.

As for gymnastics with rings on, I didn’t even coach with my rings on, except for pre-schoolers.

 

[Denn]

I’d like to offer that people might have different connotations for the phrase “mental health issue”.

For some people, that phrases means various illnesses, disorders, etc. For others, the term has wider scope.

That difference alone may account for some of the disagreement here.

 

[makam]

As a person who is typing with 8 fingers since i nearly amputated 2 with a saw earlier this week (didn’t “finish” the job, but the cuts are very, very bad), i will never google pictures of finger injuries. I am seeing way too much with daily bandage changes.

 

[onodian]

Oh dear god, i hope you’re OK! Wishing u a speedy and full recovery

 

[onodian]

For some people, that phrases means various illnesses, disorders, etc. For others, the term has wider scope.

That difference alone may account for some of the disagreement here.

Absolutely. And, full disclosure, it might be because I’m / have been very close to different people with severe variations of these disorders that I tend to look rather strictly towards more “all-encompassing” uses of these terms, because I believe if we use them for everything, they lose meaning for the people who undergo difficult, life-threatening variations of them. For example when I taught college here a “lot” of students (relatively speaking) would say they were “ocd” on account of something small or quirky that they did or liked to do. Which is in itself pretty innocent, but my partner having had a very severe case of OCD which he now managed to get under control after a lengthy process, it does sound rather callous in my ears when I hear things like that, and I also just don’t find it true or useful, though I guess that’s my view. And this is probably completely colouring my look on this whole thing and why I would like us to be very precise when talking about mental health issues rather than “mental health” in abstract, which, hey, it’s probably certainly good to address mental health as a subject in general, but well, I made my point I guess. And now back to whatever y’all were talking about.

 

[JaJa]

As a person who is typing with 8 fingers since i nearly amputated 2 with a saw earlier this week (didn’t “finish” the job, but the cuts are very, very bad), i will never google pictures of finger injuries. I am seeing way too much with daily bandage changes.

I am very sorry you had to go through this Makam and I wish you a rapid and a full recovery.

 

[JaJa]

Absolutely. And, full disclosure, it might be because I’m / have been very close to different people with severe variations of these disorders that I tend to look rather strictly towards more “all-encompassing” uses of these terms, because I believe if we use them for everything, they lose meaning for the people who undergo difficult, life-threatening variations of them. For example when I taught college here a “lot” of students (relatively speaking) would say they were “ocd” on account of something small or quirky that they did or liked to do. Which is in itself pretty innocent, but my partner having had a very severe case of OCD which he now managed to get under control after a lengthy process, it does sound rather callous in my ears when I hear things like that, and I also just don’t find it true or useful, though I guess that’s my view. And this is probably completely colouring my look on this whole thing and why I would like us to be very precise when talking about mental health issues rather than “mental health” in abstract, which, hey, it’s probably certainly good to address mental health as a subject in general, but well, I made my point I guess. And now back to whatever y’all were talking about.

I agree with everything you say. And there is another aspect to this. Especially when it comes to medical issues of any sort (including mental health issues) accurate diagnosis is critical. You can not treat what you do not or mis diagnose. And FAR too often physicians and other health care providers have categorized complicated, difficult to diagnose arrays of symptoms as “mental health” issues because that basically gave them license not to do the hard work of diagnosing and treating. And as someone who earned her entire living and built her entire life on a profession which by its nature demands accuracy in language, I have the same bias you do, albeit for perhaps different reasons.

 

[Doug1233]

strictly towards more “all-encompassing” uses of these terms, because I believe if we use them for everything, they lose meaning for the people who undergo difficult, life-threatening variations of them

100%

 

[QuietColours]

I hope they heal fully and and quickly and I am so sorry you’re dealing with that, it sounds horrific

 

[JaJa]

and btw Makam, I was very badly injured in an accident earlier this winter. Its a terrible thing to go through. I was lucky that I have healed well and even luckier to have a situation where I am surrounded by love and good care. I hope all of these things are true for you. Be very good to yourself as you heal.

 

[MaryClare]

Oh that sounds extremely painful. I wish you well in your recovery. But from a selfish point of view, the most important thing is that you can still post on gymnaverse!

My husband’s grandfather only had 3 fingers on one hand. He was a bandy player and it was always assumed due to a blade accident on the ice. Actually he lost them to frost bite doing prison labour in the Arctic.

 

[makam]

Oh that sounds extremely painful. I wish you well in your recovery. But from a selfish point of view, the most important thing is that you can still post on gymnaverse!

I only type with one hand (finger, actually) on my phone anyway! If i am on the computer, apostrophes and capital letters go by the wayside.

Thanks for the kind thoughts, everyone. It mostly sucks because i did it to myself, being stupid. But, it could easily have been a lot worse! Either way, I’m assuming whatever exercises Simone was doing with her ring protector, they weren’t gymnastics ones yet.

 

[rlayt]

In Simone news…well it’s more speculation and gossip…WTF. She’s modeling this for GK. I can’t imagine how bad that must feel.