Front Burner - Why Simone Biles said ‘no’

Episode Date: July 29, 2021

The 24-year-old champion Simone Biles surprised the world this week by pulling out of the Olympics, saying she needed to look after her mental health. As historian Amira Rose Davis explains, that decision is a momentous shift in the culture of sport.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Elamin Abdelmahmoud. Hi, I'm Elamin Abdelmahmoud. Is there anything in sports that makes you shake your head moment after moment like Simone Biles does?

The greatest of all time, you just can't say it enough. Wow. Simone's got enough gold medals at home. Someone give this girl a crown. At 24 years old, Simone Biles is the most decorated and dominant gymnast in history. And all eyes were on her to bring glory to Team USA in Tokyo. But in an unexpected development,

Biles pulled out a competition this week. She said to protect her mental health, and she made clear to the world that she would not defend her Olympic title. No injury, thankfully. I just felt like it would be a little bit better to take a back seat, work on my mindfulness. The move was met with criticism online and an outpouring of support from her fellow athletes.

Today I'm talking to historian, professor, and co-host of the Burn It All Down podcast, Amira Rose Davis, about Simone Biles' decision to withdraw and the significance of that move at the Olympics, arguably the most high-pressure sporting event in the world. Hi, Amira Rose. Hi, good'm Mira Rose. Hi, good to be here. Welcome to FrontBurner. I want to start by asking you, what was your reaction when you heard that Simone Biles is going to be withdrawing from the competition this week?

I just wanted to give her a hug. You know, she's very, very hard on herself. And you saw her even reduced to tears for a performance that was under her standards for herself. Big leap there. Something just not right there. You can see it on her face. And so my first reaction when she balked out of during her vault was, oh, no, something's like that's dangerous, right? It's actually quite a testament to her ability that she still landed on her feet. And then just feeling like I hope she takes and does whatever she needs for herself. I mean, of course, I'm crying because Olympics just makes

me cry. So, you know, and like happy tears to watch, watch her teammates step up. And so it was just a kind of very emotional, but proud of her for doing that in a space that is very hard to make that call. Let's set the scene a bit in terms of the approach to the day that she made the call to withdraw. What do we know? What do we know about what Biles was going through leading up to that decision? Were there any signs that she was maybe potentially not up for it? Yeah, she's been very forthright leading up to the games about the physical toll that it takes to continue to condition and compete at this level and the mental focus and dexterity that it requires to continue to do this. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, I train seven hours a day.

Thursday and Saturday, I train four hours. And then Sunday, we get off. Plus being Simone Biles, plus having the, you know, feeling like she has the world, the weight of the world, especially of the country on her shoulders and all of these expectations and that she's competing against herself, right? And that is in her expectations for herself. And she's very recently said, like, she has tried very hard to compete for herself, but she still feels like she's doing it for others in a way that makes it even that much more of a burden to do what she's doing.

So I've always kind of tried to compete against myself and beat myself and be better than the last time I competed. And I know it's getting tougher, but I'm just trying to do that still. And the other things that she's been very vocal about is how compelled she was to return for these games. how compelled she was to return for these games. So let's be clear, in gymnastics, it's very hard, right, to sustain across multiple Olympics because of the toll it does take on your body. And, you know, Simone is 24. She's not old, but in gymnastics age, right, that is the elder of the team. And, you know, she is very vocal about one of the things that was pushing her to return for these games was that she was the last competing Nassar survivor. And then if we think about all of that, and we add in the pandemic, and we add in what a postponement for a year does to athletes

who have a four year schedule who have a very clear lead up to these world competitions, to trials, to the games, postponing it for a year is really disruptive to that. You have to continue to condition. That's another year of wear and tear on your body. And so I think that that's also the context of the lead up. I mean, it's been a lot, right? It's just been a lot. You mentioned that she's the last Larry Nassar abuse survivor of this Olympic team. And I want to come back to that in just a few minutes. But I want to talk a little bit more about this decision, because beyond it being a decision to look out for her own mental health and protect it, she's also framed this decision as one about her own safety and the well-being of her team. Because I didn't want to do something silly out there and get

injured. So I thought it was best if these girls took over and did the rest of the job, which they absolutely did. They're Olympic silver medalists now, and they should be really proud of themselves. Can you explain that to us a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. So that vault that she bulked out of it, and what that means is that she got lost in the air. If you go back and watch the video, you can see at one point, she's lost sight of her ground. She's lost sight of, you know, where she's supposed to be in her movement. And the fact that she lands on her feet is just because she's Simone Biles, like she's that good. But she short, she cut the amount of rotation she was supposed to do in half,

right? And that feeling of bulking, what gymnasts call the twisties, right, is it's disorienting the way you twist and flip through the air. And part of your training is to do things so many times that you can do it and you have a sense of where you are and you just know you're going to run to the vault, you're going to throw your vault and you're going to land. But it's dangerous, especially in a sport like gymnastics, because if you get lost of where you are in the air and you're unsure about your landing, there's a high probability you're going to get hurt. And in fact, many gymnasts are sharing stories today and threads on Twitter, stories on Instagram, videos about their own experiences with this moment. Mikaela Maroney took to Instagram to share about having this happen to her midair on the beam and coming down straight on her head.

We know that this is something that has paralyzed people. It's very dangerous. And when she's talking about the team, what she's also citing is that Volt was 11 point something something, which is not a score. I don't even know the last time that she would have ever seen a number that low for her on that. And so part of her decision when she talks about what it means for the team, this is the team competition, right? This is not just the all around. This is not her scores alone, but a very real feeling of it's not just that I don't trust

myself, but I also don't trust myself to contribute in the way that I would need to, to help my team. I would actually be a detriment to them. It's like, um, I think the girls need to do the rest of the competition without me. And they were like, I promise you, you're fine. We watched you warm up. And I said, no. So they were like, okay, well, if Simone says this and we need to take it pretty serious. And so I had the correct people around me to do that. Right. So if we're trying to maybe explain to someone who's not really familiar with her or doesn't really understand her or what she's capable of, how would you explain Simone Biles? Yeah, I mean, she's just, it's kind of amazing to watch her and to be in a moment where we are getting to see and we have been able to see her performances, the way that she's been

able to innovate the sport, who the height she's able to get off of her vaults. I mean, there's there's such a beauty and power behind her performances. And yeah, you know, she has absolutely pushed routines to places that we haven't seen from gymnasts. Biles landing an astounding triple-double during her floor exercise. Just keep making history, Simone Biles. A feat never accomplished by a woman before. In actuality, right, like one of the other storylines is the way that FEG, the International Gymnastics Federation, has consciously downvalued a lot of that because they're so dangerous, right? The Federation of International Gymnastics listed Biles' V move as an H when it would be expected

that such a difficult skill would be valued at an I or an J. And a lot of people, of course, look at that and say, well, don't penalize Simone for being that much better than everybody else. So she left Nike in April. And of course, Nike has had its fair share of criticism about its treatment of its women athletes who represent the brand. And she signed with Athleta. I like how they said they inspired me in the gym and out of the gym and not just as an athlete, but as a person. Because she knew she could work with them, kind of on her own terms, to do a post-Olympics tour that was maybe not run by USA Gymnastics. Experience a celebration of powerful female athletes like never before with Gold Over America Tour. What does a move like that tell you about her relationship with USA Gymnastics? I mean, I think that gymnasts have been very vocal about what they feel like USA Gymnastics is doing and or not doing

in terms of how they have accounted for decades of harm and not just by a single person, right, but by a system that has failed to protect the gymnast within it. And I think that it's really significant that that speaks volumes. This is a lesson that is not just for me but for people that like I am more than just this moment uh all of these things kind of build to athletes saying we're not just here to entertain you we're not just here to perform for you and we're human what we're seeing from Simone is part of a generation of athletes particularly black athletes particularly black women athletes who have stepped into that space unapologetically and are absolutely, you know, changing the conversation. Well, let's dive a little bit deeper into that, because I'm interested

in this idea of, okay, Simone Biles is not only, you know, an amazing gymnast, she's revolutionized the sport, she's remade it in her own image. And then you have this moment where she's actually saying, but I'm not only this. And I think that is a brave thing to say in any sport. But it is another thing for a Black woman to say that in a sport that is historically incredibly white. Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think that that is so important, right? To be the face of a sport that is historically and continues to be, especially at the elite level, very white and not just with athletes, but we're talking about with coaches, with judges, with trainers, the whole infrastructure. we're talking about with coaches, with judges, with trainers, the whole infrastructure. And I think that part of that conversation is that we don't talk enough about like the burden of being

that person. And whether we're talking historically, I am a historian, that burden of being a barrier breaker, right? The first of X, Y, and Z, but also that burden of being that kind of symbolic face of a sport, because by your own achievements, you force the sport to actually accept you. We've seen this in tennis with the Williams sisters. And I think that there is a cost to that that we don't reckon with enough and that is hard to articulate. And that's why I was so proud of Simone Manuel in swimming to say, no, the burden of being

a Black woman also is compounding my mental health and my physical fitness and things like that. And that there is another layer of expectation that goes on your shoulders when you're in that position. This last year for the Black community has been brutal. And I can't say that that wasn't something that I saw it's not something I can ignore but that ability to say I get to even say no to this and I get to draw a boundary here I need to this is what it looks like to pour into myself is also a rebuke of the feeling of like, all right, now you must perform, right? You're the image of the sport, so you must continue or you have gotten here and you should be happy to be there and keep going. And that feeling of shouldn't you just be happy to be there is another thing that athletes, especially Black women, are pushing back against, which is

like, no, actually, I earned my way here, but you're not entitled to my performance. I get to prioritize myself and my teammates and make the decisions that are best for me. And I think that that racial dynamic is really important when we're thinking about what else is layered onto that burden. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections.

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In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, Now, there's something really overwhelming, I think, about understanding the greatness of Simone Biles. When you remember that she was among the victims of Larry Nassar, which is something that you mentioned earlier. He's the former team doctor who admitted to abusing hundreds of gymnasts for decades. Not just Simone Biles, but lots of other gymnasts have been critical of USA Gymnastics for protecting Larry Nassar for some time. It's hard coming here for an organization and having had them failed us so many times.

And we had won gold. We've done everything that they asked us for, even when we didn't want to, and they couldn't do one damn job. You had one job. You literally had one job, and you couldn't protect us. How has she confronted that history during this stage of her career?

Yeah, so back in 2018, Simone disclosed that she was also had been assaulted by Nassar and that, you know, talked about not being emotionally ready to kind of go there. Biles describes Nassar's behavior as unacceptable and disgusting, adding, we need to know why this was able to take place for so long and to so many of us. But we did see by the national championships of that same year, she designed a leotard specifically to honor the survivors of abuse. She, like Allie Raisman, like many of the women have continued to be vocal about it, even when others have wanted to move on from the story. And I think that this just goes back to, you know, her literally

saying part of why I felt compelled to keep going is because I was like the only survivor who could. Because I feel like if there weren't a remaining survivor in the sport, they would have just brushed it to the side. But since I'm still here and I have quite a social media presence and platform, they have to do something. That move in her career to understand how she can keep the pressure on USA Gymnastics in a way that other people aren't in the position to is such a testament to not only

her, but to the way that these survivors have continued to feed off each other and insist at an institution that for years ignored harm. It was a narrative in sports that kind of disappeared, but it is tremendously brave and it's heartbreaking and it's really exhausting work that they are doing. And Simone understanding her space that she commands, taking up that mantle, taking up that burden willingly is, I mean, like, I don't know if there's actually sufficient language to talk about how impactful that decision is. We're sitting here talking about it now. We're talking about the failures of USA Gymnastics in a way that we wouldn't necessarily have had to if Simone wasn't at the Games.

One of the extraordinary dimensions of this is that Simone is subverting an expectation that maybe people have of athletes that they have to sacrifice themselves for the audience, for the fans, for the industry. I'm thinking here of the famous example from the 1996 Olympics of American gymnast Carrie Strug, who won the gold because she did her second vault after having broke her ankle. Keri Strug is hurt. Probably the last thing she should have done was vault again, but she did and now she is in a lot of pain. And as she landed, she did the salute to the judges with a broken ankle. You could see her screaming as she did that.

And this feels, the Simone Biles moment feels very different. And so I wanted to ask you just like on a broader level, what do you think, what do athletes really owe us? Yeah, I love that question. And I also just want to say about Carrie Strug, because I've seen it come up, you know, a few times, of course, in light of this conversation, because I think there's two important things to note. You know, some people have brought it up to say, well, look at that as if that's what sports should be, right? Like that was like this

beautiful moment and it long has been used in that way, right? But I think there's a lot of people who are also saying, wait a minute, like, what if this wasn't that feel good moment that we have always thought it was? It wasn't, Carrie didn't have a choice. Like, you know, I think like we have to think about context. We're talking about power dynamics and we're talking about the immense pressure that the adults around her, the coaches around her to continue to do it. One of the things that Simone said was, I'm so lucky I have a team around me who listens to me.

The people or the infrastructure around Simone didn't push back at her. And I think that's one of the reasons this conversation feels so destabilizing to people is because it actually requires us to unpack what we think foundationally about sports. You give your all and that's what we applaud. We applaud you breaking limb or breaking your mental state or whatever for our what? Entertainment, for our gambling, for our enjoyment, for the thrill. What? What?

That's us, right? That's who's watching. And I think that that's why it feels so destabilizing at times to say, well, what if what is required of them is to do their best and what is needed from them, but that actually we don't have a right to demand that they, like, to be gladiators, right? To gladiate themselves for our entertainment.

What right do we have to insist that somebody puts themselves in harm's way so that we can clap or cheer or have a momentary escape? And I think that that's, you know, the subtext here is like the very foundation of what we think and how people have long considered modern sports is what is being challenged by this generation of athletes who are saying, no, we can protest. No, we can talk about mental health. No, we're not just here to entertain you, which means you're going to get us talking about a range of things instead of just showing up and playing, no matter what that has cost us in the past. And I think that that is also the power of this conversation.

Amira Rose, thank you so much. Thank you. Speaking of the Olympics, we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about who is bringing glory to Team Canada. Women are dominating Canada's presence at the Games and have, as of last night, brought home all nine of the country's medals, including swimmer Penny Oleksiak. She's now the most decorated summer Olympian in Canada. That's after winning a bronze medal on Wednesday and winning a silver medal in a team relay on Sunday. Along with her four medals from 2016, that brings her Olympic medal total to six.

That is all for today. I'm Elamin Abdelmahmoud. Thank you for listening to FrontBurner. We'll talk to you tomorrow.