Simone Alone

Simone Biles, on whose shoulders rested the hopes for a repeat of the legendary gold-medal victory of the 1996 "Magnificent Seven" U.S. Women's Gymnastics Olympic team (I'll give a shout-out to anyone who can name all seven members of that squad), withdrew from team competition.  The team took silver behind the Russians.

Biles just wasn't feeling it, and the lack of alternatively gasping, murmuring, and cheering crowds obviously didn't help her concentrate. Indeed, the added pressure of the extra year of waiting to take part in the Olympics because of COVID might have been part of it  But she has had many personal issues as well.  She just wasn't feeling it, as her mind was preoccupied with an array of concerns that undercut her ability to compete.  It all boiled down to her state of mental health, plain and simple.

"There’s more to life than just gymnastics," the 24-year-old Biles said. "It’s very unfortunate that it happened at this stage, because I definitely wanted it to go a little bit better. Take it one day at a time and we’re gonna see how the rest goes."  She is also skipping the individual all-around, but she might compete in the individual apparatus finals.

I think I can relate to Biles' troubles to some extent.  I think we all can, in this age of COVID - especially now that the Delta variant has upended everything and makes it feel like March and April 2020 all over again.  Mental health has become a serious problem during the pandemic as everyone tries to deal with this perpetually mutating virus and hoping - often, seemingly, against hope - that the pandemic will be over by the time we have another Summer Olympics.  Except that Biles has problems most of us can never expect to comprehend - yes, she was sexually abused in that gymnastics abuse scandal.  😢 But, as indicated by the quote above, Biles seems very mature and quite philosophical about everything that's going on right now.

Not a good subject for my usual satire, I know, but then you can't make fun of something like this. 😢

Congratulations to American swimmer Lydia Jacoby for her victory in the 100-meter breaststroke.  And congratulations to  American swimmer  Bobby Finke for that incredible come-from behind victory in the men's 800-meter freestyle.