The Antithesis of Brave: Biles Quits

CLAY: Let me go ahead and give you a spoiler alert here because I know people are confused about the time zones and when things are taking place. If you are the kind of person — which I know many are — who is saying, “Hey, I’m gonna put on television at night and watch the Olympics! I don’t care if they’re like 15-hour tape delayed or not,” you can turn down your radio.

I don’t want to spoil alert. I don’t even know if this is still a thing if a lot of people are able to avoid the news stories of what happened. It’s possible, Buck, this is going to be an even more massive story. It’s already a huge story. But it’s possible after tonight in prime time, it’s going to be an even bigger story when it officially airs in the United States.

It was on early this morning as well for those of you who got up early and care about gymnastics. But Simone Biles took herself out of competition. She is the best… To your point, Buck, I think she’s the most famous athlete at the Olympics. Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, both obviously huge stars, who are not competing at this Olympics.

Simone Biles probably, as a result, is — I would bet — the biggest star at the Olympics, and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team was the favorite to win the gold medal, and they were competing against the Russians. Simone Biles pulled herself out of competition, not because she was physically injured, but because she said that the stress effectively of the competition had gotten to her. This is the audio cut, Buck, of Simone Biles. I don’t remember this ever happening before. She is the best gymnast in the world and has been for the past seven or eight years.

Here is her explaining why she pulled herself out of the competition.

BILES: They say, “Put mental health first because if you don’t, then you’re not gonna enjoy your sport and you’re not gonna succeed as much as you want to,” so it’s okay sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself because it shows how strong of a competitor and person that you really are rather than just battle through it. No. No injury, thankfully and that’s why I took a step back 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.

BUCK: Look, we all have emotional and psychological struggles, Clay. That’s just a constant of being a human being. But what about your teammates? What about the people that have trained you? If you’re injured, you’re injured; no one’s expecting you to compete. If you rupture your Achilles, obviously, you’re out, I mean, if something bad happens to you that’s sports that’s the world that we all live in. The pressure is too much? Hasn’t she already won a whole bunch of gold medals? Look, she can do whatever she wants, but I think people can look at this and say, “That’s pretty odd. It’s pretty weird.”

CLAY: Also, how would we respond if Tom Brady suddenly in the Super Bowl said, “Hey, there’s too much attention. I feel too stressed. I’m pulling myself out of the Super Bowl.” How would we feel if LeBron James in the middle of the NBA Finals, Game 7, said, “Hey, you know what? It’s really stressful right now on the bench. I’m not gonna go back in. I’m gonna stand on the sideline and root for my teammates.”

BUCK: LeBron might do that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

CLAY: I know we’re not supposed to talking about things like this, Buck, but I talk about, you talk about it, that’s why people listen to the show. How much of the reaction has to do with Simone Biles’ being a girl as opposed to a guy doing this? And the question I just asked on Twitter thinking about it: “Imagine if Tom Brady says, ‘I feel too much mental pressure to come back for the second half of the Super Bowl,’ or LeBron James says, ‘I can’t play in NBA Game 7 because I feel too much stress and pressure.'” They get destroyed, Brady and LeBron James.

BUCK: No question.

CLAY: To the ends of the earth, right?

BUCK: Yep.

CLAY: Simone Biles, how much does being a woman limit the criticism that she would get compared to the Brady and James? I think that’s an interesting angle to examine here. Are we treating her differently than we would treat them? Because my argument is, all elite-level athletes regardless of sex should be treated the same when it comes to analyzing what they do or do not do in the most pressure-packed moments of their careers.

In fact, that’s how we typically define the greatest athletes. On the biggest stage, how do they perform? And again, it’s different if you are injured — although I would admit that one of the most iconic moments in Olympic history, many of you will remember, was Kerri Strug landing a vault on one ankle after she had injured herself on the previous attempt.

And that helped to lead the United States to a gold medal. That’s an iconic moment. I think they put her on the front of Wheaties standing on one foot. If I remember, it’s one of — for those of you out there listening right now — the most definable, iconic moments in the history of the Olympics.

BUCK: You tend not to get a Wheaties box when, “Ah, it’s a little stressful. I’m gonna go on vacation now. See you guys later.” That tends to not be a Wheaties moment.

CLAY: And Wendy has a great point here in Virginia, Buck, which I hadn’t even thought about. Wendy, your points how hard it is to make the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. So many people don’t get that opportunity, and then Simone Biles just pulls herself out in the middle of the competition.

CALLER: Yeah. I am so disappointed. You work very hard from the time you’re 5-year-olds as a gymnast to get that that point. She has taken a spot on that team — and I say “team.” She has to have known the pressure involved having been to the Olympics before. She could have pulled herself out earlier, much earlier, but she’s part of the team. Sometimes you just gotta man up — or woman up — and do what you gotta do. This is an embarrassment to my gender to have someone it says level just pull out. You retire. You don’t quit.

BUCK: Well, I appreciate that Wendy caught herself there in a mansplaining, microaggression moment.

CLAY: (chuckling) Yeah.

BUCK: We’re just kidding Wendy. Excellent point. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, there are people who get angry at the term “man up.” That’s a thing now on the left.

CLAY: Oh, yeah.

BUCK: But she’s absolutely right, Clay, and this is what we see. This is what the situation is right now.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: We’re gonna be told that this is brave when it is not brave. It’s her right. It’s fine. But when I say, “It’s fine,” I mean she can do it. She’s not a bad person for it. It’s not like that. But it’s not brave.

CLAY: And it’s the antithesis of competition, which is finding a way to will yourself to victory even when it might otherwise be challenging, which is what is representative of the Olympic spirit in general. I think this is just such a fascinating question and a fascinating debate.