Current Events > Simone Biles - Time Magazine's Athlete of the Year!

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https://time.com/athlete-of-the-year-2021-simone-biles/

"Around 9 p.m. on July 27, as Simone Biles soared high above the vault at the Tokyo Olympics, she lost herself. You could see the confusion in her eyes, which darted sideways instead of locking onto the ground as she made her way back to earth. She would later reveal that she was suffering from a frightening mental hiccup, known as the twisties, that left her unsure of her whereabouts in midair.

As the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) in a sport that captivates the globe every four years, Biles is all about control. Her life is dedicated to micromanaging every possible elementher diet, her training, her sleepthat goes into performing, so when the lights are brightest, and the stakes highest, little is left to chance. But for Biles, control isnt just about winning; it can be the difference between life and death. She now has four skills named after her, each a breathtaking combination of daring flips and twists. Avoiding disaster requires a constant, firm grip on mental acuity.

On that night, however, the careful tapestry of control that Biles, 24, had stitched began to unravel. Or at least started to, until she responded in a way that stunned millions of viewers around the world. In the middle of the Olympics for which she had trained for five years, and which was supposed to be the triumphant capstone on a historic career, Biles slipped on her warm-up suit, packed her competition bag and told her teammates she wouldnt be competing with them, but rather cheering them on in the team event. Her mind and body werent in sync, she said, which put her at serious risk. She also withdrew from her next four events, returning only to participate in the final one. At an Olympics in which five gold medals for Biles seemed preordained, she won a team silver and a balance-beam bronze.

For her teammates, her withdrawal from events was a decision they didnt have time to process as they scrambled to fill her position in the lineups. We all knew we had to continue not without her, but for her, says Sunisa Lee, who stepped up to win the all-around gold in Tokyo. What Simone did changed the way we view our well-being, 100%. It showed us that we are more than the sport, that we are human beings who also can have days that are hard. It really humanized us.

An athletes clout is increasingly measured in much more than wins and losses. If 2020 showcased the power of athletes as activists after the murder of George Floyd, this year demonstrated how athletes are uniquely positioned to propel mental health to the forefront of a broader cultural conversation. While a few sports stars have opened up about mental healthMichael Phelps, for instance, has been candid about his post-Olympic depressionin 2021, the discussion became more wide-reaching and sustained. After withdrawing from the French Open in May to prioritize her well-being, citing anxiety, Naomi Osaka wrote in a TIME cover essay, Its O.K. not to be O.K. Biles, by dint of her status at one of the worlds most watched events, raised the volume. I do believe everything happens for a reason, and there was a purpose, she tells TIME in an interview nearly four months later. Not only did I get to use my voice, but it was validated as well.

While supporters lauded Biles, critics lambasted her for quitting. But what Biles did transcended the chatter: she fought the stigma that has long silenced athletes, and shrugged off the naysayers who belittled her decision. If I were going to quit, I had other opportunities to quit, she says. There is so much Ive gone through in this sport, and I should have quit over all thatnot at the Olympics. It makes no sense.

A month after the Games, Biles put her vulnerability on display once again. Along with three other of the hundreds of other athletes who had been sexually abused by former team doctor Larry Nassar, Biles gave emotional testimony before the Senate about the failures of institutions like the FBI, USA Gymnastics (USAG) and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) to stop him.
Colin Kaepernick, no stranger to criticism for taking a stand, praises Biles grace, eloquence and courage. Simone Biles has used her remarkable position as the worlds greatest gymnast ever to inspire a long overdue global conversation on mental health, he tells TIME. Her influence extends far beyond the realm of sports and shows us that another worlda better worldis possible when we speak our truths with integrity and authenticity.

At a time when anxiety and depression rates are skyrocketingthe CDC reports a 50% rise in suicide attempts by teenage girls during the pandemicand many people are struggling with what they owe themselves vs. what others demand of them, Biles made clear the importance of prioritizing oneself and refusing to succumb to external expectations. With the eyes of the world upon her, she took the extraordinary step of saying, Thats enough. Im enough.

Biles thought she was, as she puts it, good to go before the Games. In retrospect, she acknowledges that she was shouldering a heavy load as she trained. She was the face of Team USA, and fans around the globe were anticipating watching her gravity-defying skills. Gradually, she began to feel the Olympics were less about her fulfillment and more about theirs.

In the past, when she left the gym, she didnt allow issues with certain skills to spill over into the rest of her day. But as Tokyo loomed, my mind was racing and I wasnt going to sleep as easily, she says. The pandemic, which had delayed the Games from 2020, played a huge role in that, she thinks, since safety protocols meant she was limited to going to the gym and staying home. For the gregarious Biles, that meant more time alone with her thoughts. Things only got worse in Japan. We couldnt hang out because of COVID-19 protocols, she says, so things you normally dont think about because you dont have time, now you have hours on end to think aboutthose doubts, those worries and those problems.

Biles is the only survivor of the Nassar sexual abuse scandal still competing, and pushing for USAG and USOPC to be held responsible is part of whats driven her over the past few years. I definitely do think it had an effect, she says of that burden. Its a lot to put on one person. I feel like the guilt should be on them and should not be held over us. They should be feeling this [pain], not me.

It took Biles about a year after the first Nassar survivors came forward to reveal publicly that she is one of them; her mother Nellie remembers Biles calling her in tears in 2017, saying she needed to talk to her. Training every day only served as a reminder of what she had been through and the lack of accountability by USAG. Biles didnt feel she could even drive herself to and from her therapy sessions, so Nellie did, waiting outside in the car in case her daughter needed her."

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But didn't she utterly fail in da Olympics, such a shameful display
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Odd choice but "athlete of the year" is meaningless anyways so w/e
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She did what any good athlete would have done, and that's step aside so that she wouldn't drag her team down or risk her health. And we won because of that decision.

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Reminder to all that Time's "person of the year" in any category is not about adding up whoever achieved the most stuff that year but more about who made the biggest waves etc.


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