My initial reaction to Simone Biles quitting during the Olympics was great sympathy for the young athlete. Still is as far as her mental health is concerned. I suffered from not properly dealing with my own mental health. As a result, my basketball career was nowhere near what it should have been. I notice many Black people, especially Black women excusing her actions based on rule changes based on her excellence. This quote is what motivated me to write this,
“She didn’t just quit because of mental pressure she quit because they straight up said they were not going to score her according to her skill level. Fuck that imagine working your whole life to be the absolute best at your sport and these judges won’t even give you your dues because they’re worried about hurting other people’s feelings.”
They, the International Gymnastics Federation, based their decision on how dangerous the Yurchenko double pike is. The IGF decided to limit the scoring rewards for trying the move, which has been renamed the “Simone Biles II” because she is the only woman that has ever done it. That’s highly unfair, and it shouldn’t be allowed, but it got me thinking.
What did Wilt Chamberlain think or Kareem Abdul-Jabaar when they changed the rules based on their dominance? These are players that also were victims of rule changes due to their excellence. They were penalized for being great. I’m sure they were upset and frustrated.
There were five rule changes in the NBA due to Chamberlains’ dominance, offensive goaltending, defensive goaltending, size of the lane/paint, free-throw shooting, and inbounding the ball were all modified. When the NCAA banned dunking, taking away a clear advantage for Kareem, he began to work on what would become arguably the most unstoppable signature move in basketball history, the Skyhook.
If Chamberlain and Kareem, who both went on to be considered all-time great NBA players quit because of those rule changes, it would have negatively impacted Black players aspiring to be like them. In my opinion, it would send the wrong message to all Black children, athletes or not.
We can’t teach our children to quit when things aren’t fair! Shit, that means we should all stop trying right now using that logic. We should teach our children to rise above and make sure they understand they are great enough to do so. At the same time, we should be doing our very best to accommodate the mental, social and emotional toll that it puts on us as individuals and communally speaking.
Beyond that, we should be fighting for fairness and constantly pushing for equitable policies that don’t negate excellence. I support Simone Biles, but I do not support the argument that it was okay for her to quit because they moved the chains on her. If we are not striving to create our own games and standards, we need to figure out how to fight for our ideals within the current sports we choose to play.
There are many more examples, like Bob Gibson in baseball, Tiger Woods at Augusta, or Shaq in the modern-day NBA, to name a few more. This is not new, but her reaction to that adversity is compared to other great Black players I mentioned. Simone Biles, continue to be the fantastic athlete you are and do not allow them to determine or derail your greatness!
Thoughts Processed 