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You may have seen pictures of people clinging to planes or inside planes. This is because this week, Joe Biden has stuck by his decision to pull American troops out of Afghanistan after approximately twenty years of fighting. Many Afghani people have and are expected to attempt to flee their country because of the Taliban’s increased occupation; hence the planes. To read a more thorough explanation, click the pictures for links to NY Times and The Guardian.

sport & mental health: 14/08/2021

simone biles

Simone Biles won her first U.S. and world all-around titles in 2013 aged sixteen after dominating her junior elite level competitions. Two years later she received her third straight world all-around title, a world record number of titles. After this she led the U.S women’s gymnastic team to win the 2016 Summer Games and won bronze in the vault, floor exercise and balance beam. She set another record in 2019 by winning her 25^th World Championship medal.

Simone’s background:

Biles didn’t enjoy her short stint at high school, leaving regular school for her busy training schedule. She struggled with body image issues and attempted to hide her muscles, “I hid my muscles because the guys would stare and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, look at her muscles!’” (Biles, 2019). However, as she has grown up, she has realised, “No matter how good you are in your sport, in life, in work, the number one thing people talk about is how you look.” (Biles, 2020). She urges girls to ignore the pressure because: “You’re still going to thrive. You’re going to become somebody amazing and great. You guys are all beautiful, inside and out.” (Biles, 2020). No matter what other people might think, remember you are not their words, you are beautiful because you are you! Biles didn’t see many Black gymnasts growing up so when Gabby Douglas won in the 2012 Olympics she was inspired, “I was like, If she can do it, I can do it.” (2020). The gymnast hopes her victories inspire little girls to get out and train hard in the gym (2020).

Biles’ biological mother struggles with addiction and was not able to care for her children and her biological father has never been a part of her life. Even as a young child Biles enjoyed physical activity, especially bouncing on the family’s trampoline. At age six Biles was enrolled in the local gym and after a few days transferred to the competitive team from recreational. When Simone was 14, she was invited to attend training at “The ranch”, a compound where she was in the gym from 8am to 7pm doing gruelling sessions each day. Biles now has the world record for the most medals, sitting at 30! (Brockes, 2019)

In 2018 Larry Nassar, a doctor on the USA gymnastics team, was sentenced being found out to be sexually abusing girls on the USA gymnasts team. Simone Biles tweeted that she was one of more than 160 women that had been sexually assaulted by the former doctor. By some estimates, it is possible that 300 young women and girls were abused by him over two decades. He abused the girls under the guise of treating them for injuries even sometimes with a parent in the room (Brockes, 2019). Nassar had enablers at Michigan State, the USA Gymnastics and the Paralympic and U.S Olympic Committee. Simone became a “powerful check” (Brockes, 2019) as she was the only gymnast to disclose her abuse by Nasaar and continue competing at an elite level. Biles says,

“I think the statistics are, one in three girls [experience sexual assault]. That’s just ridiculous. You teach girls to cover up, rather than guys to not touch girls? They blame it on clothes, what the girls wear, she asked for it. Sorry – nobody asked for it. It’s never a girl’s fault and I think that’s the thing I had the longest time understanding – that it wasn’t my fault” (2019).

It understandably took Biles some time to come to the realisation that she had been abused and that her abuse was real, “I was like, I’ve had the same treatments. I remember googling, like, sexually abused. Because I know some girls had it worse than me. I know that for a fact. So I felt like I wasn’t abused, because it wasn’t to the same extent as the other girls… Since mine wasn’t to that capacity, I felt like it didn’t happen… That’s how I felt-like I was letting other people down by this ” (2020). Remember, you are never letting anyone down by being abused or disclosing your abuse, the abuser is the only one in the wrong.

Fast forward to to this year’s Tokyo olympics…

Simone got a case of the twisties, a phenomenon in gymnastics where one loses track of where they are in the air during a jump (Goldman, 2021). Stress can be a trigger for this and as Simone has the “weight of the world on her shoulders” (2021) it is almost unsurprising she has faced extra struggles, especially with her aunt passing away two days before the games began (Goldman, 2021). Biles withdrawing from the biggest sporting event in the world sets an amazing example of putting mental health first which is so important, especially in modern day. Biles tweeted that, “the outpouring [of] love and support I’ve received has made me realize I’m more than my accomplishments and gymnastics which I never truly believed before.” (2021). Another super important message to remember- you are more than your achievements 🙂