Nacho Thigh Juice said:
Brady never sat out a game because of mental issues. Jordan always rose to the occasion and Ted Williams was a straight up bad ass.
Did I miss the part where any of those people were sexually abused for years, kept it a secret, performed at the top of their sport while under the care of their abuser, and then had the explicit details of their abuse revealed and replayed in front of the entire world over and over? Oooh! Or what about the part where one of those people could make a mistake in competition due to being off their game mentally and it could result in their death or lifelong paralysis?
If you've known or you are an abuse survivor, you're probably aware that you can't predict when something will trigger a mental/emotional spiral. It doesn't have to be anything related to the abuse either - it could be a sound or a smell or a sense of fear, or deja vu from being in a similar setting/situation. It *does* come out of nowhere sometimes and it can be debilitating for a period of time. That feeling of disorientation and fear she had on her last vault very easily could have put her into a spiral and that only makes her human.
Simone has competed with broken bones, kidney stones, and the weight of being the face of a huge group of sexual assault survivors. To say that she is weak, physically or mentally is absurd. Unless there are Olympians in this thread, I don't think that any of us have an inkling of what that pressure feels like.
She's had a great career and has brought a lot of glory to Team USA. To discount all of that and try to make her legacy become "she's a quitter" is not fair. If anyone she "stole a dream" from has an issue, I'm sure they can take it up with her directly. But for everyone else, I think a little compassion for a young woman who has overcome tremendous challenges and represented our country well wouldn't go amiss.