How I Got It Wrong About Simone Biles

Another lesson in humility

In my lifetime, the Olympics have changed a great deal. I used to be glued to the television rooting for every American to win gold. One of my first recollections of the Olympics is watching Sugar Ray Leonard and Bruce Jenner dazzle people with their athleticism. It sparked an interest in sports and patriotism for me. In recent years, work, parenting and other obligations have pulled me away from watching sports as often as I would like. I do my best to tune in on Sundays in the Fall (go Bills!) and I cross my fingers that the Red Sox will be in the pennant race in September and October.

This summer, I really wanted to watch the Olympics and one of the first events that caught my attention was Women’s Gymnastics. Since I continue to make a daily trip to ESPN.com, I had read that Simone Biles decided to withdraw from the competition for “mental health” reasons, much to my surprise. Yet, what I saw on TV disappointed me. Biles was cheering her team on as if nothing were wrong. At times, she was jumping up and down, clapping and hugging her teammates as they exited the floor.

My first reaction was: Wow, she looks ok to me. In fact, she seems pretty happy. To make matters worse, the cameras and reporters all focused on Biles and not her teammates. I thought it was a little selfish of her to be with the team on the floor, knowing she would be the center of attention. (She subsequently sat in the stands, most likely for this exact reason.) In the end, the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team won the silver medal. And, that’s when it got ugly.

A number of opinion pieces from prominent journalists (those who write about sports for a living and those who couldn’t tell the difference between the uneven bars and a pommel horse) began criticizing Biles for her decision, saying that she was a “national embarrassment” and that she “let her team down.” These attacks were incredibly personal, visceral and jumped to conclusions without knowing all the facts.

This is when I began to realize how my bias for modesty and humility was shading my opinion of Biles and her decision. In fact, it was Biles who was demonstrating courage and humility by admitting she was struggling. Chris Peterson liked to define humility as more than just being modest. He added that it was actually being accurate in assessing our abilities and putting the needs of others before ourselves.

This past Summer, Biles was the epitome of humility. Do you really think she trained all these years just to drop out? Of course not, she put her team ahead of her own desires by accurately assessing her mental health. Biles knew that if she didn’t withdraw, she would hurt the team’s chances. She realized that she was getting more attention than her teammates and thus she also withdrew from the cameras. Shame on me.

As I put the finishing touches on a book about humility and I reflect on Peterson’s last statement in the post he wrote about this virtue (“Hail to humility.”), I say, “Hail to Simone. Thank you for helping us all have a better understanding of courage and humility.”

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