Simone Biles. As I’m starting to draft this post on Tuesday night, this is the best thing I’ve read concerning Simone Biles’ decision to withdraw from the team final. (The Tl;dr of it is that people are horrified 25 years after the fact regarding Bela Karolyi ordering Kerri Strug to “shake it off” and vault again on her broken ankle.)
P.S. Kerri Strug supports Simone’s decision to withdraw.
Why Simone’s departure was important. Want to know why Simone said she was not comfortable competing with “the twisties”? Hannah Renno explains the damage that can happen with a bad landing on a twisting element.
There’s also the story of Elena Mukhina that illustrates why gymnasts need to be able to advocate for themselves.
Also… HOW COMPLETELY AWESOME WERE GRACE McCALLUM, JORDAN CHILES, AND SUNI LEE ON TUESDAY NIGHT?!?!?!?!?!? HOW AMAZING WAS SUNI LEE TONIGHT?!?!?!?!?
They proved that the US Women’s team is not just Simone Biles. The girls gave Russia a challenge on Tuesday night. Suni Lee fought hard and won a well-deserved gold medal tonight.
Katie Ledecky. She may not have won gold in all her events in Rio, but she had the fastest split time of every swimmer competing in the 4×200 relay. She was also swimming the 1500m race faster than some of the men at the US Swimming training camp in Hawaii, so I’m not remotely surprised that she won it.
I can’t wait to see her in the 800m freestyle final tomorrow.
Caeleb Dressel. Loved the 100m race last night, and I’m looking forward to the 100m butterfly final tomorrow night!
The Olympic dream. One of the really cool thing has been when an unexpected person wins the gold. Case-in-point: Ahmed Hafnaoui, the teenager from Tunisia who won gold in the 400m freestyle. It was an absolute shocker to everyone in the pool.
Divided loyalties. There’s an Irish gymnast that is a medal contender on the pommel horse as well as an American who is also in the event final. Do I go with the ancestral homeland or the USA? Decisions, decisions!
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