Conotocarious

Omg Andrade didn’t hit.

If Andrade hits, she should win. She significantly stronger on floor than Suni.

Oh that’s good!

I can see that. Andrade is amazing on floor so she could still pull it out.

What was that beam score? Seemed kinda low. Beam in general has been a bit of a cluster.

I noticed immediately Lee took out the second wolf turn after that save.

I am laughing out loud over here. Domi floating by in the inner tube as the word HELP flashes is just…..I mean it perfectly sums up that ridiculous segment. Like she was ever allowed to relax like that around the Karolyis. Or her family.

For me, I had to go into the app and click the link that said Sports and then it would show up as a link.

Utter trash is the perfect descriptor. I’ll never forget my shock when Kim fell in compulsories on a back handspring on beam. She thought she was out of the AA then and somehow fought her way back in only to take that OOB on her first pass like you’d describe. And boom, she’s dead to them. It sickens me to think of the parents clamoring to get their kids into his gym. I also cannot take the NBC soft light, piano-music laden backstories they used to shamelessly churn out, lavishing praise on those two psychos and acting like he was some kind of father figure to the girls. It makes my skin crawl. John Tesh in particular: “Little girls…..dancing for gold”. GROSS. And they’d always mic Bela and cut to his ramblings. It struck me even as a kid that his “coaching” seemed to consist of “Stronger….good! Stronger!” Wow, that’s super helpful, douche. I wasn’t surprised at all to read in Dominique’s book that he never really coached her like a real coach at all….it was always other coaches they’d hire at his gym.

To me it seems like people in this country simply cannot comprehend the severity of the situation until utter disaster strikes. If she had pushed through and ended up with a catastrophic injury, the “how did [someone else] let this happen” narrative in the media would be rampant. It's a little bit like the pandemic response. If we had the proper response, many fewer would be dead and people would complaining that we took too many restrictions for nothing. Nobody seems able to recognize an issue unless its already caused devastating harm.

To add on to this, Moceanu, who fell on vault twice in a row, was then ignored by her coaches and left to feel alone and miserable (except for her teammates whose tried to cheer her up) about winning AN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL. She didn’t feel that she deserved to win the medal in the same way as her teammates did even though she posted some of the highest scores on the other three events. It was like that was all erased and only her failure on vault mattered. Her own parents (her dad was an abusive jackass) upon seeing her for the first time were like “What happened on vault?” SHE WAS FOURTEEN.

How stupid is Yahoo. Headline about Suni Lee and how she’s replacing Simone in the AA. I get that gymnastics can be confusing and hard to follow with the constant rule changes and COP changes throughout the years. But this is basic, basic stuff. There’s no excuse.

This is such a good post. I think all these factors have definitely contributed. Simone IS an extrovert and probably the ultimate extrovert honestly. She does really seem to mean it when she emphasizes it should be fun and its all over her face and demeanor when its not. I grew up watching Karolyi era gymnastics and no one ever looked like they were having any fun. It honestly stuns me that gymnastics, which I consider beautiful yet utterly terrifying, has been fun for her for so long.

OK, yes, I misunderstood the COVID connection. Yes, you’re right, some are doing just fine and some clearly aren’t. And yes, Simone has been struggling and probably feeling somewhat trapped for awhile now. And its also true someone should have recognized it, and I wonder if people HAVE been noticing and we just don’t know because we are not behind the scenes obviously. Maybe one day we’ll find out.

Simone competed and won while dealing with a kidney stone. (I have had stones before and I have NO IDEA how she did this). She has been competing with god knows how much physical pain for who knows how long. She is capable of handling suboptimal conditions. Nobody….NOBODY is perfect all the time. She hasn’t lost a competition since 2013….you mean to tell me she’s been enjoying “optimal conditions” for almost ten years as a gymnast? A sport that routine spits out 18 year olds as over the hill? Also, GOAT does not mean an athlete will never struggle or fall. Nadia fell and had many struggles after bursting on the scene and she’s been considered the greatest legend ever until Simone. Simone is already the GOAT, Tokyo or no Tokyo and its OK for her to acknowledge that when everyone and their mother has been saying it for a while now.

I also read that Simone has experienced the Twisties before, including in 2016 before Rio and also in 2019. Difference being, of course, it was in training and she had time to sort it out, probably because she could use a foam pit in her gym. But without that pit, I agree its going to be difficult to work through it fast. Whatever she does, she’ll always have my admiration as one of the most legendary athletes I’ve ever seen.

Yes, Jade will compete AA in her place.

I keep coming back to the conclusion that this whole Games should really not even be happening. I thought so before and I still do now. Stupid pandemic.

As much as she tried to be calm and matter of fact in the press conference there is clearly a lot of inner turmoil for Simone. I hope she able to find the peace she needs because this must be just awful for her. I’ve been thinking a lot about Kohei too.

She was losing her air awareness, meaning she had no idea where she was in the air. With the skills she does, she could end up with a devastating injury or even a fatal one . It has happened before, with gymnasts in the past. If your aren’t on your mental game in basketball, you play lousy. In gymnastics, you could end up paralyzed. If you are not familiar with gymnastics look up Julissa Gomez and Elena Mukhina. Watch the replay of her vault. There is absolutely a WTF on her face when she realizes she is landing and not still twisting. It’s really scary. On another note, that press conference was really cute. How many times can they say “At the end of the day”. They need to do a whole Les Miserables song with gymnastics lyrics.

There’s a lot more to it than that.

Yeah, they mention this in SImone vs. Herself. She says she has no idea how she’ll react and I didn’t think too much of it but its clear now she wasn’t saying it for dramatic effect. One thing that occurred to me today as well was she now has kind of a life outside of gymnastics and a boyfriend who she seems really happy with. She mentioned she realizes that there’s other things outside of gymnastics. It definitely was not that way in 2016. I think realizing what you have to lose should something catastrophic happen could really cause some fear and doubt to creep in. She has said something along of the lines of some of the things she does are scaring her a bit now. That obviously never used to happen.

Even when the athletes meet the crushing expectations, as Phelps did, they often still end up suffering the crushing effects of being mentally unwell after its all over. I just think most people can’t possibly understand the level of pressure. I know Simone was always saying she was competing for herself this time but looking at the circus around these Games I always wondered how that could possibly be how she really felt.

She did and I do like Gabby a lot. In many ways her demeanor in Rio reminds me of Simone’s demeanor here. In London, Gabby was joyful and happy, it was obvious. In Rio, subdued and somber. Its the same with Simone. I would hope that as athletes and top gymnasts they understand each other better than most, even if they’re not besties.

I just read an excellent comment comparing Simone athletically to Alex Honnold and YES. He will bail on a climb if it feels wrong (as he did in Free Solo) because the consequences could be fatal otherwise. GOD. I wish I had thought of that.