Simone Biles Rising

[DanaK]

Quote

Netflix 4-part doc series that premieres July 17 2024

Simone Biles has unfinished business. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she was one of the biggest stories leading into the Games. But in sport, as in life, competitions do not always go as planned. And for Simone, the world had a front row seat as her private struggle with mental health exploded on the international stage - forcing her to withdraw from the competition. Since then, Simone has put in the hard work: facing the difficult traumas of her past, learning to manage her mental health, embracing her journey, and in the process, rebuilding her gymnastics from the ground up. Her courage to soar knows no bounds as this summer she plans to return to the Olympic stage once again to do what she's always done - be the best Simone that she can be. Because through it all, Simone still rises.

Full press release http://www.thefutoncritic.com/video/2024/06/19/video-simone-biles-rising-official-trailer-netflix-726512/20240619netflix02/

Trailer

 

[DanaK]

Netflix released a teaser of the series with Viola Davis narrating an excerpt from Dr. Maya Angelou's poem, "Still I Rise." Also, Part 1, the first 2 episodes, will be released tomorrow July 17 instead of all 4 episodes at once as previously indicated. Part 2, the second 2 episodes, will be released in the Fall

 

 

Edited July 16 by DanaK

[leocadia]

It's a petty gripe and nothing against Simone, but I wish someone had said this title out loud and realized the unpleasant connotation of the words "Biles Rising." I get that it's her last name, but why not use Ascending?

[DesiJF]

On 7/20/2024 at 5:06 PM, leocadia said:

It's a petty gripe and nothing against Simone, but I wish someone had said this title out loud and realized the unpleasant connotation of the words "Biles Rising." I get that it's her last name, but why not use Ascending?

I had the same thought.  Unfortunate title if you ask me.

[DanaK]

Netflix has announced Part 2 will premiere October 25

[DanaK]

Trailer for Part 2

 

[Bastet]

I watched the first two episodes and enjoyed them.  I paid little attention to what happened to her at the Tokyo Olympics (I'm not a huge Olympics viewer to begin with, and then putting a bunch of people together in the midst of a pandemic made me uncomfortable watching), but thought the "quitter" aftermath was bullshit -- if you can't play, you can't play (I'm one of the people who thought at the time it was terrible Kerri Strug was sent back out there to risk severe injury as a child) -- so it was interesting (and sad, and maddening on her behalf) to hear her take me through it.

Her mom (who I had no idea until this documentary was not her bio mom; I ignore all the fluff/sob story pieces on the athletes and just watch the events during the Olympics) handled that "I can't do it" call home from Tokyo perfectly.  No questions, no false cheer (and certainly no "you're our cash cow so get out there and get it done" pressure so many are subjected to), just assuring Simone she has to take care of herself and the team will try their best without her, it's fine.

I enjoyed hearing from other gymnasts, and the glimpse into how disgusting USAG was in the days of Karolyi and Nassar (I watched the Athlete A documentary years ago, which crystallized every bit of why women's gymnastics had given me a sick feeling most of my life).  I like that "the Golden Girls" were operating under a still fucked but improved system in London, and, knowing how that turned out, look forward to hearing more from Simone about what happened behind the scenes.

[zenithwit]

Just watched the two new episodes.  The decision to end right after the all around and not include any of the individual event finals was really strange.  They kinda ignored that Simone won another Gold medal for the Vault, a Silver for Floor Exercise and didn't place on the Beam.  Maybe they felt that Rebeca beating Simone in the floor exercise and Simone falling off the Beam didn't fit into their redemption storyline?  Also, the floor exercise event final included all of that controversy around Jordan Chiles' bronze medal.   Maybe there was legal reasons for not showing any of the footage they had around that event?

Also, Simone was part of the ceremonial passing of the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony (with the mayor of LA to signal the transition to 2028 Olympics) and had the flag "stolen" from her  by Tom Cruise.  That seemed like a nice closing to her Olympic chapter and I'm surprised the documentary didn't include it.

I think her husband has a really dry and sarcastic sense of humor.   While they showed a clip of that one interview that riled up the internet, they didn't show the comment that really turned Simone's fan base against him - which was that he was the "catch" in their relationship.  Seeing more of his personality, I can see how he was saying stuff like that as a joke but his delivery so dry and so deadpan that I also can understand how his comments were taken literally by the general public.  And Simone was pretty defensive about the whole thing when they should have just brushed it off as a bad joke. They probably could have benefitted from a better PR person in that situation.

Edited October 27 by zenithwit

[Bastet]

15 hours ago, zenithwit said:

Just watched the two new episodes.  The decision to end right after the all around and not include any of the individual event finals was really strange.

I think it was because she said her goal for the Olympics was a gold in All Around and a gold for the team.  So they showed her achieving that goal.

15 hours ago, zenithwit said:

And Simone was pretty defensive about the whole thing when they should have just brushed it off as a bad joke.

And certainly not given so much time to it in this documentary; that section lagged and had me rolling my eyes.

But I enjoyed the rest.  I agree with Aly Raisman that it's heartbreaking her response to "How did you do that vault [at trials] while in so much pain?" was "I couldn't have everyone calling me a quitter again".