PARIS — Simone Biles revealed that — officially at least — the nickname for the gold medal winning United States women’s gymnastics team is the “Golden Girls”, a nod to the oldest team in American history, including the 27-year-old Biles.
It’s the unofficial team name she first revealed that seems a lot more reflective of the mood and attitude of, if not the group, then at least Biles herself.
This is a Simone like we haven’t seen at the Olympics.
At the 2016 Rio Games she was a first timer, uber talented and seemingly without a worry in the world, just enjoying the ride to the top of the podium. At the 2021 Tokyo Games she was mostly unable to compete and uncertain in every way, suffering from isolation, critics and the twisties.
Now she is back and better than ever on the mat, older and more mature in life and seemingly ready to settle all scores in all ways.
That includes blasting former American gymnast MyKayla Skinner for her pre-Olympic criticism of not Biles, but Biles' current teammates.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and depth just isn’t like what it used to be,” said Skinner, who competed in Tokyo alongside Biles and won a silver medal there (although she qualified outside of the core five-gymnast American team). “A lot of girls don’t work as hard. The girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
After taking the team gold on Tuesday here, Biles stood up for her teammates — Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera. The first three are all veterans of Tokyo, as well, and have described their bond as a "sisterhood." Biles and Chiles are particularly close and train together in Texas.
BIles posted a picture of the team triumphantly carrying an American flag to her 9.4 million followers on Instagram with the caption: “lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions.”
Biles said Skinner soon blocked her on social media. Skinner, no doubt, is under an online assault, but that’s the risk of being proven spectacularly wrong on bold and personal declaration.
In various social media posts and likes, the rest of the American team essentially celebrated Biles standing up for them, while showing the world their own sense of pride in the accomplishment.
No offense to Betty White, Estelle Getty and a timeless 1980s sit-com, but it seems more believable that a pack of confident and capable 20-somethings would come up with the unofficial name, not the sanitized one. If nothing else, it sure seems more representative.
Skinner has tried to clarify and say she was comparing the current style of training under “Safe Sport” guidelines to the more regimented, and no doubt mentally harsher system that former national team coordinator Márta Károlyi employed.
Károlyi and her husband Béla were famous for their no-nonsense Romanian system that they brought to the vast talent pool of American gymnastics. It delivered gold medal after gold medal, but also broken spirits, mental and emotional fatigue and will be forever linked to the Larry Nassar reign of terror.
Perhaps the new system isn’t “as hard” under some discredited dystopian standard. Even so, calling any Olympian, let alone an Olympic gymnast, let alone an Olympic gymnast back for their second Games as lacking “talent” or “work ethic” is absurd.
Lee’s doctors told her just 11 months ago they didn’t think she’d ever compete in gymnastics again due to a kidney illness. Chiles is here after suffering a shoulder injury this year. Carey, at 24, has fought her way to the top through a roller coaster of a career.
Really, it’s not even worth discussing. No one gets here without an exhausting work ethic.
The proof is in the medal anyway.
That Biles clapped back in such devastating fashion almost immediately after the team's victory is a sign of a superstar at peak powers, unwavering in defense of her teammates and unafraid of any potential failure. Everything she lacked in Tokyo, she is overflowing with in Paris.
Gymnastics is a sport that is fraught with peril. An injury can change anything. A mental block as well. No one is ever 100-percent certain they can do anything, but Biles is at a point of strength where she doesn’t even care if she had to drop out again for some reason.
“It doesn’t even matter if I do it,” she said before the Games. “They are going to say, ‘Oh my gosh, are you going to quit again? Are you going to quit again?’ And if i did, what are you going to do about it, tweet me some more. I've already dealt with it for three years.”
That’s power.
At 4-foot-8, she is known for flips not fights, but right now she looks ready to hit back on anyone or anything she chooses. She’s the best gymnast in the world and she is going to defend herself and her friends every step of the way.
F Around and Find Out.
MyKayla Skinner already did.
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