Simone Biles, continuing to deal with the “twisties,” has taken herself out of the vault and uneven bars finals at the Olympics this weekend, with the floor and beam events remaining, to use an unfortunate expression, up in the air for the greatest gymnast of all time.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist and 19-time world champion has lost her sense of where she is in the air, which is obviously incredibly dangerous for a gymnast. As much as Biles’ issues have been portrayed as being mental health, there are easily perceptible physical consequences to trying to compete through this. You wouldn’t dream of asking, say, a mixed martial arts fighter to get in the octagon if he couldn’t tell when he was about to get punched in the face.
AND YET.
Henry Cejudo, a former UFC champion and a gold medalist in freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Olympics, felt the need to weigh in and make himself known to be an asshole.
“I think she really needs to check herself,” Cejudo said, despite nobody having considered his opinion on the matter important, or even knowing who he was before he decided to inject himself into this situation. “I think there’s time for a little bit of tough love. If she was my sister, this is exactly what I would do. So, I would never say anything that I wouldn’t do to my personal family or anything like that. Or even for me, because I do believe sometimes we do need a nice kick in the arse.”
Exactly how “tough love” would help Biles to lower the risk of catastrophic injury as a result of not knowing where she is in the air on the most complicated moves ever done in gymnastics… is a mystery.
“There’s two things that pressure can do,” Cejudo continued. “Pressure could either break, or it could make diamonds. Pressure could either burst pipes or it can create and make diamonds. You choose what to do for it, or what to do with it, remember that.”
Sure thing, dude. Thanks for the advice from the back cover of the worst self-help book anyone ever read. The woman with four Olympic gold medals, 19 world championships, a series of impossible acrobatic moves named after her, and a legacy already locked down surely can use that wisdom.
Or, perhaps, consider shutting the fuck up.