Did Simone Biles actually salvage America’s chances at a medal by withdrawing from an event?
As crazy as it sounds, it might be the truth. Biles has been in the news nonstop ever since she pulled out of the team competition Tuesday during the Olympics in Japan. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
She’s faced a nonstop onslaught of criticism for her decision, and plenty of hot take artists have ripped her on Twitter.
In my own humble opinion, I think I gave the most reasonable explanation of the situation.
The Simone Biles situation is simple. If she knew there was a chance she’d struggle with mental health issues, she shouldn’t have gone to the Olympics.
If they came out of nowhere once she was in Tokyo, then she has every right to look after herself. pic.twitter.com/g9BnnGBZgX
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) July 28, 2021
Well, now some new evidence has grabbed my attention and it shines a very different light on the situation. Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel pointed out in a great Twitter thread that Biles pulling out likely salvaged America’s shot at winning the silver medal.
Her disappointing vault score was on the verge of tanking the whole team before she withdrew.
On Simone “quitting” on her team. She actually saved it. Her vault scored a 13.766. Brutally low. It was 0.534 below her teammates and 0.700 below the lowest Russian score. Russia took a commanding 1.067 lead because of it. US can’t win silver if she’s scoring like that.
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) July 27, 2021
In fact, in Biles’ own words she admitted that she didn’t want to cost her team a medal with her poor performance.
Biles: “I was like, ‘I am not in the right headspace. I am not going to lose a medal for this country and these girls because they’ve worked way too hard to have me go out there and lose a medal.’”
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) July 27, 2021
She had no confidence she would score well. “I didn’t want to go into any of the other events not believing in myself. So I thought it was better to take a step back and let these other girls do the job. And they did.”
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) July 27, 2021
There are a lot of hot take artists out there who are going to have to eat a lot of crow after these tweets from Wetzel have gone viral.
Biles was painted by many as a loser and a quitter because she withdrew. Now, it’s fair to criticize her in the moment given how information was floating around.
After the vault, the Russians had a big lead (1.067) that would be nearly impossible to overcome. That was her stated reasoning. Gymnastics is a unique sport. Strange to imagine her hurting the team, but she was.
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) July 27, 2021
However, now that we have this information, I expect all the idiots who torched her and called her selfish to correct the record.
Will they do it? No, but they certainly would if they had any honor.
The gold was almost assuredly gone after Simone’s vault. The US wound up with silver. Nothing bad happened. She cost her teammates nothing.
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) July 27, 2021
Finally, I can’t wait to watch people try to spin this and claim she should just have kept competing so that we could have lost a medal. I guess Simone Biles staying in and America losing is really teaching the world a lesson!
One last thing on Biles vault. It was so pedestrian, only one other gymnast (out of 48) attempted an easier vault and only three scored lower. At that point, Simone, best of all time, was one of the worst gymnasts there. If that continues on bars, then the silver is in jeopardy.
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) July 28, 2021
I look forward to watching everyone correct the record! It should be a beautiful to see.
