Opinion
The courage of sportswomen who have laid down new rules
Summary
Simone Biles and others deserve credit for rejecting absurd expectations and resetting global normsIt takes courage to step into an arena and compete at the highest level. It takes courage to return to that arena five years later, after having won gold medals and having already demonstrated that you have no further worlds to conquer. It takes courage to recognize the tension between the mind and the body in that arena. It takes courage to accept one’s limits. It takes courage to listen to an inner voice telling you that something must be wrong if you can no longer make sense of spatial dimensions, whether you are up or down, and that it is necessary to pause. It takes courage to admit a mental block and not keep rushing at it in the hope of crushing it. It takes courage to take decisions day by day. It takes courage to return once more to the same arena, give one’s best performance, and be among the top three in your chosen field at the end of the day.
Simone Biles was a terrific gymnast before she went to Tokyo. She had won gold medals at Rio and was described as the greatest of all time in a sport that has seen many greats, like Ludmilla Tourischeva, Olga Korbut, Nadia Comeneci, and Mary Lou Retton. Excellence in gymnastics is more of a subjective measure than in many other sports, since no goals are scored, you don’t swim faster than others, nor jump higher or lift bigger weights. There are medals to compare, but these are given on the basis of the aesthetic sense and yardsticks of judges.
Biles carried not only the expectations of her country, but other heavier burdens as well, including the horrendous experience of being abused by the disgraced and convicted former doctor of the US gymnastics team, Larry Nassar. When she spoke of the “twisties" she experienced, gymnasts understood; they know and dread the phenomenon when they are mid-air and can no longer tell whether they are up or down, and could crash-land and suffer serious injury. But people who probably cannot touch their own toes or do ten sit-ups called her a “softie". The British TV host Piers Morgan, who seems to have a particular problem with women of ethnic minorities (Biles, Meghan Markle, or Naomi Osaka), said, “There is nothing remotely courageous, heroic or inspiring about quitting," conveniently forgetting how he had stormed off a TV set when his co-presenter Alex Beresford called him out for his bullying.
That swagger is a problem. Compare Morgan’s response with what happened when tennis ace Novak Djokovic expressed his frustration after losing at the Olympics. He was looking to achieve a Golden Slam this year—winning the Olympic gold on top of four major singles titles. He has won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, and the US Open starts later this month. But he failed in Tokyo. He trashed his racket and then said he had a shoulder injury. He skipped the Olympic play-off for the bronze medal, leaving his partner Nina Stojanovic in the lurch and depriving her of a medal. But there hasn’t been the kind of criticism of Djokovic as there has been of Biles.
To be sure, Djokovic’s injury may be serious (I hope not), and some stars set exacting standards, and when they lose their temper, they are angry with themselves. Think of John McEnroe, known for his on-court tantrums. To win, you play hard. Several American Football coaches have been credited with the aphorism that winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. But that’s not the Olympic spirit. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the father of modern Olympics, had said, “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well."
Athletes are under enormous pressure to win. That pressure, tennis star Billie Jean King has noted, is a privilege, a point Djokovic too made last week before his meltdown. It takes grace to turn that pressure into real courage, to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway. By placing her mental health first and then practising quietly at a suburban gym to regain her sure-footedness, Biles returned to the arena not knowing what would follow. She then showed she was in charge and did things because she wanted to and not because she had to. She knew the pressure; she showed grace; we saw her courage.
The Tokyo Olympiad will be known not only for its unusual setting, with performances in empty stadia, but also for the women who have stared back and asserted their identity. Besides Naomi Osaka, who returned centre-stage after stepping aside following the French Open, and Simone Biles, who picked up another medal, there are the German women gymnasts who wore full-body unitards, taking a stand against sexualization of the sport, and the Norwegian women’s beach handball team, which refused to wear skimpy bikinis, choosing shorts instead. Bizarrely, the European Handball Federation fined them; the international federation couldn’t explain why its rules stated that women must wear bikini bottoms “with a close fit and cut on an upward angle towards the top of the leg". How such guidelines help anyone’s performance is a mystery.
By saying ‘no’ to absurd expectations, these women have laid down the rules that the world must follow.
Salil Tripathi is a writer based in New York. Read Salil’s previous Mint columns at www.livemint.com/saliltripathi
