Simone Biles: They’re Kids, Not Commodities

I don’t know Simone Biles and I can’t speak to her personal character or what she may do or say in the days, months or years to come.

 

I only know the facts that are available. I’m not going to waste my time volleying arguments with anyone on social media.

 

But as a father of a daughter and the leader of an organization committed to advocating for young athletes, if I see another armchair quarterback, “coach”, or “pundit” babbling criticisms about “mental toughness” as nachos and beer spill out of their gaping mouth, I’m going to lose it.

 

Have you lived with and trained the Olympic athletes and seen with your own eyes the around- the- clock pressures and sacrifices they go through?

 

I have.

 

 

Have you had one of your athletes take his own life because his Olympic dream didn’t work out?

 

I have.

 

Have you sat in the room with Olympic coaches discussing just how bad the abuse situation was, and how far reaching the consequences were, with the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal?

 

I have.

 

It’s not a good thing that young athletes are bending to the extreme growing pressures they face. Neither Simone Biles, her sponsors, her teammates, or anyone else in her support system is excited about her exit.  But what are we collectively going to do about the growing issue of commoditizing our young athletes to the point where they break?

 

The pressures of competition have always been there. The 24-hour news cycle, social media, and global pandemics haven’t. By the way, social media has only been relevant for about two Olympic cycles. Think about the exponential level of pressure and scrutiny this brings to an individual.

 

We need to stop criticizing the outcomes of a system designed for failure and invest in changing it.

 

Not only are we seeing the failure of the system with our own eyes, but the data is also there, and it’s been there. Commoditizing young athletes and exposing them to the pressures of high-level competition in a single sport at a young age leads to burnout, injury, and nothing but negative outcomes.

 

Have we invested in change? No. Are we investing in helping these young athletes manage the growing pressure we’re putting on them? Nope. The only investments that are being made by most are actually creating more pressure. Higher levels of competition at younger ages. More specialization.

 

Less being a kid, more becoming a commodity.

 

And what’s in it for these kids? A well rounded, happy, healthy, future?

 

No.

 

“What’s in it?” is prestige, for us. We put our kids in high pressure sports at a young age so we as parents can put elite team stickers on our cars and brag to our friends.  As a country we create this pressure so once every 4 years we can pound our chest, “USA! USA!”, for something we care nothing about for the rest of the 3 years and 11 1/2 months.

 

When these athletes don’t respond well to this pressure, it’s like we’re disappointed on the return on an investment we never really made.

 

These blowhards that are spewing vitriol about Simone Biles being an “embarrassment”; Were they going to give a public “Thank You” for her and other young athletes giving up their entire life and destroying their body, so we have something interesting to watch on TV for a little bit?

 

Would they be slinging these criticisms if this was their daughter? The daughter they adopted from the foster care system. The daughter that survived abuse under the care of her sports’ national governing body that she is supposed to be giving up everything to compete for.

 

Simone stepped aside so someone who was able to do the job at this time, could. She didn’t commit a crime or physically harm someone else. She’s been doing one since the age of 6. Her health, identity, sense of personal purpose, relationships, everything is tied up in the outcome of a single sport. Her success in not defined by doing well. It’s defined by doing things that literally no one else on the planet has ever done.

 

Can any of these critics say they can identify with that?

 

Yes, she’s trained to be at an unimaginable level in her sport. But her brain is a 24- year- old brain. Do you remember your 24- year- old brain? Different experiences I’m sure, but the same basic mechanisms are at play.  When I was 24, I’d lose sleep if my girlfriend was mad at me. Somehow her brain is supposed to work completely differently because she’s on TV.

 

Again, no one involved wanted this outcome. But, it sheds light on a problem in which we’re all complicit.  We’re all involved. But just how we helped create the problem, we can help with the solution.

 

Young athletes are kids, not commodities. We need to be aware of the growing pressure that is placed on them at an age where many of us were still spending our time building with Legos.

 

Just like we do with physical challenges, we need to help them create strategies to manage these pressures. We need to help young athletes realize that their sport is not their only identity. They’re a human first, then they’re an athlete.

 

They’re kids, not commodities.

 

 

 

 

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