Ugly Fascist Barrage Aimed at U.S. Olympic Gymnast Simone Biles

August 2, 2021 | revcom.us

 

Update: After we posted this article, it was announced that Simone Biles will compete in the balance beam finals on Tuesday, August 3.

 

From a Reader:

Simone Biles, U.S. Olympic athlete, withdrew from the Olympic gymnastics competition in Tokyo after she failed to complete 2.5 twists in the air during an extremely difficult vault. Biles, a Black woman, has won 31 combined Olympic and World Championship gymnastic medals, with four gold medals in the 2014 Rio Olympics, and is considered the greatest gymnast of all time.

The aerial moves that Biles performs require being suspended 10 feet in the air, upside down, and twisting and tumbling at high rate. Biles said she was not able to complete her vault because she was having a bout of what is called the “twisties,” which has been described as forgetting how to twist your body in the air. This is extremely dangerous for Biles, who does such highly difficult acrobatic aerial routines. Biles made her decision not to compete to prevent herself from getting seriously injured.

After she announced her decision not to compete, she became the target of a barrage of ugly comments from white supremacist, misogynist fascists.

• Fascist Texas Deputy Attorney General Aaron Reitz called Biles “a national embarrassment.”
• Charlie Kirk, a fascist conservative talk show host who founded Turning Point USA, called Biles a “selfish sociopath.” Kirk went on: “You know who has the gold medal? Russia! I have to look at the 4’11” Olympians chewing on their gold medals smirking at the Americans. I’m not okay with that!” He followed that up by saying, “We are raising a generation of weak people like Simone Biles.” He then said that she was “immature” and a “shame to this country.”
• Piers Morgan, a fascist English broadcaster, said, “she let down [her] country.”
• On his Fox Sports radio show, fascist Ben Maller said that Biles was the “biggest quitter in sports” and that she was being “selfish.”
• Fascist talk radio hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton blasted both Biles and the praise she received for her decision from many.  Travis said, “The blue checks have already rallied to Simone Biles’ defense and said ‘Oh, it’s so brave.’” Sexton added: “Why is this brave? What’s brave about not being brave? Cause that’s what we’re talking about here. This is ‘Oh, you didn’t stand up to the bully?’ So to speak… No, I think that’s the not brave move.” They both said that Biles was the “antithesis of what the elite athlete credo would be.”
• Conservative writer Amber Athey wrote on spectatorworld.com, “Is it all that surprising that someone this overconfident—some might say arrogant—would struggle to mentally rebound from a poor performance?” Athey basically called Biles a quitter and that she “let her team down.”
• On the far-right website The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson wrote an article titled, “Sorry, Simone Biles, the Olympics isn’t about you, it’s about winning for America,” where he claimed that Biles should have given up her body to win for the good ’ole USA.

The Olympics has always been an occasion for displays of “USA, USA, USA” chauvinism, on the part of American right-wingers as well as liberals. But Simone Biles’ withdrawal from this Olympics has been seized on by the fascists to spew out and promote warlike “America Number One” imperialist and almost militaristic chauvinism—with a strong streak of another hallmark of the fascists, unrestrained racism and white supremacist poison, coupled with NAZI-like attacks on those they consider “weak” and “quitters.”

In contrast to the fascist, ultra-chauvinist barrage, an overwhelming number of athletes and celebrities came to Biles’ defense before and after she was so viciously attacked. Some of those include Aaron Rodgers, Super Bowl MVP quarterback for the Green Bay Packers; Michael Phelps, who won a total of 28 Olympic swimming medals; Karl-Anthony Towns of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves; Adam Rippon, retired U.S. figure skater; gymnast Kerri Strug, who broke her ankle in the vault during the 1996 Olympics; 1996 Olympic gymnast gold medalist Dominique Moceanu; Spanish NBA player Pau Gasol; Paul Pogba, French soccer player who plays for Manchester United; and singer Justin Bieber.

Biles responded to the outpouring of support by tweeting, “the outpouring [of] love & support I’ve received has made me realize I’m more than my accomplishments and gymnastics which I never truly believed before.”

Simone Biles has taken a courageous stand to protect herself in the face of all these fascists attacks on her. Her decision should be supported by anyone with a sense of humanity.

In the coming days, revcom.us will publish more regarding Biles’ decision to not compete. So stay tuned.

Simone Biles