I can’t tell you how much it warms my heart to see these young women put their mental health first. Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history. I don’t typically follow the Olympics, but when I heard she withdrew, I wanted to try to understand the back story. What I learned is fascinating but not surprising.
In May of this year, she attempted a vault so dangerous that the gymnastic “powers that be” limited the scoring for it. It’s called Yurchenko double pike and it’s pretty bad ass. So bad ass that not one other woman has attempted it in competition. When she executed the crowd went wild but the judges, not so much. To which Biles responded:
“I feel like now we just have to get what we get because there’s no point in putting up a fight because they’re not going to reward it,” she said of judges and, ultimately, the International Gymnastics Federation, which has the final word on starting values for new vaults done in competition. “So we just have to take it and be quiet.”
United States women’s national team coordinator Tom Forster agreed with Biles that the scoring was not high enough given the difficulty and also (and this is the real gag): “It doesn’t seem to be consistent with what they’ve done with other vault values,” he said, “and I don’t know why they do that.”
I think too many times when women (particularly minority women) find a competitive advantage it is discounted and sometimes they are even punished for it. I’m no Simone Biles or Naomi Osaka, but I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard women in my industry express frustration that when an expectation is exceeded, the result is discounted for x reason.
Things I’ve heard over the years from women in my profession:
✅ If she affects the loss ratio positively, it’s because she works on x type of account, without the mention that her year over year results are better than average.
✅ If she achieves higher rates, it’s because she has x territory; not that she’s a good negotiator and without the mention that x territory is less than half of her book and the metric is higher than her peers working in said territory.
✅ And my personal experience and all time favorite, being asked to retake a Caliper test to “validate” my score. Spoiler Alert 🚨: it was really high.
I have witnessed and experienced all types of discounts on my journey and I for one am grateful to the young women -- including but not limited to -- Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka for their courage, to put their mental health first in the face of pressure and aggression, be it micro or macro.
When asked why she would continue her signature move, in spite of not being properly rewarded, she simply responded “Because I can!” To quote the New York Times article for which my commentary is based, “Biles is so good that she might run away with any competition she enters simply by doing a handful of moves that her rivals cannot, or dare not, attempt.”
To that I say young women, do not let your competitive advantage be diminished because they can’t keep up. Keep soaring, BECAUSE YOU CAN! …and no additional validation is required.
Update: Since writing this there are numerous reports that Simone has the “twisties”. The “twisties” happen to gymnasts when they are in the middle of their routine or even in the middle of a skill. Something causes them to lose awareness of where they are in the skill, and in their relation to the ground.
How does one of the most decorated olympians lose their confidence? I would argue the “discount” played a part.
In the words of a great, anonymous internet philosopher, “Oh. I thought somebody who can’t even do a cartwheel said something.”
(Headline links to the source article.)