Current:Home > MarketsSimone Biles prioritizes safety over scores. Gymnastics officials should do same | Opinion-VaTradeCoin
Simone Biles prioritizes safety over scores. Gymnastics officials should do same | Opinion
lotradecoin versus other crypto exchanges View Date:2024-12-25 23:48:27
The Yurchenko double pike vault Simone Biles did Friday night was close to perfect. Her coach knew it. Fans knew it. The judges knew it, awarding Biles a 9.8, out of 10, for execution.
Yet, when her score posted, it included this: “ND: -0.500.”
A deduction? For what? Where? Her block off the table was textbook. Her body was at a 90-degree angle as she rotated. She took a small step to the side on her landing, but she was still within bounds. What could possibly have merited a half-point penalty?
As it turns out, it wasn’t anything Biles did, exactly. More like what she had. Which was coach Laurent Landi standing on the podium, ready to assist her if something went awry during the vault so difficult Biles is the only woman to ever do it in competition and few men even try.
“If he doesn’t touch her, I don’t see what’s the harm in standing there,” Alicia Sacramone Quinn, who was the world vault champion in 2010 and is now the strategic lead for the U.S. women’s program, said earlier this week.
Nor would any reasonable people. But reasonable doesn’t always apply to the rulemakers at the International Gymnastics Federation.
FIFTEEN SECONDS:How Biles separated herself from the competition with mastery of one skill
This is the same group that won’t give Biles full credit for some of her signature skills for fear it will encourage other, less-capable gymnasts of trying things they shouldn’t.
It’s all about the safety, you know.
Yet Biles, and other gymnasts, aren’t allowed to have coaches at the ready on an event in which they’re launching themselves 10 to 15 feet into the air and twisting or somersaulting before landing, often blindly. Making it all the more confounding is gymnasts are allowed to have coaches on the podium during uneven bars.
For, you know, safety.
“Why can’t it be similar on (vault)?” Sacramone Quinn said. “There’s a lot of rules I don’t necessarily agree with because they don’t make sense. But unfortunately, it just comes with the territory.”
Biles and Landi are refusing to go along with it, however, voluntarily taking the deduction so Landi can be on the podium.
Now, a half-point deduction isn’t going to cost Biles much when the Yurchenko double pike has a 6.4 difficulty score. But that’s not the point. The Yurchenko double pike has no bailout, and having Landi there to assist if something goes wrong can mean the difference between Biles taking a hard fall and suffering a serious injury.
They've decided her safety, and peace of mind, is more important than playing by the rules, and good for them.
Some rules are better left ignored.
“If I have to step out, I will step out,” Landi said Friday night. “But it will be on her terms.”
All vaults – most gymnastics skills, really – carry a significant risk of bodily harm. Land awkwardly or off-balance, and you can blow out a knee or an ankle or break a leg.
Or worse.
Gymnasts can be, and have been, concussed and even paralyzed because something has gone wrong. It doesn’t take much, either. A hand slips off the vault table. Fingertips brush a bar rather than catching it. A foot doesn’t stay on the beam.
That’s why Biles withdrew from all those events at the Tokyo Olympics when rising anxiety gave her a case of the twisties. She didn’t know where she was in the air. She couldn’t tell if she was right-side up or upside down, or whether she was going to land on her feet or her head.
She would be putting her health and safety at risk if she competed, and that simply wasn’t an option.
“We just need to keep looking to make sure we protect her as much as we can,” Landi said.
Biles has always been deliberate to the point of cautious with her gymnastics. Yes, she’s pushed the boundaries of the sport with her skills, but she doesn’t just chuck something and hopes it works. She trains and trains and trains something, and then trains it some more. Only when she’s satisfied she has the skill down does she consider it doing it in competition.
She prioritizes her safety over her scores. That deserves praise, not a penalty.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
veryGood! (77832)
Related
- Atmospheric river and potential bomb cyclone bring chaotic winter weather to East Coast
- DOJ report finds Minneapolis police use dangerous excessive force and discriminatory conduct
- Not Trusting FEMA’s Flood Maps, More Storm-Ravaged Cities Set Tougher Rules
- Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers leaker, dies at age 92 of pancreatic cancer, family says
- Woody Allen and Soon
- Dolce Vita's Sale Section Will Have Your Wardrobe Vacation-Ready on a Budget
- Global Warming Is Pushing Arctic Toward ‘Unprecedented State,’ Research Shows
- Deadly tornado rips through North Texas town, leaves utter devastation
- Albertsons gives up on Kroger merger and sues the grocery chain for failing to secure deal
- See Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos Celebrate Daughter Lola's College Graduation
Ranking
- Drew Barrymore Addresses Criticism Over Her Touchiness With Talk Show Guests
- Conor McGregor accused of violently sexually assaulting a woman in a bathroom at NBA Finals game
- Saving Ecosystems to Protect the Climate, and Vice Versa: a Global Deal for Nature
- Red and blue states look to Medicaid to improve the health of people leaving prison
- Most reports ordered by California’s Legislature this year are shown as missing
- Frozen cells reveal a clue for a vaccine to block the deadly TB bug
- BP Oil and Gas Leaks Under Control, but Alaskans Want Answers
- How the EPA assesses health risks after the Ohio train derailment
Recommendation
-
I loved to hate pop music, until Chappell Roan dragged me back
-
How a New White House Memo Could Undermine Science in U.S. Policy
-
Blac Chyna Debuts Edgy Half-Shaved Head Amid Personal Transformation Journey
-
Midwest’s Largest Solar Farm Dramatically Scaled Back in Illinois
-
Jim Leach, former US representative from Iowa, dies at 82
-
Vernon Loeb Joins InsideClimate News as Senior Editor of Investigations, Enterprise and Innovations
-
Why Lizzo Says She's Not Trying to Escape Fatness in Body Positivity Message
-
How to watch a rare 5-planet alignment this weekend