Carrington Tatum/Shutterstock, Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
July 28, 2021, 10:30 am
Conservative pundit and man who makes a living sitting in a chair and yelling into a microphone about stuff Charlie Kirk had the audacity to call Simone Biles, the most decorated athlete in one of the most physically demanding sports humans have invented, “weak.” This was over her decision to step out of the spotlight and let a teammate take over after a mental issue led to a mistake during an extremely difficult vault that could have resulted in severe injury.
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While decent people everywhere have praised Biles for taking care of herself while also putting her team before her own personal glory, some people who know nothing about gymnastics and probably couldn’t do a single pull-up for some reason think they have the authority to complain.
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Kirk first claimed that Biles “could have just competed and just kind of checked the boxes and they would have got the gold medal,” which is your first hint that he has no clue what he’s talking about. There is no casual box checking in a sport that requires you to throw yourself into the air, do a bunch of flips, and not break your neck every time you do so, and it’s also untrue that Biles could have walked the entire team to the win. The Russian gymnastics team has long been a formidable rival to the U.S. and often brings home the gold, as they did this year.
The armchair pundit also managed to call Biles a “selfish sociopath” for expressing that the sport had not been as fun for her lately and she felt like she was doing it for others rather than herself. Kirk is among those who think that people should risk severe injury, paralysis, and even death for the entertainment of people like him because they’re representing a country in a sporting event that most people didn’t even want to happen this year.
Also, considering the fact that the scores in team gymnastics competitions are averaged in the final score, Biles might have only hurt their overall performance if she had continued in a bad headspace and they might not have taken home the silver, which is still an extremely impressive feat. But more importantly, other Olympic gymnasts have said that she could have ended up with career-ending injuries from the vault that led her to the decision to drop out.
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Thankfully, Biles isn’t performing for the likes of Kirk, who will always find a reason to attack Black women who are far more impressive in every way imaginable than he is. Folks online are currently laughing at the idea that this glorified podcaster calling a woman who could run circles around him in any physical competition “weak” and whining that we’re raising our children to be like her.
“We are raising a generation of weak people like Simone Biles,” he claimed.
“If you’re not ready for the big time, we’ve got thousands of young female gymnasts that would love to take the place.”
Again, Kirk demonstrates he is clueless because a young female gymnast did take Biles’ place. A backup teammate was always going to be in the wings in case of injury or something else, and we’re sure she was thrilled to get the chance to perform at the Olympics even if this was overshadowed by nerds like Kirk being dorks.
The good news, as always, is the jokes.
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*First Published: July 28, 2021, 10:30 am
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