Simone Biles Sent Us a Wake-Up Call

Photo by LOGAN WEAVER on Unsplash

Yesterday I was on the phone with my best friend, Carmen when she asked if I’d been following the news about Simone Biles. I said I had, sort of. I knew that the U.S. gymnastics virtuoso had just withdrawn from the Olympic finals, citing her mental health. And I knew that the public response was largely supportive, save for some minor and predictable backlash from a handful of inconsequential clowns.

“You should write about it,” Carmen told me. “It’s a warning against the toxic American obsession with achievement.” Carmen and I spend a lot of time smack-talking said obsession, and I write a lot about work. But I felt like I’d already written this piece—incidentally, about the tennis player Naomi Osaka’s similar mental-health opt-out of the French Open in June.

Then Carmen paraphrased a tweet made by Biles the night before. She said that the support Biles received after stepping back from the Games had been better for her self-esteem than gymnastic prowess and winning Olympic gold.

I found myself unexpectedly moved. It’s one thing for a public figure to declare that her…