You are the literal definition of an armchair quarterback. Shame on you. 

Yeah she’s only a rape survivor, you dipshit. And it was her COACH that pulled her out because she lost her spatial awareness in the middle of her vault. And if you know anything about gymnastics, instead of the vomit spewing twat that you are, you’d know that losing your spatial awareness in the middle of your…

Why put “mental health” in quotations? If she is saying it’s a mental health issue we should believe her

Kerri Strug competed while injured at the urging of her coach.

That is not an example to follow. 

I’m sorry your job is so terrible you’re not allowed to take time off. You should maybe put your resume together and find a job that lets you take a break from being bitter all the time.

Or did she do the right thing so she didn’t torpedo the teams chances. We don’t know how she looked during the warmup, it very well could have been that she was as off during her practices earlier in the day as she was during the competition and after that vault (which was pretty bad) it was decided that she shouldn’t…

Those girls who were subbed in at the last minute need to be praised.  They were amazing!

“Go to the Olympics and do your very best! Except you - you we’re going to mark down if you do your best because you’re too good.” How, exactly, do you compete under those circumstances? The mental and emotional load of that on top of the usual Olympic pressures, the extreme weirdness of this particular Olympics…

Even a focused gymnast can end up crippled. Like, say, Elena Mukhina.

Atlanta was already her second Olympics. The injury removed what was definitely her best, and almost certainly last, opportunity to compete in the premier tournament of her sport.

Everyone of the athletes you listed as GOATs has lost or even cracked under the  pressure of one competition or another. To say one withdrawal, even at the Olympics (oh, and remember all her golds from last time?), cancels her GOAT status is absurd.

Gosh isn’t this what team events are for? To have alternates and be prepared? I bet the alternate was thrilled to participate!? Kudos to Ms. Biles for all she has achieved and will go on to achieve. 

Wearing “big girl panties” doesn’t keep you from getting paralyzed or killed if you’re mentally not up to doing super-elite gymnastics that literally NO ONE ELSE IN THE WORLD CAN DO BUT YOU. She didn’t retire at the Olympic Trials because she didn’t feel this way then. The Olympics are massive, worldwide attention.…

She would have competed in several more events, including the Olympic individual all around, were not for the injury. Because of the injury, she did not take part in those competitions. The injury ended her career, in that it forced her to stop competing earlier than she intended.

Yeah, when you realize how monstrous and abusive the Karolyis were, it turns the previously heartwarming image of Bela Karolyi cradling Strug in his arms when she couldn’t walk into something stomach-curdling.

the US would remain firmly in silver medal scoring position which has been treated like a loss in the sports world.

An often forgotten fact about the Kerri Strug thing is that she didn’t have to perform her second vault. As it turned out, they would have won anyway without her vault score, but the coaches wanted more of a cushion going into the last event. So they made her take a second vault and it ended her career.

Perfectionist culture is white supremacist culture. The idea that someone must make no mistakes / never prioritize their health in order to be the “greatest” is a toxic belief we must eliminate.

If she felt that she was not in the right headspace to continue competing then she has every right not to risk it . I’m just annoyed at all these people thinking that she should have further risked her mental and physical health for the “sake” of the team and the country. I’ve seen people bring up Kerri Strug as…

Exactly, takes a lot of guts and willpower to recognize when it’s time to stop before you make it worse. Respect.