There is something so many of us are forgetting about Simone Biles and the risks that come with participating in gymnastics.
The sport is dangerous. As in, if something goes wrong, you could be injured badly or even paralyzed.
I know I forgot it when I wrote about Biles’ decision not to participate in the rest of the women’s gymnastics team all-around final. There is SO much pressure on her shoulders coming from all directions, from fan expectations to a year in a pandemic to being a Black female athlete.
What we may not have been factoring in here is the danger of gymnastics. When Biles or anyone else is struggling mentally? It can be deadly.
There’s something that Biles cited that she was going through in practice: she called it “the twisties.”
Simone Biles, relating to gymnasts worldwide here: "They saw it a little bit in practice. Having a little bit of the twisties."
The twisties. The absolute worst.
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) July 27, 2021
What does that mean? Here’s a thread:
When you're flipping or twisting (or both!) it is very disorienting to the human brain. When training new flips and twists, you need external cues to learn how it feels to complete the trick correctly. (In diving, a coach yells "OUT" and you kick your body straight and pray).
— Catherine Burns (@WittyNameChoice) July 28, 2021
Once you've practiced a trick enough, you develop the neural pathways that create kinesthesia which leads to muscle memory. Your brain remembers how your body feels doing the trick and you gain air awareness.
— Catherine Burns (@WittyNameChoice) July 28, 2021
Think about something that took you a while to learn and required a lot of concentration at the time to get it right, but now is second nature. Driving a car is a good example (especially stick!)
— Catherine Burns (@WittyNameChoice) July 28, 2021
Suddenly, in the middle of driving on the freeway, right as you need to complete a tricky merge, you have totally lost your muscle memory of how to drive a car. You have to focus on making you foot press the pedal at the right angle, turn the steering wheel just so, shift gears..
— Catherine Burns (@WittyNameChoice) July 28, 2021
It's terrifying. You're moving way too fast, you're totally lost, you're trying to THINK but you know you don't usually have to think to do these maneuvers, you just feel them and do them.
— Catherine Burns (@WittyNameChoice) July 28, 2021
The twisties are like this, and often happen under pressure. You're working so hard to get it right that you stop trusting your muscle memory. You're getting lost in the air, second guessing your instincts, overthinking every movement.
— Catherine Burns (@WittyNameChoice) July 28, 2021
The Washington Post dove into the twisties and described it this way:
The cute-sounding term, well-known in the gymnastics community, describes a frightening predicament. When gymnasts have the “twisties,” they lose control of their bodies as they spin through the air. Sometimes they twist when they hadn’t planned to. Other times they stop midway through, as Biles did. And after experiencing the twisties once, it’s very difficult to forget. Instinct gets replaced by thought. Thought quickly leads to worry. Worry is difficult to escape.
So this isn’t like any other sport. If you’re suffering from the twisties, you’re putting yourself in extreme danger.
One more thread — this one’s from Deanna Hong, a producer for Peacock’s Golden:
One former US elite gymnast I talked to said that if it was someone other than Simone Biles who had made that same error, they would have certainly blown a knee, at minimum. Another said if it had happened to her instead of Simone, “I probably would have ended up paralyzed.”
— Deanna Hong (@DeannaHong) July 28, 2021
Most non-gymnastics fans do not understand the seriousness of what happened because she landed on her feet. Every elite gymnast I’ve talked to has said that Simone Biles’s vault was TERRIFYING and it’s a miracle she put that vault to her feet & avoided seriously injuring herself.
— Deanna Hong (@DeannaHong) July 28, 2021
It’s not that she made a silly mistake and landed poorly – her mind & body betrayed her in the air while doing one of the hardest vaults in the world, and it’s only due to her extreme athleticism that she was able to land safely.
— Deanna Hong (@DeannaHong) July 28, 2021
Imagine being driven into the ground directly onto your head/neck/back from 10 feet in the air, with the force of 15x your body weight. THOSE are the stakes here. People need to understand that before they run their mouths.
— Deanna Hong (@DeannaHong) July 28, 2021
Simone is an elite athlete and the greatest of all time – she would not take pulling out of two Olympic finals lightly. This is NOT comparable to other sports. Proud of her selfless decision and wishing her the time and space she needs to rest and recover ❤️
— Deanna Hong (@DeannaHong) July 28, 2021
This was serious and could have been a lot worse. And it’s further proof why Biles stepping away was the absolute right move.
