No way to summarize all the thoughts and confusion about Simone Biles' withdrawal today, but I hope that she can find a way to compete in the remaining events. I know TokYoMama is counting on plenty from the #1 overall pick.
My first thoughts on seeing and processing what was happening was the "Yips." I'm a huge baseball fan and my mind immediately went to Chuck Knoblauch and Rick Ankiel - two all stars that completely lost the ability to do what they were great at overnight.
Chuck Knoblauch was a gold glove winning second baseman for the Yankees, and part of their dominating run of World Series titles in the late 90s. Suddenly he could not throw from second base to first base (not close), hit an old lady in the stands, then relegated to left field and his career was over a year later, unable to recover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnJFklbt0es
Rick Ankiel was a dominating pitcher on the rise for the Cardinals, and was pitching in the playoffs when the Yips hit - all of a sudden in the middle of an inning he could not throw the ball anywhere near the plate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDZX525CSvw
Wild pitch after wild pitch shut him down, and then after repeating on another try a few days later, Rick Ankiel was out of baseball. To his credit he put in an amazing amount of work and resurrected his career as a very good outfielder and very good hitter and made it back to the majors in one of the greatest comeback stories ever.
I hope Biles' story ends well, but it's extremely unfortunate to see this playing out on the biggest stage ever. Getting the yips in gymnastics could mean a disastrous injury instead of just riding the bench, so I hope this is not the end of her career.
Here's the scoreboard update for today:
Kara-oke remains scoreless, but there is still plenty to come. The biggest loss is probably the major upset of Naomi Osaka in Tennis - one of the favorites for gold after lighting the torch during the opening ceremonies. A major loss for Japan and for Kara-oke.
League of Pokemon maintains a consistent pace of finding a way to earn medals each day. The 100m backstroke final saw BOTH swimmers from ROC on League of Pokemon taking on the favorite Ryan Murphy from USA (and SamuRyan). Unfortunately, Murphy took the bronze with ROC taking the first two spots, and granting League of Pokemon 15 points.
And great Scott, Ra-men+women had a big day getting a Gold and a Bronze from the Chinese Taipei weightlifting team, and scored 15 points in swimming from Kaylee McKeown and Duncan Scott.
Surfing wrapped up and out of the 3 drafted athletes, only Carissa Moore of the US landed on the medal stand with a Gold medal, giving TokYoMama more than expected. Tough swimming for John John and Gabrielle.
Diving splashed in a gold for Hibachi Ninjas and Chen Yuxi.
The first team competition is complete with softball - the US went into the finals undefeated but facing the home team for Japan. After an extremely close battle the Japanese came out as winners (and stopping a US rally with one of the most unbelievable double plays I've ever seen). This means big points for TokYoMama, while only a silver for Wasabi Warriors. League of Pokemon grabs the Bronze with Canada defeating Mexico.
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