For Simone Biles, too, the head is part of the body

The images that, for a week, have arrived from different cities in France, with Paris as the dramatic epicenter, only allow us to imagine chaos and more chaos. Too many nights of street conflict and the dangerous emergence of neo-fascist groups determined to neutralize the protests, and all kinds of destruction, carried out by the members of the so-called Miserables and Black Block do not help us to dream of a scenario of too much harmony. At least in the immediate future.

Maybe it’s not harmony, but it’s a certain control of public space that a host city wants and something that the Olympic Games themselves need.

One year after Paris 2024, with the destruction of a sports venue in the capital and excesses in Marseille, the base of the sailing events, it seems even unwise to hope that the first post-pandemic games open to the public will be held in that same land. It would not be strange if, soon, a communication would appear in this regard from the organizing committee or from the IOC itself. Nor would it be strange if that statement aims to lower the level of concern and I spoke of the logical guarantees that the French capital assures for a meeting of such magnitude. By the way, if the problems run their course, before the IOC, World Rugby should be alerted, whose World Championship will begin on September 8, none the less than with the match between France and New Zealand. At the Stade de France. In St.Denis. Paris.

In any case, for everything to flow then would be a sign of peace of mind for the whole of Olympism.

An Olympism that, as if to balance the scales, must celebrate the announcement made last week by Simone Biles about her return to competition with the unconcealable intention of participating in Paris.

The most successful gymnast of all time would break with that Olympic stigma in such a way that, just as the Rio games were the last games with Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, the Tokyo games were the last with Biles, leaving us somehow orphaned by legends.

Regardless of whether she manages to realize her Parisian dream, the announcement of the North American must take us back to the dramatic and controversial days in Tokyo.

Dramatic, because I can’t find another word to describe that moment when a phenomenon of such magnitude lost control of her own body and discovered that her body was unable to respond to the command of her intellect.

Controversial because, as soon as Biles’ retirement became known -she only reappeared to win the Bronze Medal in beam-, several news outlets, especially from her country, came to accuse her of having abandoned her teammates.

Double nonsense, because not only do you have to be bold and ungrateful to doubt the gymnast’s commitment to her teammates and to her own story of fierce competition, but although her absence was decisive for the Russian team to leave the North American team in second place in the team competition, two of her teammates, Sunisa Lee and Jade Carey, won two of the five gold singles put at stake. Underestimation of the capacity of gymnasts. Insult to the sports nobility of Biles.

But, in addition, in the following days, journalistic speculation called into question whether the athlete’s problem had been physical or mental. Suddenly, we begin to discover that even sports geniuses can happen to them that, for a moment or forever, they will stop being able to do what they did better than anyone else for much of their lives.

Some examples. Before being the first to win all four Grand Slams since the days of Rod Laser, André Agassi was a notable loser of grand finals. To do this, he changed his mind much more than his game. Do you remember the last match point Roger Federer had in a Wimbledon final? It was against Novak Djokovic. And it was a double fault.

Do you remember Usain Bolt’s farewell from athletics? He was on the 4x100 track of the World Athletics Championships in London. Owner of the last relay, he ended up torn on the ground shortly after receiving the testimony with his team relegated to third place. I was in the stadium and nothing left my mind that the injury caused by the Jamaican phenomenon may have had as much to do with his muscles as with the desperation to have to recover unplanned terrain precisely in his last race.

Indeed, even if it seems unlikely to us, even the athletes we most admire can suffer a moment of trauma.

Jimmy Connors, one of the most winning tennis players in history, once said that all high-performance players are under pressure. The difference is that some overcome it sooner and better than others.

And something else. Maybe it’s time to stop differentiating physical problems from mental problems, as if our head were not part of our body.

By doing so, we would help to eliminate what, even today, is still a taboo in many of our societies, we would free athletes from the need to hide the conflict as if they were demon-possessed people, and we, journalists, would be a little wiser. Or less ignorant.