During the final of the women’s eight rowing at the Athens Olympics in 2004, the Australian team, running fifth with 500 metres to go, fell back into last place when one of their number, Sally Robbins, dropped her oar and fell back in exhaustion onto the teammate behind her.
The response from the Australian media, the Australian public, and the Australian rowing community – including her teammates – was almost unanimous: Sally Robbins was a weak quitter who had publicly disgraced herself.
The amount of vitriol poured onto the 23-year-old was astounding: few actual criminals have ever received such a furious, prolonged and merciless bout of public condemnation as that heaped on Robbins, who had, in the words of the Daily Telegraph, “committed the greatest crime there is in honest sport: she quit.”
At the time I felt that I was the only person in Australia feeling any sympathy at all for Sally Robbins. To my mind, nobody goes through the years of pain and sacrifice necessary to become an Olympic athlete without being fully committed to their goal, and having done so, nobody would give up mid-race unless they truly had no more to give.
The commentary around the incident, which mostly seemed to suggest that Robbins was perfectly capable of going on but was just lazy, seemed to me to be ridiculous: a lazy woman, a woman who didn’t really care about the team, wouldn’t be there in the first place.
I’d like to think that in 2021, when people are a little bit more aware of the terrible pressures placed on elite sportspeople, and the terrible toll – both physical and mental – they can take, if the “Lay Down Sally” incident happened today, the response would be a little more moderate.
Sonia Mills (R) and Sally Robbins rest (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The reaction to the Simone Biles affair has given me faith that this would indeed be the case – while also making me despair that, while a kinder gentler world has made some headway in the last 17 years, there’s still a sizeable portion of the sport-loving population that is stuck in a far crueller worldview.
Now, Simone Biles is not Sally Robbins. While Robbins was an unknown until her collapse in Athens, Biles is the most famous and most accomplished gymnast in the world by some distance.
She is one of that special handful of sportspeople who can lay claim to the title of GOAT without brooking a lot of argument. She is so good that the sport’s judges have struggled to find appropriate ways to even assess how good she is, and she has already achieved more, at the age of 24, than 99.99 per cent of humanity could hope to achieve if they lived their life twice over.
She’s done all this, incidentally, in a brutal sport that is notorious for physically and mentally destroying young girls, and after suffering years of vile abuse at the hands of her coach.
If nobody becomes an Olympic athlete without pain and sacrifice and single-minded commitment, it’s sure as hell true that Simone Biles has already demonstrated more guts, determination and relentless focus on her goals than most of us could imagine.
So why, after all that, would she drop out of competition in this year’s Olympics? Selfishness? Mental softness? Cowardice? She’s been accused of all of these, which just goes to show there’s no winning with some people: if Simone Biles can’t convince you that she’s not a wuss, nobody will.
I could never hope to know exactly what Biles was feeling that made her feel it would be a bad idea to continue in the competition. I certainly don’t know what it’s like to be an Olympic athlete. The only tiny, tenuous, probably-completely-spurious connection I can lay claim to is that I know what it’s like to have your brain turn on you, and I know what it’s like to look at what’s in front of you and feel simply overwhelmed with fear and panic.
I know what it’s like to simply not be able to carry on. And I know what it’s like to feel the hot shame of that. There have been plenty of times when I’ve made up a lie to get out of a commitment, claiming I’ve come down with something, or there’s an emergency at home, rather than admitting that I’m mentally shattered.
Simone Biles didn’t make up an excuse. She simply said her head was not right, and that competing when her head was not right would not be safe, and would not be fair to her team.
Now, we know Biles is courageous. She spends her life launching herself into the air, knowing that a slight miscalculation can result in broken bones or even permanent disability. Anyone who questions her bravery is talking out of the wrong orifice.
But then, professional sportspeople are pretty much all courageous. It takes massive courage for a rugby player to look up at 300-plus kilos of rock-hard muscle waiting to crush him, and charge at full pace straight into it. It takes guts galore for an AFL player, muscles screaming and lungs burning, to summon the will to run another hundred metres to get to the right position to save the team.
It takes courage to leap from a high-diving board, or to run without stopping for the length of a marathon even after you know you can’t win, or to step into a ring with someone determined to beat your brains in. Hell, it takes courage just to step out on a field, eyes of the world upon you, knowing you might fail in front of them all.
But make no mistake, there are few things more courageous than being the most famous exponent of your sport in the world, carrying the expectations of millions on your shoulders, standing under the scorching glare of the global spotlight in the very spot that you’ve pushed your body past all reasonable limits for years to get to…and then saying “no.”
Simone Biles competes (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
If you think there’s anything gutless about what Simone Biles has done, then you just haven’t thought it through. Because Biles has performed one of the most terrifying feats a sportsperson can perform: she’s refused to conform to expectations. And that’s what’s infuriated so many: the fact that she didn’t follow the script.
But the script is nonsense, and it always has been. The script says that once you decide to pursue a career in sport, the sport owns you. The script says you must do what you are told no matter what. The script says that you “owe” something to millions of people you’ve never met and who’ve never done anything for you. The script says that while most people have the right to live their life the way they want to, if you’re good at games you forfeit that right.
And most of all, the script says that anyone who decides they don’t want to follow the script – even if they’ve been following it for years and suffered unimaginable pain because of it – is the villain.
Like I said, it’s been promising how many people have come out in support of Simone Biles, even as other voices deride her. Hopefully, some day we’ll reach a point where those voices are so outnumbered we don’t even hear them, and nobody feels they have to destroy themselves for the sake of someone else’s expectations.
Hopefully some day we’ll reach a point where Sally Robbins gets her apology too.
nics
Roar Rookie
I see that Djokovic has, after losing his men's singles bronze play-off match, withdrawn from his mixed doubles bronze play-off match due to an unspecified shoulder injury, thus forfeiting the game for him and his partner. Should we call him a wuss or a choker? I suspect many posters here will not criticise the great man because after all a shoulder injury is not a 'mental' issue and therefore a 'reasonable excuse' for pulling out. Yet I'm torn. I've seen the man face off multiple match points to win Grand Slams, just as I've seen Biles win multiple gold medals in the circumstances Ben has outlined in this article. So confused right now - not.
nics
Roar Rookie
That Djokovic must be a real wuss too. He just quit on his mixed doubles partner handing the Aussies a bronze medal due to a "shoulder" injury.
GC Red
Roar Rookie
Yeah, ok. I’m watching other hero’s now.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
If she had been able to nail the routine, it would have meant that the mental health problems weren’t affecting her performance, so of course she would have continued. What’s your point?
jameswm
Roar Guru
They all had the same stroke rate
Ad-O
Guest
I agree. If we're all of a sudden meant to take mental health more seriously then lets take it more seriously. Where are the coaches, the psychiatrists, the diagnosis and the training and recovery programs. You cant just quit and cite mental health as an excuse. Its a slap in the face to people who overcome real mental health illnesses every day.
Ad-O
Guest
That's exactly the point. What I witnessed was the greatest choke job in the history of sport. Especially from an athlete at her level. Doesn't matter the excuse. You cant tell me if she nailed that first vault she would still quit.
Ad-O
Guest
You're right. I will never be convinced she's not a wuss. Which is her right, its human. Just don't tell me we should be celebrating it.
nics
Roar Rookie
Biles has said she had a mental issue. Other gymnasts have said that the mental issue she was facing (the twisties) is a real thing and quite debilitating. I’m not a gymnast and never will be but the sensation of losing spatial awareness while doing a complicated flip metres off the ground would be an issue, to say the least. So really, some posters might be holding on to their hypothesis in the face of some evidence to the contrary, unless Biles and all those gymnasts are wrong. If it looks like a fish and smells like a fish… I might also add that injuries accumulate till a tipping point. Eg victims of domestic violence may put up with it for years before snapping – who are we to say “why did he/she snap that day when it had gone on for years?”. In a sporting context, when someone has a stress fracture, I’m not sure it’s fair to say why it happened that day when they’ve been training for years.
nics
Roar Rookie
Are you saying that you would prefer athletes who can't perform at their best due to injury in a team sport which allows subs should play on and stuff everyone's chances rather than letting a teammate take their place? That seems more selfish than the latter. Either that or some people feel mental injuries aren't 'real' or 'debilitating', which says a lot. Given she's withdrawn from the individual event afterwards (and gave her spot to someone else there), the inference can probably be drawn that she has a genuine mental issue. However I forget most Roar posters are trained mental health workers, just ask them!
Aussieinexile
Roar Rookie
Two completely different scenarios and situations: Parochialism still seems to ran rampant in Australian ports don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. Seriously? People still think she quit? A study was done never published as far as I know but she was the hardest worker, her stroke rate was incredible from what I read. Sally Robbins didn’t choke or gave up. She carry the team. She was let down by her team mates. and no one was willing to recognise that her team mates were not up to it. The coaches failed in managing the rowers expectations and how to win the race. that was their job. In regards to Simone Biles, this is different cannot be compared, Apples and Oranges She has already stated said she failed a jump in training during that weeks. where were the alarm bells from the coaches or the Sports psychologist? they should have picked up prior to the The twisties or Yipps is still not understood and is still in it's infancy in terms of studies and understanding and just like Head injuries or concussions were medical people have taken over, When is Twisties the coaches should have stepped in and not allow her to compete. it shouldn't have been left to her to decide in such a public forum but the psychologists or Gym coach should have done their job. In both cases mentioned in the article. both set of athletes have been failed by a bad coaching up management.
Aussieinexile
Roar Rookie
Sally Robbins didn’t choke or gave up. She carry the team. She was let down by her team mates. her stroke rate was incredible and no one was willing to recognise that her team mates were not up to it. The coaches failed in managing the rowers expectations and the stroke rate.
GC Red
Roar Rookie
Or that she stuffed it and had to save face…. And you can’t question the sacred mental illness cow. Which suddenly turned up on that day at that moment, but not when she had to deal with a broken toe or a kidney stone. She’s a legend, always will be. But let’s stop feeding the media beast and pretend that she didn’t just bottle it. If it looks like a fish and smells like a fish….
matth
Roar Guru
No I gave no opinion. You said she simply choked snd I suggested you aren’t in a position to be so sure it’s not something more.
Big Mig
Roar Rookie
I guess you're the one with the amateur unqualified diagnosis from 1000km away?
matth
Roar Guru
The point I’m making is that maybe, given the zero evidence of ‘choking’ in the past, you might consider the possibility that there is more to this than your amateur unqualified diagnosis from 1000km away?
Maxis Pastit
Roar Rookie
I often wonder when situations like this arise what happens first. Does a poor physical effort cause a mental issue or does a mental issue cause a poor physical effort. Biles was expected to be perfect but her physical effort was not. Did this accentuate her mental issues. If she had been perfect would she have been able to deal with any mental issues or would they have still arisen. Maybe she was her own worst enemy. Expectations can be a cruel master.
Big Mig
Roar Rookie
Champions can choke, favourites can choke, it's part of being in an ultra competitive environment, the pressure gets to you, you're confusing her past achievements with the present. While she may not have cracked previously that's why she won gold, she stuffed it this time. Like in soccer sometimes the best penalty takers in the world miss penalties? It doesn't mean they are bad, or hopeless or no good at taking penalties anymore, but they have let their team down, no excuses and like it or not they get no medals for courage and bravery.
matth
Roar Guru
It’s been a while so my memory might be failing, but I thought part of the pushback with Robbins was that she had done it before, the team didn’t want her and officialdom decided to put her in regardless.
matth
Roar Guru
Why would she ‘choke’ now when she has beaten all comers, including at previous Olympics, for years, while facing challenges we can’t even imagine. I think you may be oversimplifying .