You have to be a credulous cretin to believe that Osaka suffers from a mental illness. She never claimed that, by the way. "Mental health" is a generic catch phrase.

I resent folks conflating genuine mental health problems with the struggles of a very rich person to deal with the pressures of elite competition. It's horribly entitled for her to compare her situation with what many people go through. It's not at all similar to have to go to work while suffering depression and to pull out of the French Open.

Huh gb won bronze. I thought we were competing for 7th

Commentators did a shite job of that

No. No nucleardonkey. You are the "insert catchy description to make me look cool on the internet" for thinking you have any idea whatsover on Osaka's mental condition and health situation. And the "she's rich she can't suffer from mental illness" is, well, rich.

edit: damn softball just went down. Would've been some long odds to bet that USA#1's women wouldn't land a gold coming into today in softball and artistic gymnastics. Damn left some gold on the table there ladies.

Oh, and sweet run by GBR for that bronze BOIDS.

Everybody should be able to take a break when they are mentally worn out. That's not the same as dealing with mental health issues, and conflating the two is disrespectful to those who really suffer mental health problems. It's not empowering to have your problems trivialized by some celebrity looking for sympathy.

I guess you have extensive experience with mental health issues and some medical knowledge about the issues? Maybe in your family there is someone with a debilitating anxiety? Maybe your mother suffered from depression and drank herself to death? Maybe your uncle told you her problems weren't real and yours weren't either? Maybe you never met your schizophrenic aunt because the family cut her off?

Don't make so many assumptions about where people are coming from.

You're damn right I have no idea about Osaka's real condition. I certainly don't believe what her PR team has put out there or her vague, nonspecific claims in a press conference. I'm skeptical. Most of us with mental health issues aren't holding press conferences to share our problems and aren't lighting Olympic torches two months after **** got real.

Some folks get shook by pressure, and conflating that sort of psychological hiccup with living with mental health problems is unjust to all those that do. It's a big deal for athletes when it happens, particularly on the world stage, in a major competition, but it's not the same as what afflicts Ron Artest or Lamar Odom, to mention two well known sporting examples.

Likely is mental and then someone from NBC and all her sponsors freaked out and so now they are spinning it as a "medical issue", so they can claim that they never said it was a physical injury later.

I think we can all agree these games don't really count. USA#1 in medals, but how the **** does Japan have the most golds?

Host country usually does better than usual. Happens almost every olympics.

Because they've won every men's Judo gold and one Women's so far

Rigged.

Leave her alone. The GOAT wasn't "in the right headspace" to compete.

This. Combo of riggage/WIM from being host/familiarity with facilities and courses etc.

I’m usually a pretty big snowflake supporter, but “quitting is not just ok, it’s a heroic act symbolic of a sea change in society” takes are grinding my gears.

When we gonna get the retrospective on how we should have been calling Scottie a hero instead of a quitter for standing up to racist Phil?

I guess Biles has confirmed that it was not a physical issue.

I don't know what to think about this. Gymnastics is potentially dangerous, and only Simone Biles knows whether she would have put herself at a highly elevated risk of serious injury if she had gone out there.

But there is a pretty obvious double standard at play here. If Kevin Durant decided not to play the gold medal match for Team USA and his stated explanation was that he wasn't mentally right, I'm quite positive that the talking heads of the world, as well as posters in this forum, would put him on blast.

I don't know whether that double standard is mainly the result of traditional views about male athletes (real men play through pain, whether physical or mental) or negative views about female athletes (can't be expected to be as mentally tough as men).

Probably both.

Just so people know this is what NBC reported this morning (likely before NBC execs knew what was going on)

"She told NBC it was not a physical issue, saying quote: 'I feel like it's more mental and we're just dealing with a couple of things internally.'"

What probably happened is that once the people in NY woke up they jumped on it and tried to change the reporting to make it look better and the reporting changed to "medical issue". Lots of companies have a lot of money riding on her, including a post-Olympics tour and they can see the money going bye-bye. (https://www.goldoveramericatour.com/goat/ Sponsered by a division of the $16 billion GAP group of companies)

If she's sticking with her original quote then good for her, she's at least admitting what it really is. There are still going to be a lot of pissed off people though if she competes in the individual and does well.

And yes, ESPN is trash. Stopped watching their **** years ago.

I like the way you think. For some reason I have a strong feeling she will show up in the individual events.

I wonder if Biles uses this crutch if Osaki hadn't used it a month ago. Just plants that excuse in the brain ready to use when any adversity is encountered.

Skateboarding.

Host nation gets the bonus of having a relaxed qualification process.
They basically get to have a full team in every event. So many top athletes from other nations miss out through missing qualification criteria due to one off mess ups, but the hosts are allowed to fill the spots anyway.

everyone is a bit nuts. Post-truth existence. lol let it be, leave it alone.

But didn't she move down in stakes (in a way)? She knew she couldn't perform at a high level and removed herself so that her team had a better chance of winning. If she chooses to do the individual events, then any poor performance will only harm herself.

My first thought that it would be messed up if she competed individually, but now I'm not so sure.

Yup ... it opens the floodgates for both the overly stressed to opt out and for drama queens to pull a stunt.

^^ beautiful comment gives me hope in mankind like Doc Holliday said ^^

Yeah it's an odd take that it's heroic to quit on a team event because you're not feeling 100% confident that day.

I don't really care, it's sports not real life. But it's an odd take.

I could only imagine what people would say if Lebron sat out a finals game bc the pressure was too much.

From the BBC (no guarantee of accuracy of the quote)

"You've made us so proud," said Sarah Hirshland, chief executive of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

"We applaud your decision to prioritise your mental wellness over all else and offer you the full support and resources of our Team USA community as you navigate the journey ahead."

We applaud your decision to prioritise your mental wellness over all else.

Not, "we applaud your decision to optimize the team's chances of winning..."

Personally I'm all for it. I prefer it when the USA loses.