She is a disgusting coward.
My understanding of getting this disorientation is comparing it to an internal muscle strain, concussion, or detached retina but in the brain.
The part of the mind/body connection that can tell "up from down" so a gymnast can flip, spin and land safely gets somehow distorted. Like a sprained muscle, some athletes can go back into the game but others have to go on the injured list until the condition recovers.
This is internal, and hard to check, as physical sprains that are visible to doctors. Biles would have to try simpler exercises to test if that connection is back to normal.
The factor that deals with competition: since Biles was using higher technical maneuvers, the way the events are judged, the whole team gets docked more if those fail. This is to discourage athletes from trying dangerous stunts if there is greater chance of failing than succeeding. Only the top experts like Biles who can pull these off would try to put them into a routine. With that level of expertise, she also knows when she is not up to the speed and level it takes to guarantee safe execution. Like an experienced NASCAR driver who knows what high speeds are supposed to feel like, and know when they are veering out of control or when they can recover.
Both reasons, the safety issue facing a gymnast who can tell the disorientation condition has not gone away, and the fact that doing an inferior routine would mean bigger deductions and harm the team, as part of the scoring and competitive strategy, Biles really had no choice but to protect both her safety and the integrity of the team.
Where she showed her true character and morale was consulting with and cheering her teammates on to make sure they were prepared and focused. And she was the first to congratulate the Russian team, as the gymnasts really have great respect for each other since they all make great sacrifices and take great risks to promote their sport.
I wish the initial reports did not confuse people so much over "mental health issues" that don't describe or make sense of the real situation, but made it sound like a copout. Perhaps she didn't want to scare or intimidate/trigger the other gymnasts to start losing their focus so she called it something else?
After the team competition, it later came out the real dangers of losing orientation and causing paralyzing or fatal injuries. Perhaps after consulting on this, the decisions were also made to be as diplomatic as possible and not to scare anyone off the focus on the Olympics as positively as possible.
Biles managed to help keep the positive morale going which makes it better and safer for the other competitors.
At least for that!
As for being a copout
Gabe Lackmann
Looking at Biles record of being the most decorated, and mastering moves she was the first and only one to achieve in competitions, I thought from the very start this had to be serious.
Any shakeable issue of mere doubts or stress, would not stop someone who has performed these stunts consistently in practice and events.
If she could have come back in time to compete, without hurting herself and her teammates, of course she would.
Maybe it was just the time for other gymnasts who worked equally hard, to get in the spotlight and share the victory and experiences they otherwise would not have known.
