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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Oh, I thought this was going to be something amazing like Jordan Chiles had stepped aside to let the younger generation in. I find it so incredibly selfish of people like Simone Biles just to keep going and shut amazing young athletes like Hezley, Tiana, Jocelyn, and others from shining.[/quote]

I watched Hezley's bars today and was really impressed. I think the thinking is twofold:

1. With Simone, she full on said she stayed in the game to bring awareness and change re: the abuse that was happening. 
2. Some people have nothing else going on in their lives. Madison Kocian went to UCLA after the Olympics and has become a physician's assistant or something. But someone like Gabrielle Douglas didn't go to college and hasn't transitioned to doing something else - some mild social media influencer work, but what else? She's floated around and finally tried to make another go of gymnastics at 27. What else does she have? She didn't transition to public/motivational speaking (Shawn Johnson East), to opening her own gym (Dominique Dawes/Moceanu, Chellsie M.,  Kim Z, etc.), to advocacy work (Aly Raisman), to running the National team (Chellsie M and Alicia S.), to sportscaster (Laurie Hernandez, Samantha P.), to running her own gymnastics competitions and/or clinics (Samatha P., Nastia Luikin). So what else is there? Simone promoted an unaccredited college after her first Olympics but never completed any degree. She does some influencer work. Eventually her body WILl give out. Olympic gold medals don't "pay" that much. It doesn't even cover the cost of coaching.

Someone like Jade Carey doing her second Olympics? I mean, whatever - she had to deal with the weird Covid Olympics so maybe she just wants a normal one. I feel bad for people like Simone B. and Gabrielle Douglas who don't seem to be pivoting to another career - their bodies are going to fall apart in their 40's - hip or knee replacements, osteoporosis, etc. Simone has already said she has horrible back pain all the time. [/quote]

Gabrielle Douglas received a lot of heat for not smiling enough--no one likes reserved, talented black women[/quote]

I remember that - and for having messy hair, which I notice Simone has sometimes too. Messy hair, don't care - show me how well you flip. [/quote]

I think Simone and Suni intentionally keep their "gym rat" hair for competition specifically as an fu to critics who want these women to be perfectly done up while the compete in an incredibly difficult sport. Notice that they will have a full face of makeup and Simone wears huge false eyelashes but they still wear their hair in messy buns with no hairspray or pins to keep flyaways in check. It's a purposeful choice and I do think it dates back to Gabby getting a ton of criticism for her hair and that criticism being both sexist and racist because part of the issue was with Gabby's hair texture and treatment.

In any case these are Olympic athletes doing stuff I could never do in a million years and I don't care how they wear their hair. They aren't beauty queens.[/quote]

There's actually a surprising amount of hairspray, pins, and elastic bands keeping that "gym rat" hair in place. Simone and Suni also had tight braids holding their hair in place. Sloppy floppy half buns would fall out in 2 seconds. Their hair is carefully constructed to give the illusion of being messy, while actually being very carefully sculpted into place.[/quote]

You are right -- the braid it back to keep it out of their faces and those buns are not actually messy and unsecured -- you never see them redoing them mid-competition. I also think the main choice they are making is to not shellack the crap out of their hair with gel and hairspray which might reduce the flyaways and frizz by the end of four rotations. There definitely ARE ways to do this even when you are doing very athletic flipping and twisting and sweating (I'm a dance mom) but it kind of sucks especially if you have naturally textured hair (even if you straighten it -- once you sweat the moisture will make your hair want to frizz and poof so you are fighting nature). You basically have to glue it to your head. I think they just choose not to do this. They still put effort into it and do all the braiding and pin it to keep it out of their faces and up but they don't spray and gel the crap out of it to make it look smooth because they don't want to. Which I think is fine. They are not hair models.[/quote]

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