Advertisement
Canada markets open in 2 hours 50 minutes
  • S&P/TSX

    22,107.08
    +194.56 (+0.89%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,248.49
    +44.91 (+0.86%)
     
  • DOW

    39,760.08
    +477.75 (+1.22%)
     
  • CAD/USD

    0.7355
    -0.0018 (-0.24%)
     
  • CRUDE OIL

    82.04
    +0.69 (+0.85%)
     
  • Bitcoin CAD

    95,728.52
    +348.31 (+0.37%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • GOLD FUTURES

    2,224.70
    +12.00 (+0.54%)
     
  • RUSSELL 2000

    2,114.35
    +44.19 (+2.13%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.1960
    0.0000 (0.00%)
     
  • NASDAQ futures

    18,500.00
    -3.75 (-0.02%)
     
  • VOLATILITY

    12.97
    +0.19 (+1.49%)
     
  • FTSE

    7,956.36
    +24.38 (+0.31%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • CAD/EUR

    0.6813
    +0.0008 (+0.12%)
     

Simone Biles’ future at Olympic Games in question

Yahoo Sports’ Liz Loza reports on the latest in the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

KRISTIN MYERS: Let's talk about the Tokyo Olympics. Now Russia won the gymnastics team final after Simon Biles withdrew from the event after completing the vault. The US team did go on to clinch silver. We've got Yahoo Sports reporter Liz Loza here with more details.

So Liz, there was a lot of confusion and there still is about Simone Biles, whether we are going to see her compete again. Now she said, quote, that she was not in the "right headspace." So is this a mental health issue? Do you think that could continue throughout the remainder of the Olympics? Or do you think that we might see Simone Biles essentially back to competing again in the coming days?

ADVERTISEMENT

LIZ LOZA: Well, I think it's a moment to moment situation. I spoke to Yahoo national columnist and reporter Dan Wetzel, who's on the ground in Tokyo and was in the Ariake Center when Simone did take the vault and exclude herself or exit from the competition. And he spoke to Simone after the competition. And she said that she would be receiving mental health-- a mental health session from a professional early Wednesday morning. That's a few hours away, obviously. They're 14 hours ahead of Pacific time here in the States.

So she was going to seek professional help via, you know, an Olympic professional that's been provided and see where she stood. I think it takes an incredible amount of courage to admit that it wasn't a physical issue, but in fact, a mental issue, and continue to draw light to an issue that has created a lot of conversation, both in the sports world and the national mainstream media here in our country.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I think you're absolutely right, Liz. I think it opens up the conversation to be a much larger one when somebody like Simone Biles comes out and has the courage to say, hey, listen-- I think in her Instagram post, she actually said sometimes I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders. So that we see even at-- even the most elite are impacted by this.

But for a moment, I just want to talk about how this might impact the ratings for these Olympic games, which we know are already pretty low. Simone Biles was a big draw and the star of these games. If she is, indeed, going to be out, what does that mean for the ratings? And do you think today means anything regarding Simone Biles, the brand?

LIZ LOZA: Well, I think Simone has an opportunity, whether she wanted it to look this way or not, to rebrand herself. Naomi Osaka, we're seeing do a similar thing. And by the way, Naomi an upset in the Olympics. She was competing for her home nation of Japan. She didn't move to the States until she was about three years old. So this is clearly a conversation in sports. I think in terms of the ratings, everybody loves a story. Everybody loves resilience.

What I think, weirdly, Simone was able to provide with these games was some unpredictable drama. I mean, you would think with COVID, there's plenty of unpredictability baked into the games. But yet this is another twist that people didn't necessarily see coming. Everyone loves drama. And also, I don't want-- I think it's very important to note that these other three teammates-- I want to say their names, Grace McCallum, Jordan Chiles, and Suni Lee-- were the embodiment of resilience and really competed their tails off with the absence of their hero and performed brilliantly to earn our country a silver.

Now we can continue to talk about the fact that the American women haven't won gold in this event since 2008, or we can talk about the fact that they embodied what a lot of people love to believe is the American spirit and, in fact, fought very hard without their star on the floor.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, we're definitely going to have to leave that there. And of course, we'll all be watching and continuing to root for Team USA. The gymnastics team is one of my favorites, at least the female gymnastic team. So I'll definitely continue to watch and root for them as well. Liz Loza from Yahoo Sports, thank you so much for bringing us some of those updates today.