Before watching it last night, I was on the side of "she needed to suck it up and compete". A big aspect of sports is facing adversity and overcoming the pressure of big moments.

But after watching, I realized just how dangerous gymnastics can be if you have the yips. A baseball pitcher off his game gives up a couple of homeruns. A gymnast falls on her head.

The one and only vault she did looked sketchy as hell. And she looked freaked out afterwards like something terrible almost happened.

For whatever reason, she was off her game this week. It could have been due to the pressure of being the face of the games. The expectation of perfection. Lack of support group in Tokyo. There are a bunch of things that could cause anyone to be off in this moment.

Whatever the reason, if you know you don't have it in this sport there is more at stake than just losing the competition.


I could be way off base, but that's how I saw it.