How Africa News
Controversial TV host and pundit, Piers Morgan has questioned US gymnast Simone Biles’ sudden departure from the Olympics team competition citing mental health issues after she performed poorly in the opening round of the games.
Biles, 24, said on Tuesday July 27, that she wasn’t in the right frame of mind entering the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and found herself “fighting all of those demons” once the action got underway. She removed herself from Tuesday’s events and watched as her teammates won the silver medal in the team competition.
Also, Tennis star, Naomi Osaka who was defeated Tuesday, cited the preservation of her own mental health for withdrawing from the French Open in April and skipping Wimbledon in June.
Piers Morgan has now reacted to Bile’s reasons for withdrawing, calling it ”a joke”
“Are ‘mental health issues’ now the go-to excuse for any poor performance in
elite sport? What a joke,” Morgan tweeted.
“Just admit you did badly, made mistakes, and will strive to do better next time. Kids need strong role models not this nonsense.”
However, a few people criticized Morgan’s tweets, stating that such statement pushes people with mental health problems to remain silent.
“When someone takes their own life, the amount of times you hear ‘if only they’d reached out,’ but when someone speaks out about their mental health you get tweets like this,” tweeted one person sympathetic to Biles.
Jamaican gymnast, Danucia Francis praised Biles’ decision as majestic and called her the Greatest of All Time.
“Don’t know about you but I think Simone Biles just empowered everyone to put their mental well-being above everything else,” she tweeted.
“WHAT A QUEEN. GOAT in more ways than one.”
