4.208/365: a Texan embarrassment

Deputy Texas AG for Legal Strategy @aaron_reitz has deleted this tweet calling Simone Biles “a national embarrassment.”

We love to tear down our beloved stars, politicians, athletes, and heroes, don’t we? Aaron Reitz is a disgrace to his office, state, and country. Simone Biles is a Texan. Maybe she didn’t see that tweet and won’t hear of it, but there are so many like that. Mostly men. Biles competed at Nationals with broken toes in each foot and in the World competition with a kidney stone while the likes of Reitz and Piers Morgan probably tweeted from their toilets.

As I turned my attention to Chris Buskirk’s tweet, the one Reitz was retweeting, I had to respond because of how wrong and misguided it was. I tweeted to Buskirk: You are living in a fantasy land if you think the “ character” of physically, mentally, and sexually abusive coaches and doctors enhanced anything Strug accomplished. She was forced to do the vault that was redundant and had to retire at 17 years old due to her injury.

It should be well known by now (her Olympics was 25 years ago in Atlanta) that the Americans would still have won the gold by a margin of 0.309 points had Strug not performed a second vault. She did not need to do the vault. Her ankle was so badly injured that she was forced to retire from gymnastics at 17 (yes, that was worth repeating).

No medal is worth sacrificing any athlete’s health, mental or physical. And you know what’s childish and selfish, Mr. Reitz? Calling the most decorated gymnast in history names on Twitter.