Pushing the Limits of Sport: Simone Biles

Simone Biles PUSHING THE LIMITS OF SPORT:

Simone Biles may have only emerged on the world stage in 2013 as an aspiring 15 year old. Nevertheless, when she did, she wholeheartedly erupted onto it, and as such it is no surprise that she has fast become a household name in the six years since. Not too long ago, if you had asked a passerby to name a gymnast, it would have been highly likely that they would have struggled to recall any, or, if they were to have managed, that they would have cited the likes of Olga Korbut or Nadia Comaneci. It cannot be denied that these are great gymnasts. However, gymnastics has changed a lot since then, and they could be compared to relics of the gymnastics world, wellloved but sitting on a dusty shelf of champions gone by. As the sport is stepping ever more into the spotlight, current day gymnasts (including Biles herself) are becoming gradually more well known. Biles is without doubt one of the catalysts of this change.

Biles has broken a myriad of records at both a national and international level, and in doing so has surpassed gymnastic legends who have come before her time and time again. For example, in August last year Simone competed in the U.S championships. For any non-gymnastics fans (which I am assuming is the majority of people reading this) the USA has, in the last decade, become the most dominant nation in women’s gymnastics. Of course this means that in the USA, the boss of the women’s gymnastics world, there is a very strong field of athletes. Therefore you would obviously expect it to be an arduous task to win even one medal at the national championships. Biles won five medals. And they were all gold, making her the first female US gymnast to become the champion on every event since Dominique Dawes did so in 1994. What makes this feat even more phenomenal is that in the all around competition (where scores on all four apparatus are added together) Biles had a 6.55 edge on the second place gymnast, Morgan Hurd. In a sport where the difference between gold or silver can be a mere bent leg or slight stumble (often meaning there can be just one tenth of a point between first and second place) a lead of 6.55 is monumental! Other records Biles has broken include the record for the most world championship gold medals for any female gymnast ever, with an extraordinary 14 world titles to her name. She really is pushing the boundaries of the sport.

It goes without saying that Biles must have an extraordinary body. Despite being only 4’8” (1.42m) she is packed with power, and is pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible for the human body. This is demonstrated nowhere better than in the new vault skill she created which is, since the 2018 world championships last November, named after Biles. In vault, the gymnast runs down a 25m runway, jumps off of a springboard onto the vault, before then completing a series of twists

and rotations to land on the floor. ‘The Biles’ consists of doing half of a turn between hitting the springboard and hitting the vault, and then performing one full somersault as well as two full twists off of the vault. This is pretty incredible and clearly requires a lot of power. How is it possible for so much power to be packed into a pint-sized frame such as Biles’? Let’s consider the physics of this feat: two things will affect how successful the vault is - the amount of time for which the gymnast is in the air and the rotational velocity (this is just the term used to describe how much of a rotation the gymnast does in a certain amount of time.) The more air time the gymnast has, the more time they have to complete all their somersaults and twists. Essentially, they must work against gravity - which is pulling them constantly towards the ground - in order go as high as possible. To do this they must exert an upwards force. When the gymnast jumps onto the springboard, they exert a downwards force on the board, causing the spring to compress and then, of course, propel them upwards as it goes back to its original shape. But this alone is not enough. To increase their upwards momentum, the gymnast has to ensure: that their run up is as fast as possible (with speeds averaging at least 5.5 m/s and acceleration of 3.3m/s) which requires a lot of stamina and power in the legs; that they hit the board with their body at the correct angle, which requires a lot of precision; as well as that they push downwards on the table with their arms. This last requirement requires the gymnast to have very strong arms and shoulders, as they need to be able to push hard off the table without their arms bending or buckling (as this could kill some of the momentum they have built up.) How does Biles have such powerful legs and iron arms? The honest answer - hours and hours of training. Part of an elite gymnast’s backbreaking weekly training schedule (which can be up to 30 or so hours a week) consists of doing conditioning exercises such as lifting weights and doing bodyweight exercises. BILES HAS BROKEN A MYRIAD a really strong When the gymnast OF RECORDS AT BOTH A NATIONAL thing to do. This is evident does these, their muscles AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL, in several recent interviews are doing work AND IN DOING SO HAS she has done, (for example, when an athlete SURPASSED GYMNASTIC in which she discusses the effect lifts a weight, the muscles in their arms LEGENDS that her experience of being sexually abused by are doing work against former US team doctor Larry gravity to lift the weight) and this Nassar (who is now serving a prison allows them to increase the power sentence of 175 years for abusing output of the muscles in situations over a hundred gymnasts) has had such as the vault. on her. She talks about how tough Having said all that I have about Biles’ achievements and how she pushes the boundaries of both the sport and the human body, I personally believe that the most important boundaries she is pushing are not those that can be pushed on the competition floor. As a person, Biles possesses many qualities that are admirable. For example, resilience, which she demonstrated when competing at the 2018 world championships. The night prior to the competition, she was in the hospital with a kidney stone, which - although I fortunately have no personal experience of what it is like to have one - I am told are incredibly painful! All the same, you would never have been able to tell, as the next day she was out on the floor, performing her incredible routines and charming the audience with her characteristic charismatic smile. She even managed to find some kind of humour in the it has been processing that she is a victim, admitting that at one point she “slept all the time because it’s the closest thing to death.” It must have been hard for her to speak out because, as the gymnast that she is, she has always put out such a strong and tough persona to the world. If Simone can open up about her feelings, maybe this will help encourage others, for example many of the young girls that follow her, to talk about how they are feeling. Furthermore, Simone says that going to therapy has really helped her, stating “therapy is everything.” Today, seeking therapy for mental health issues is still something almost slightly taboo, and something that people feel ashamed of. We can all follow her lead and break the stigma surrounding going to therapy so that it is no longer something that people find embarrassing. This, in turn, may encourage more people to seek help. situation, calling the kidney stone the Although clearly it is very unlikely “Doha Pearl” and acting as if it were that any of us will ever be world her mascot. I think we often forget class gymnasts like Simone Biles, to look for humour when things get I think we can all learn a lot from tough. Maybe if we remembered to her character, not specifically as a find humour in even the darkest of gymnast but just as a person. I hope situations, it could help us be more that, even if you disagree with this, positive in our lives. my article has at least inspired you Another admirable trait that Biles has is her strength. Of course this is shown through her physical strength to go away and watch some videos of Simone in action - she really is incredible to watch! and her determination, but she is also H Nixey, Lower Sixth not afraid to show her vulnerabilities, and this in itself is a kind of strength. She shows us that admitting you feel weak and powerless is actually