recent years.

You may think we are talking apples to oranges here, but hear me out.

We can easily say - you're a highly talented, highly endorsed ($) competitor who has competed at the highest level for years... suck it up! We would never see a Mary Lou Retton or a Kerri Strug fold under pressure, right?

Well, they lived and competed in a different world, at a different time than she did. There is something to say about the influence of social media and how it can completely shape and change how one perceives themselves, and how others perceive them.

When I first heard about the change that allowed missionaries to call home once a week, my reaction (and I'm sure many others my age) was... suck it up! You can do hard things! You don't need this. But as I learned more about the struggles that many very talented, very worthy young men and women were having... It made more sense to me why the change was made. I talked to my BIL who is a stake president, and he said the # of missionaries coming home has dropped significantly since the change.

I can't begin to imagine the stress and burden she must have been feeling heading into these Games. NBC itself has basically put the success of the games on her shoulders. I'm not making excuses for her... but I'm willing to be a little more open-minded when it comes to her specific situation.