People who don't understand mental health will make comparisons to Michael Jordan's food poisoning, or Kerri Strug's ankle. When we've never been in another's shoes we like to search for equivalents to things that we have experienced. "I've had a sprained ankle or food poisoning before and I know that if need be, I could have worked through it." The ignorant will accuse Biles of making it up, or say she had five years to prepare and should be able to just suck it up. The ignorant will think that you can pick and choose when the brain will suddenly betray you and create physical reactions that shut you down. That taking a drug right before the competition would have made everything better. The ignorant will believe she was just feeling sad or low energy, rather than understanding how a severe anxiety attack can mimic heart attack symptoms and that no amount of logical thinking can shake off the shortness of breath, heart palpitations, dizziness, or even temporary paralysis. Can you imagine if we learned an athlete was having a heart attack, and then cracked on them for pulling out.

Jumping to conclusions and making assumptions is just easier than seeking understanding. C'mon, Biles didn't become the greatest in her sport by being weak. That's just silly to think that. She has proven she is strong and she deserves the benefit of the doubt today. Just because you've never experienced what hit her doesn't mean it isn't real, and isn't serious. Those erroneous comparisons add to the stigma that people already face when trying to be honest about their mental health. How can they be honest when everyone around then tries to minimize it, and the media uses a partial story for clickbait at their expense?

Even with Biles best performances the USA would not have closed the gap to team gold today. And she was mature enough to recognize that her health would have hurt them worse. By dropping out she allowed a well-prepared alternate to take her place and likely gave the team the best chance of success. Her backups did great, and probably helped the US capture Silver instead of Bronze. When viewed in that perspective, I can't help but wonder if she actually made the mature decision, even if the ignorant will forever second-guess her dropping out.