‘All black podium’

[BWPodium]

In Simone Bile’s interview she said ‘it’s an all black podium for the first time, which is super exciting’

Whats your thoughts on this? Is it ok / positive thing to say? Unneeded? etc

I understand this is a first for woman’s gymnastics and a few years ago the sport was built around what looked like under fed teenagers so brilliant for the sport that it’s opened up to other body types and therefore makes a positive however, what about sports like 100m sprint that has traditionally always been tall African builds, if by any miracle three white men were on the podium, would saying this be acceptable?

Simone Biles is absolutely inspirational, and from everything I read and saw you couldn't have a more lovely person than Rebeca Andrade, I thought it was fantastic. I did feel a bit bad for the Romanians though who were so disappointed.

Why doesn't everyone just stop talking about it.

^^

I also think the age of the gymnasts on the podium was a massive step forward.

I think Simone biles is a massive inspiration- particularly with regards to speaking out about her mental health. Gym is brutal- the athletes train from such a young age, it’s very hard.

16 is the minimum for most sports, including gymnastics. Swimming, Table Tennis and Skateboarding are the only ones left with very young athletes, I think.

The 100m hasn't always been "tall African builds" at all. That's a more recent phenomenon from the past few decades.

Whilst watching the gymnastics I was struck by how much more diverse it was than the 80s and 90s when I was mad keen on gymnastics. Lots of different nations involved too, rather than the same ones dominating. I thought it was brilliant. Biles is absolutely fine to mention it. Why would it make anyone angry or upset for her to do so?

Rich? Simone and her siblings were in and out of foster care until they were adopted by their grandfather and his second wife. Have a look at what these women have had to get past.

I think we've progressed past "I don't see colour".

I was referring to their countries. I didn't see the podium, so fair comment from you though, I know Biles hasn't had an easy life and has overcome every hurdle. Extraordinary women.

It was only 56 years ago that Tommie Smith and John Carlos did this at the 1968 Mexico City games. The Australian silver medallist Peter Norman wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge. He was treated like a pariah and hated when he returned home and was never selected for the Olympics again.

I think the context of her comment is that early in her career, Simone was subject to comments from an Italian gymnast that she beat and an Italian coach that in the next competition the Italian gymnast would perhaps ‘paint herself black’ to do better.

The coach went on to say derogatory things about black gymnasts body shape - strong and muscly.

And 'rich podium' I meant not just gymnastics, almost all sports.

The US is a rich country, but do you think that Black women in the US are rich as a group?

I wouldn't categorise Brazil as a rich country either.

You made an assumption, and it was wrong.

There are clearly lots of social-economic factors that influence sporting success and these will differ between sports. There was discussion about the numbers of women of colour in the England football team and there appear to be very few black swimmers in Olympic squads.

In the 100m?

Oh FFS. No wonder we needed a Black MN sub forum with these incredibly ignorant comments.

You do understand the reason that they would be pilloried though, right?

this is just laughably ignorant

Simone’s family weren’t wealthy. In fact Simone had several disadvantages which many people would fail to overcome to the point they were average members of society

her background:
a drug addict mother
a stint in foster care
separated from her siblings
survivor of sexual abuse
speaking about that abuse publically / on a world stage
huge public scrutiny from journalists
disgusting trolling online including criticism of her “messy hair” 🤨

I’m Caucasian I think contextually it’s a perfectly fine thing for her to say.

"Look at me I'm different", "thrown in everyone's faces". Fucking hell.

As a white woman I see it as a positive.

If a white competitor made that comment it would support white supremacy.

A black person making that comment is a positive reflection of diversity.

It’s not as simple as ‘it’s not fair’ it’s about the social context. This isn’t hard to understand. A woman becoming the CEO of a FTSE 100 company is celebrated in a different way than when a man takes a similar CEO role. The journey there is different and one person faces significantly more obstacles and discrimination.

Of course it's a positive. How could it not be?

Let's definitely stop celebrating women prime ministers or presidents or CEOs or police heads because we are all the same and equal. How dare they pretend to be special?