There are some sports where the black man or woman is not given a chance because people say the make up and body mass of Caucasians are better suited for those sports.
No doubt – blacks are known to dominate in basketball, track and field and even boxing. White domination is clear in more technically-oriented sports like golf, tennis, baseball, hockey, swimming, wrestling, weightlifting and gymnastics.
But a young black girl has defied all odds and put a lie to the touted white domination in – of all sports – gymnastics!
Simone Biles of the United States has become the most decorated gymnast – male or female – in World Championship and Olympic Games history. Biles participated in her fifth World Championships this month, winning five gold medals. She won four gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
The 22-year-old American has so far won a total of 25 medals in World Championship, 19 of them gold. She won four gold and one bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics, making a total of 30 medals in both World Championships and Olympics. Not even the great Usain Bolt achieved that in athletics. She is just three short of the record held by Vitaly Scherbo, who represented the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Belarus in the 1990s.
Simone Biles is already being referred to as the greatest athlete that has ever lived and she is entitled to all the accolades, even though her sport is not one of the glitzily popular sports by most people’s reckoning.
Born 14th March 1997, Simone Arianne Biles’ Nickname is $imoney, and you can figure why, as she is worth a few million dollars. Her net worth has been amassed through her career earnings and some brand endorsement deals. Before she even stepped into the Olympics in Rio, Brazil three years ago at 19, she had already earned around $2 million from prize money and endorsement.
This 47 kilogram, 4 feet 8 inches tall young woman performed two original skills in qualifying, as she made all six women’s finals at the World Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart this month, becoming the first woman to complete a triple-double move on floor, which is now called the ‘Biles II’ in the gymnastics code of points. She then did a double-double dismount on beam, to be named the ‘Biles’. It is significant that both moves will now officially bear the Biles name because she originated them.
Simone Biles makes history each time she steps on the floor because there is none in history that has been able to move athletically as she does. Everyone, including the experts, believe she deserves more gold medals for her gravity-defying World Series backflip first pitch combinations.
Like Usain Bolt in track and field and Michael Phelps in swimming, Simone Biles has taken gymnastics to a new level. The way she dominates her events puts the huge lie to the belief that the black body is not meant for gymnastics and she has shown the way to many black young people everywhere, including in Nigeria, where some of our young girls recently went to the African Gymnastic Championship held in South Africa and one of them, 8-year-old Stephanie Ogechukwu emerged won a gold medal. Oge started the sport when she was just two years old.
Recall too that Jade Faulkner became Nigeria’s first female gymnast to compete in Rhythmic Gymnastics at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia as she competed in the Team Final and Individual Qualification Sub Division 1- Rotation 1 to 3.
So the future is bright for gymnastics, even in Nigeria. It is left for parents to encourage their children at an early age to take up the sport which should not be considered an elite sport. Time has come to encourage other sports like gymnastics and provide facilities that will build a nation of healthy people through sport.
We may just have many Simone Biles among us!
IMAGE CREDIT: CNN.COM, olympicchannel.com
Epa Ogie Eboigbe, veteran journalist, broadcaster and public affairs specialist writes on, and analyses current and historical issues with a ‘wise pen
