今天读了一篇《华盛顿邮报》7月29日关于西蒙拜尔斯退赛的文章。作者不是记者，也不是编辑，而是一位曾经横渡古巴湾的人Diana Nyad-戴安娜.尼亚德。
如果你看TED，你一定看过Diana Nyad的TED演讲-Never, ever give up，她的故事超级震撼和感动，她的演讲也幽默有趣。我看过很多遍。
今天为啥选关于西蒙拜尔斯的文章呢？前天看了百米飞人大战，苏炳添虽败犹荣。
在一个被西方运动员霸占的百米大赛中，第一次出现了黄种人的面孔，这难道不是我们值得铭记的事吗？
今天也许大家都觉得他虽败犹荣，过一段时间，会不会出来键盘侠又一改往日的口气，这事不是没出现过。
没有一个运动员不是经过刻苦训练走上赛场的。而我们作为看客，看到的只是他们在赛场上短暂的一幕，或赢或输就是我们对他们的评价。可他们的伤痛和训练我们又何曾去想过呢。
不论结果输赢，他们都是英雄。因为他们经历了我们无法想象的幸苦和压力。经历过艰苦训练的人总能惺惺相惜。
I judged Simone Biles harshly. Here’swhy I was wrong.
我对西蒙拜尔斯的评价太苛刻。我错了！
I’ll admit my first reaction to Simone Biles’s decision Tuesday to drop out of the women’s gymnastics team competition at the Tokyo Olympics was critical. Biles said the pressure of being the face of the Tokyo Games was mammoth.The official word, after medical exams, was that this was not a physical problem but rather an issue of mental health. Biles was worried less about her body failing, and more about “fighting” what was going on inside her head.
我承认，我听到拜尔斯决定退出女子体操团体赛时的第一反应太苛刻了。拜尔斯说成为东京奥运会的代言人给了她巨大的压力。
医疗检查后，官方说法是她退赛不是由于身体原因，而是因为心理原因。拜尔斯不担心自己的身体，而更担心自己脑中的“斗争”。
drop out of 退出
mammoth adj 巨大的
前段时间，我发了一篇关于大坂直美退赛法网的文章，也是心理问题。运动员这个职业本身就要承受着巨大的压力，所以心理问题不少见。
Bileslater explained that she wasn’t herself, especially on a vault that had her confused as she twisted in space — a phenomenon gymnasts call “the twisties.” She described how she finished that vault in a state entirely unfamiliar to her.She had lost her spatial awareness.
拜尔斯随后解释道，她已经“不是自己”，尤其是在跳马旋体时，她感觉自己陷入了混乱。她描述自己跳马结束后，感觉已经不再是自己。她失去了空间感。
the twisties 旋体
spatial awareness 空间感
With her decision, Biles drew parallels to tennis star Naomi Osaka, who dropped out of the French Open earlier this year,describing mental health problems and the trauma of dealing with the media. Osaka had been willing to pay the hefty fines for missing the mandatory press conferences at the tournament, but that led to controversy and she then opted out altogether.
拜尔斯的决定和网球明星大坂直美的决定一样。因为心理问题以及应对媒体而带来的问题，大坂直美退出了今年初的法网公开赛。
因不愿出席赛会要求的新闻发布会，大坂直美支付了巨额的罚款。最终，其决定退出比赛。
draw parallel to 与……一致
trauma 创伤
hefty 异常大的，巨额的 (of an amount of money) large; larger than usual or expected
hefty fines 巨额罚款
They sold it easily and made a hefty profit.
opt out 退出
Perhaps,I initially thought, there were lines to be connected between Osaka’s anxiety and Biles’s current Olympics psyche. Who are we to tell Biles she should toughen up and get over her temporary slip from perfection? I was already on Osaka’s side, with compassion for her need to tend to her mental health.
也许，我一开始想，大坂直美的焦虑和拜尔斯的奥林匹克心态问题是一样的性质。
我们有什么资格让拜尔斯坚强起来，从小小的失败中崛起？我同情大坂直美，我赞同她需要关注自己心理健康问题的需求。
Butthe clear difference — or so it seemed at first — between Osaka’s French Open withdrawal and Biles’s choice was the word “team.” Osaka was playing singles at Roland Garros. Her decision affected her alone. Biles withdrew from a commitmentto her team. She stepped down from representing her country.
但大坂直美法网退赛和拜尔斯的退出之间存在一个明显的区别-或者一开始看似存在的一个区别-团队。
大坂直美是个人参赛，所以她的退赛决定只会影响她自己。而拜尔斯则背弃了整个团队，背弃了自己代表的国家。
Billie Jean King is well known for the expression “pressure is a privilege.” To besure, not many other athletes — perhaps Michael Phelps, Tom Brady and a very few others — know what it is to have all the world’s eyes laser-focused on you,to carry the highest possible expectations with your every move.
美国网球运动员比利·简·金曾说：“压力是一种特权。”的确，没有多少运动员能像菲尔普斯，汤姆哈迪以及其它少数运动员能感受到全世界的目光聚焦在自己身上，自己的一举一动被赋予无限期望的压力是多么大的一种特权。
But wasn’t this the crucial moment for the GOAT — the “Greatest of All Time,” alabel Biles has embraced — to rise up as no other athlete could? Wasn’t this the time for Biles to go out to the vault with her coach, perhaps her teammates,and do her routine over and over again, to cure her case of the twisties? I’mnot going to demean Olympic silver medals — which the U.S. team won without Biles — but would the team in fact have had a much better chance for gold witha Biles who had tackled her demons and risen to the occasion?
但是，这难道不应该是拜尔斯站起来承受特权的重要时刻吗？难道不是她重新开始自己反复练习了多次的跳马比赛，纠正自己的旋体动作的时候吗？
我不是要贬低美国队在没有拜尔斯情况下获得的奥林匹克银牌的价值。但是，如果拜尔斯能够克服自己内心的魔鬼，重新站来气，美国队不是更有希望夺冠吗？
That was my critical outlook on Tuesday. But now, Biles has withdrawn from the individual all-around competition — her sport’s most vaunted individual event. And if the Greatest of All Time, at the Olympic Games that are the supposed and possibly last pinnacle of hercareer, states that she can’t trust herself, who are we to say otherwise?
这是周二拜尔斯退出新闻后我对此事的评判。但现在，拜尔斯已经从其最自豪的个人全能赛退出。
如果在本该成为拜尔斯职业最后巅峰的奥林匹克运动会上，她不能相信自己，那我们又能说什么呢？
pinnacle 高峰
Gymnastics events require dangerous, almost unreal maneuvers. Were Biles to go out there lacking confidence — were she to spin out of control — there could be serious consequences. It is not an overstatement to warn that an egregious mistake, whatever its precipitating cause, could result in paralysis.
体操项目中的动作不但危险也是挑战人类极限的。如果拜尔斯在缺乏信心的情况下参赛，如果她在旋体时失去控制，那么后果会很严重。
这不是危言耸听，无论是什么原因，一个重大失误就会导致选手瘫痪。
egregious 惊人的；异乎寻常的 extremely bad
an egregious mistake 重大错误
precipitating 诱发的
Now the flip side of Biles’s leaving her teammates to compete without her comes into play. She ultimately determined that she couldn’t summon her best,and that her teammates had a better chance of scoring well without her. She opened for them a spot in the individual all-around that she would have taken —giving another gifted athlete a chance to go for medals, to chase the dreams they’ve worked so hard for.
而拜尔斯退赛让其它队员来比赛的另一面是在她无法完全发挥自己水平的情况下，她的队友们更好的机会赢得比赛。
她不会拖累整个团队。她欢迎其它队员参加她本该参加的全能比赛，也给了其它队友博取金牌，实现梦想的机会。
flip side 另一面
summon 召唤
The same decision that on Tuesday seemed to some of us unsportsmanlike now, on Wednesday, seems a historic sacrifice. Now, Biles’s contention that she believes she is helping the team by not competing becomes not only authentic, but also rational thinking.
周二的决定看似有些缺乏运动员精神，但周三的决定却又体现了一种牺牲。拜尔斯相信她的决定是在帮整个团队，这不仅是事实，也是一种理性的思考。
unsportsmanlike 没有运动员道德的
Next week, Biles may or may not find her way back into competition for each of thefour individual events: balance beam, unevenbars, vault, floor exercise. But I , for one, have catapulted back onto the super Simone Biles fan wagon, rooting for the best for gymnastics’GOAT — in her sport, and in her life.
下周，拜尔斯或许会重回四项个人赛—平衡木、高低杠、跳马、自由体操。但是，无论哪一个，我都会为她加油助威-为她的比赛，她的人生加油。
Balance beam 平衡木
Uneven bars 高低杠
Vault跳马
Floor exercise 自由体操
root for 为……加油
希望我们看到的不光是运动员场上的比赛，更要体会其场下十年功的幸苦。
