It’s mid-August, so it’s the time of year when the Lisi clan leaves the hustle-and-bustle of New York City for a few weeks for the quieter environs of Long Island’s East End. It’s from this undisclosed beach location where I wrote this post about the latest goings on in the Catholic world.
It’s has been a busy summer for Catholicism and this month could be even busier. I’ve been distracted, in part, by sports. The subsiding of the pandemic brought back sports with a roar this summer. The centerpiece for it all has been the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games.
The Olympics have been a great distraction from the Delta variant, our insane politics and the culture wars that dominate the news cycle every minute of each day.
It’s true that sports do intersect with these topics, but that’s why I typically limit my Twitter minutes this time of year. I’ve been fascinated by the athletes — and in particular the ones with ties to Catholicism — that dominated the recent Summer Games.
The headliner, of course, was gymnast Simone Biles and her decision to temporarily withdraw from competition to prioritize her mental health drew criticism, but also massive praise.
Her actions put a spotlight on athletes’ mental health, but also highlighted the inability of the mainstream press to delve deeper and ask pertinent questions regarding her faith. You see, Biles is a Roman Catholic, something written about leading up to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. You wouldn’t know it from the news coverage of the past few weeks.
The lack of mentions in news accounts of Biles being Catholic in regards to her mental wellness spilled over this past Monday when the gymnast’s Instagram account made news. She claimed to be pro-abortion-rights in a post, triggering plenty of mainstream news coverage. In a subsequent Twitter post, Biles wrote that in no way did she favor aborting babies as an alternative to the foster care system. Biles grew up in the foster care system and was later adopted.
Again, none of the mainstream news coverage included that she is an active Roman Catholic.
The world learned that Biles was a practicing Catholic in an unlikely place. It was in US Weekly magazine, of all places, the guilty pleasure celebrity publication that’s so popular at airport newsstands. It reported the following five years ago:
“My mom, Nellie, got me a rosary at church. I don’t use it to pray before a competition. I’ll just pray normally to myself, but I have it there in case.”
The quote came about after the magazine asked Biles what she kept in her gym bag. The article ran with a photo of the items inside her bag, which also included stuff you’d expect like deodorant and headphones. Certainly, the editors at US Weekly didn’t expect her to mention a rosary, but good for them for including it.
As you would expect, that reference received plenty of attention in the Catholic press in the ensuing days and weeks. Biles went on to win four gold medals and a bronze in Brazil.
Fast forward to now and the mainstream news coverage of Biles’ mental health. Sports writers did not delve — or even mention — Biles’ Catholic faith and how that could be some source of comfort for someone in distress. There was plenty of coverage about the “twisties” and other factors surrounding her decision to sit out the first week of competition, but nothing about faith or rosaries.
Let’s consider the possible reasons for this omission of Biles’ faith. First, so many newsrooms lack people of faith that this angle doesn’t even dawn on them. The second possibility could be more sinister, in that the mainstream press doesn’t want to highlight religion, especially a faith that only gets attention for negative reasons such as a sex scandal, financial wrongdoing or for being on the “wrong side” of a social or political issue.
NBC, NBC Sports and its sister cable networks, which televised the Tokyo Games, led when it came to coverage and access on this story. The resulting coverage was loaded with religion ghosts. Here’s how NBC News reported on July 27:
Simone Biles knew she was carrying a lot when she walked into the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo on Tuesday.
As the face of the U.S. Olympic team, she was shouldering her country's gold medal hopes. As the greatest gymnast of all time, she was toting expectations for athletic dominance and repeated brilliance. As an outspoken advocate for female athletes, she was lugging around the pressure to make her fans proud.
Or, as she put it Monday, she was carrying "the weight of the world" on her shoulders. And she was making it look easy. Until it no longer was.
In making the stunning decision to withdraw from the team final competition Tuesday, Biles acknowledged the tremendous pressure she had been facing as the "head star of the Olympics" and said she needed to focus on her mental health.
"We also have to focus on ourselves, because at the end of the day, we're human, too," Biles said, according to The Associated Press. "We have to protect our mind and our body, rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do."
Biles, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, said she was not in the right state of mind to continue the competition.
"Physically, I feel good," she told Hoda Kotb on NBC's "TODAY" show after she withdrew. "Emotionally, that kind of varies on the time and moment. Coming here to the Olympics and being the head star of the Olympics isn't an easy feat. So we're just trying to take it one day at a time, and we'll see."
Biles, as a sports and cultural phenomenon, did speak to millions when she spoke candidly about her mental health. As a result, it spawned columns that tried to put Biles into larger societal and cultural context, especially as the pandemic continues.
For example, Los Angeles Times columnist Erika Smith, who writes about diversity, wrote the following this past Saturday:
There have been — and, I imagine, will continue to be long after Sunday’s closing ceremony — many postmortems written about these Olympics and about Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time, who put self-care above medals.
But from where I sit, surrounded by Black Californians traumatized in one way or another by the never-ending COVID-19 pandemic, what Biles did has opened the door to much more than that.
In the same way Biles has inspired many in the sports world, she may inspire other Black people to be more proactive about addressing their mental health — and at a time when the need to do so has never been greater.
Consider that, throughout the pandemic, Black Americans have endured extraordinary trauma. There have been a disproportionate number of deaths from COVID-19, especially here in Los Angeles, as well as a massive economic toll from lost jobs, lost wages, lost family businesses and lost housing. And that’s on top of last summer’s racial reckoning.
Indeed, it was a brave decision to withdraw from most competitions after getting “lost in the air” during a vault and learning that an aunt had died. It prompted a much-needed conversation about how athletes deal with trauma and how a pervasive, winning-at-all-costs philosophy encourages them to ignore it.
On the other hand, the Catholic press’ coverage of this was starkly different.
A prime example of a news story, with Biles’ faith included, was America magazine’s Olympic preview, where they discussed the life and faith of the standout gymnast. Catholic News Agency also covered the Biles drama (she went on to win a silver and bronze in Tokyo, by the way) and, of course, did not ignore her faith.
This is the proper context they included:
Biles has spoken about her Catholic faith in the past, and she keeps a rosary in her gymnastics bag and prays prior to competitions. She says she lights a candle to St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes, prior to competition.
Her mother, Nellie Biles, was unable to join her in Tokyo this year due to the coronavirus protocols. Nellie kept a supportive presence for her daughter on Twitter, telling her to “be the best Simone.”
On the day of the team final in Rio, Nellie tweeted that she was “wearing out (her) rosary beads.” The day of the vault final, she tweeted that her daughter was “Flying high, even Saint Sebastian is smiling.”
Biles had told her followers on Instagram that the twisties appeared “randomly” the day after the Olympic qualifying round, and that she “literally can not tell up from down” when twisting in the air. She also shared videos of herself falling on her back while attempting routine uneven bars dismounts.
Catholic news sites focus on Biles’ faith because their audience wants to read about it. “Know your audience” is, no doubt, a standard component of smart journalism. Yes, that is true, but isn’t it also a component of her story and personal struggle no matter who the audience is?
It’s also true that the religion angle was easy to ignore because Biles isn’t vocal about her faith like, for example, Tim Tebow. That, however, is no excuse for reporters who can’t do a clip search (Google News for you reporters under 30) to see what has been written in the past about the greatest gymnast in history.
At Religion Unplugged, where my work also regularly appears, did offer up a wonderful feature by Hamil Harris on athletes discussing faith and mental health, just the sort of feature so many in the mainstream missed. Harris is a former Washington Post reporter, an active church leader and a former Florida State University defensive lineman. Here is a short excerpt from that piece:
Biles described her Catholic faith in a 2016 autobiography, “Courage to Soar,” saying that receiving the sacrament of confirmation reminded her of a medal ceremony, only the prize was far superior to any gold, silver or bronze. Biles’ patron saint, St. Sebastian, is often called upon by athletes to help recover from injuries.
Biles was adopted by her grandparents because her mother struggled with drug abuse and had legal issues when she was young. During the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Biles carried a white rosary that her grandmother gave her.
Prayers, rosaries and St. Sebastian also showed up in the National Catholic Register. Author Kevin Vost, in a column, made the following astute observation:
Biles realized that while she may well indeed be “the greatest of all time” in gymnastic endeavors, she was not at her best at this time. I believe this was also an act of the virtue of prudence or practical wisdom, whereby we consider all the relevant factors that determine whether or not a particular course of action is wise at a particular time.
Of course, as Catholics, when we face any kind of difficulties, we can draw on an infinite strength and an unlimited wisdom. Biles, a practicing Catholic, has written about the importance of faith in her life, about praying the Rosary and the Hail Mary and how she lights a candle to St. Sebastian, patron saint of athletes, prior to competitions. May she realize that, as our sister in Christ, our prayers join with hers.
I believe Biles has shared with us lessons not only of exquisite athletic performance, but of humility, fortitude, prudence and loving care for her fellow teammates and competitors. Pope Pius XII once said, “The Church, without any doubt whatever, approves of physical culture, if it be in proper proportion.” Thank you, Simone Biles, for helping us keep the value of athletics, virtue and mental health “in proper proportion.”
Biles, as a sports icon, would make great material for a homily. it also makes for a wonderful angle for a news story and feature that so many have ignored now that the Olympics are in the rear-view mirror.
There’s so much we can all learn from Biles. It’s unfortunate that her faith couldn’t be part of mainstream news reports.
With fall comes football, the MLB playoffs and a new NBA and NHL season. Let’s hope that this summer is a reminder that reporters can do better — and not totally ignore the faith angle — when writing about an athlete’s personal life.