I'll admit to being too quick in my reaction to Biles sitting out.
There really is something to talk about seriously here.
Physical injury is easier to measure and that's what I have personal experience with in sports.
When I played football in high school, I broke the growth plate in my left wrist during a Saturday practice and I didn't go to the the doctor until Thursday. Monday through Wednesday, I was jamming my hands into 250 pound plus guys and blocking sleds and enduring the kind of pain that you can imagine from doing that for four hours a day.
The positive was that I got some toughness credibility from my coaches and teammates. I also got to show myself what I was capable of enduring.
In reality, I wasn't capable of properly doing my job on the field with that injury. In situations when I would have won a matchup at the line, I was getting my ass kicked. When I finally did go to the doctor he scolded me for playing through the injury and made it as clear as he could that I may have done irreversible damage.
Namely, the smart decision for everybody would have been for me to sit.
That said, there's real virtue in showing up for your team when they need you.
When Stefon Diggs showed up to play with a torn oblique and performed at that level, that was admirable. When Tom Brady won a Superbowl on a torn MCL, that was admirable.
At the same time, if those injuries were hobbling them to the point that they would have to lie about their health and insist that they could still do their jobs when they couldn't, they should have sat out for the sake of themselves and their teammates.
None of us can reach into Biles's brain and know what was going through it. It's not as easily measurable as a broken growth plate or an MCL tear.
What we can do is respect the decision. I initially failed to do that. Still, there's a massive field between condemnation and celebration. There's respect and that's what we should be showing.