A DEI Insight from the 2024 Paris Olympics
“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.”
Dr. Mae Jemison
Astronaut, Scientist, Physician & First Black Woman in Space
The 2024 Paris Olympics officially opens this Friday, July 26, 2024. The Olympics are always fun and inspiring to watch, and they also reliably deliver unforgettable lessons on our collective human experience, including powerful insights on diversity, inclusion, and wellness. Even before the Opening Ceremony starts, the Women’s U.S Olympic Gymnastics Team is already teaching us lessons that transcend the Olympic Village and impact our personal, professional, and community lives.
Dominique Dawes, who competed in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, was the first black gymnast to qualify for the Women’s U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team; thirty-two years later, the group of women competing in gymnastics on behalf of the United States is 80% racially diverse. Athletic events provide a clearer context than other workplaces for understanding diversity because there is no questioning the “meeting of standards” pseudo argument that is posited in challenges to diversity initiatives. USA Women’s Gymnastics membership is about 75% white, but 80% of the elite gymnasts that are representing the US in Paris are women of color. What can this complex statistic help us understand about diversity, inclusion, and wellness?
Gymnastics was a sport that remained almost exclusively white much longer than other sports, and the primary reasons for the lack of diversity were a lack of role models, a lack of availability of gymnastics programs in diverse communities, a lack of inclusion when women of color entered predominantly white programs, and a lack of institutional sponsors (product sponsors, elite coaches, etc.) who saw potential success in talented girls of color. When Dominique Dawes hit the world’s television screens in the 1992 Olympics, she shattered the representation glass ceiling. Not only did gymnastics centers see an influx of girls of color into their programs, but funding expanded to build gyms in diverse communities. Colleges and universities stepped up and allocated more scholarships to girls from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds. These are the types of diversity initiatives that are now under attack, and many of them are attacked as us “lowering the standards.” That attack is neutralized in two simple words: Simone Biles.
Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in US history, has redefined the sport. She didn’t just meet the standards; she exceeded and transformed the standards. Diversity efforts removed some of the obstacles that had kept people who looked like her out of gymnastics for decades, but her ability to excel as an elite gymnast still did not mean that the sport and the media coverage of the sport were accepting and inclusive of who she was. Simone Biles shocked everyone when she withdrew from several events in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and stayed away from competitive gymnastics for months because of the “corrosive culture” of elite gymnastics. Between testifying at the US Senate hearing on the total failure of holding Larry Nassar accountable for abusing scores of girls under his care and dealing with the media constantly second-guessing her choices as an athlete and a citizen, she decided that she needed to withdraw from competitions because she needed to take care of herself. In announcing her withdrawal from gymnastics, she talked about the pressure of being a trailblazer and how little margin of error she was given as an elite athlete, especially as an elite black female athlete.
Not surprisingly, she was roundly criticized for “giving up” and not being “strong enough.” She withstood the critiques, took care of herself, and came back stronger than ever. Today, “When is Simone Biles competing?” is one of the most googled questions about the 2024 Paris Olympics, and there is not an institutional or commercial sponsor who would not want Simone Biles repping them.
Diversity is necessary to open doors, but a lack of inclusion can push people right back out the door because it is heartbreakingly difficult to navigate all that comes with being treated like you don’t belong somewhere that you have worked relentlessly to be let into. And the price of fighting, in addition to the price of excelling, can be devastating to people’s mental health. As Simone Biles so powerfully demonstrated, when people take a break to take care of themselves, they aren’t being weak; they are taking the time to recover from cognitive and emotional injuries that aren’t visible like physical injuries but are just as if not more damaging.
Simone Biles is indeed the GOAT, but it’s not just because she is perhaps the best gymnast the world has ever witnessed. She is the GOAT because she dared to break racial, trauma, and mental health norms that defined what an elite athlete looked and acted like.
Diversity has never been about lowering standards. It has always been about making opportunities to more people who then have the chance to shatter the old standards and create new standards that show the many different faces of talent. Diversity programs don’t set us back; they expand opportunity. Inclusion programs don’t make us weaker; they expand the ways in which collective strength empowers all of us to do better. Wellness initiatives don’t soften our work ethic; they ensure that we know when to refuel so that we sustainably maximize our potential.
When we watch Simone Biles do her magic this summer, we are watching the best of what this country stands for, the possibility of real excellence that exists on the other side of the divisive debates on DEI. Simone Biles became the GOAT despite the obstacles she faced; we owe it to her and every other athlete who represents our nation to make sure that we don’t stop fighting to name and neutralize the obstacles that are still very much a part of all of our lives. We owe it to them, to each other, and to ourselves to fight for what we know makes this country stronger and better for everyone.
Go Team USA!
