An Olympic Dream Deferred for Crestfallen Gymnasts
Female gymnasts ( ) often compete at younger ages than their Olympic peers and have a far more concentrated opportunity at the top.
The rescheduling of the Olympics has hit female gymnasts particularly hard, considering that their window for Olympic success is so tiny. Most female Olympic gymnasts are teenagers who compete in only one Summer Games before their bodies mature, adding weight and height that make it harder to twist and flip ( ).
They also start the sport so young, much younger than their male counterparts ( ), that their bodies break down ( ) and can’t last. It has been 48 years since an Olympic gold medalist ( ) in the women’s all-around ( ) was older than 19.
So it would have been significant if Simone Biles, the face ( ) of the American team going into Tokyo, competed this summer to defend her all-around Olympic title. She is 23 and cried in her gym’s locker room when she heard news of the postponement.
“I’m still taking it day by day to see if I’ll continue or what’s going to happen,” Biles said on Wednesday in a telephone interview from her home outside Houston. “Mentally, I don’t know if I can handle it. It’s going to be hard.”
For Biles, the aches and pains include two big toes with serious injuries. She recently saw a doctor who gave her bad news, she said: One of the toes is shattered ( ) in five places and it will never totally heal; the other is cracked ( ).
Biles said she had not talked to therapists ( ) or sports psychologists, and wants nothing offered by the U.S.O.P.C. She said she would make her decision about next year’s Olympics herself, not minding the pressures, real or perceived ( ), from her sponsors like Nike and Visa.
“I was never doing it for them anyway,” she said. “I’m just playing it by ear ( ). I have to listen to my mind and body and go into the gym and see how I feel.”
體操女傑等不到的奧運夢
女子體操選手的年紀，通常比其他奧運動員還小，生涯巔峰期也比較短。
她們能夠在奧運場上取得成功的機會較少，因此延期對女子體操選手的影響特別大。大多數參加奧運體操的女子選手才10幾歲，還不到身體發育的年紀。若他們身高長高，體重增加，將更不容易實施翻滾動作。
她們比男子選手在更小的年紀就開始接受訓練，因此身體也較快無法負荷。上一次有年紀19歲以上的選手，在女子體操全能項目獲得金牌，已經是48年前。
因此美國體操天后拜爾斯（Simone Biles）在東京奧運的出賽，爭取全能連霸格外具有意義。她現在已23歲，聽到奧運延期的瞬間，她在體操館休息室哭了出來。
「我仍然過一天算一天，看我是不是能夠繼續，或還會有什麼改變。心理上，我不知道我能否處理好情緒，真的非常煎熬。」
拜爾斯的雙腳拇指受傷狀況非常嚴重。最近經過醫生檢查，她說：「一隻斷成五塊永遠沒辦法治好，另一隻也裂掉了。」
拜爾斯表示還沒有找諮商師或運動心理師談過，也不想要美國奧會提供的資源。她不在乎壓力，以及贊助商Nike和Visa等外在因素。明年奧運是否參賽，將掌握在自己手中。
「我練體操也不是為了他們，我會見機行事，傾聽內心和身體的聲音。我將繼續踏入體操館訓練，看我身體感覺怎麼樣。」
#高雄人 #學習英文 請找 #多益達人林立英文
#高中英文 #成人英文
#多益家教班 #商用英文
#國立大學外國語文學系講師
