I can't totally articulate why beyond just 'it's not worth it', but just wanted to rant here instead of fighting people on the internet lol overstimulated reading a million different posts every day about all the awful things going on in the world so sometimes you really just have to pick your battles

So I am not into F1 at all so please forgive my imperfect retelling, but I was reading about the Qatar Grand Prix that happened last month and how driver Logan Sargeant withdrew from the competition after feeling ill - which it's apparently pretty rare to voluntarily withdraw mid-race like that. Extremely commendable decision by this driver, probably was an impossible call to make with all the sponsors and fans and all the other factors that depend on him to complete the race. What was even more amazing was the overall support from the community - literally every article, comment section, and Reddit thread I went through were praising Sargeant for putting himself, as he should, first. The thought of a driver potentially passing out from being ill behind a F1 car going full speed is horrifying. His life is worth more than winning a race.

And want to know what this made me think about? Simone Biles.

Although a different circumstance, Biles had the exact same situation where she felt ill and unsafe competing and removed herself, as she should, from the competition. And everyone absolutely DRAGGED her through the dirt. Literally it's been two years and to this day people still label her a "quitter" and loudly bring their doubt in to everything she does - mind you she has earned both record-setting World and Olympic medals since the infamous team event. Would they have felt any better if she went for that second vault and instead landed on her neck and got seriously injured? Why was the response to Biles so disgustingly different than the response to Sargeant? (You know why.)

If I hear a single "she owes it to her team" - no she doesn't. Sargeant's team Williams Racing and Biles' Olympic team were both vocal in their support for their respective teammates decisions and expressed their gratitude that each athlete had the mental awareness to make that call and withdraw to prevent something worse from happening. If the only people directly impacted by a teammate withdrawing from a competition are not upset then why the fuck would you be?

Ultimately, huge shocker here, the difference in response comes down to all sorts of intersectionality of issues due to Biles being a woman and POC. It's exhausting just reading the vitriol and hate plastered all over the internet so I can only imagine how frustrating it is for Biles. She's literally set every conceivable record in her discipline and is STILL reaching new milestones to this day, yet people want to make her decision to preserve her own safety in Tokyo her career-defining moment. It's because of that decision that she continues to break records to this day so I guess maybe it was.

Social media is pretty much used for people to complain and criticize and try to make comments to virtue signal or whatever to seem better than the other person, so maybe that's why is so frustrating seeing one athlete hailed a hero for making the same decision that caused another athlete to get effectively cancelled. Like being on the internet so long I'm jaded enough to not read into hate comments too much, just disagree with them and let them bounce off you. But sometimes coming across these hypocritical responses makes me want to grab their collective shoulders and shake some sense into them (ง'̀-'́)ง