Sport2 min(s) read
Published 16:32 28 Jul 2021 GMT
Piers Morgan has sparked outrage following his unsympathetic response to Simone Biles' decision to withdraw from events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Biles, 24, pulled out of Thursday's individual all-around final less than a day after withdrawing from the women's team all-around gymnastics final due to concerns over her mental health.
She withdrew on July 27 after one rotation of the women's team final, which saw her score her lowest Olympic vault score.
While the gold medallist received an outpouring of love and support online, outspoken TV journalist Piers Morgan slammed her for prioritizing her emotional wellbeing.
Taking to Twitter, the former Good Morning Britain presenter shared his thoughts with his 7.9 million followers: "Are 'mental health issues' now the go-to excuse for any poor performance in elite sport? What a joke. Just admit you did badly, made mistakes, and will strive to do better next time. Kids need strong role models not this nonsense."
He added: "Athletes are now deemed more courageous, inspiring & heroic if they lose or quit then if they win or tough it out, which is ridiculous. I blame Twitter’s virtue-signallers for fuelling this culture of celebrating weakness. The real world doesn’t think like that."
He expanded on his thoughts in a column for the Daily Mail, in which he urged the athlete to "get back out there Simone, and don’t get sucked into all the weak woke failure-loving Twitter nonsense - you’re too great a champion to be labeled a quitter."
Morgan also insisted that there's "nothing heroic or brave about quitting because you’re not having 'fun' - you let down your teammates, your fans, and your country."
A number of people have since responded to Morgan's inflammatory comments, with one person suggesting that the controversial TV host is a hypocrite considering he, too, walked away from a job - namely, the moment he walked off the GMB set during a heated discussion over Meghan Markle.
One wrote: "Piers Morgan has repeatedly defended Paul Gascoigne during his mental health struggles. But he won’t extend the same sympathy to Naomi Osaka, Meghan Markle or Simone Biles. I wonder why."
While another added: "Once again Piers Morgan has shown he has no respect for black women, going out of his way whenever he can to be nasty to any high profile black woman who struggles with their mental health This pandemic has been savage to us all . BE KIND."
