Biles steps off

Simone Biles is the greatest gymnast alive and the face of the Tokyo Games. She balks on vault, names the twisties, and steps away from medals the machine assumed were hers. The internet splits into cruelty and relief. Teammates win without her. She comes back for bronze on beam.

Sport had sold play-through-pain as virtue. A superstar saying I could hurt myself and I will not is a different broadcast. Mental health, already a phrase in press conferences, gets a body and a name people know.

The medals she already had were enough. Tokyo is the moment the enough became a choice, in public, at the Olympics, with the world trained to count golds.