Dying To Ask

Being bored at the Olympics is a good thing if you're Dr. Marcy Faustin. Faustin is a co-head team physician for USA women's gymnastics. Paris will be her second Olympics. The delayed Tokyo Games were her first Olympic experience. She thought protecting her athletes from COVID-19 and injury would be her main challenge. Instead, she found herself thrust into one of the most seismic moments in sports when superstar Simone Biles had to withdraw from competition to take care of her mental health. "What Simone was able to do is show that you need to take care of yourself first even if she feels the external pressure of the gymnastics community, the Olympics and the world needing her to be the face of the Games. It allowed other people to say, 'I'm not doing OK right now and I'm having a hard time,'" Faustin said. "The Simone effect" rippled through the Games and the world, giving other athletes the freedom to admit the mental toll training and competing takes. Protecting the mind is as important as protecting the