J.D. Vance's 2021 Critique of Simone Biles Resurfaces After Her Paris Olympics Win

After his 'childless cat ladies' comment, another of his remarks is here to haunt Republican VP pick, J.D. Vance. An old 2021 video doing the rounds on social media features Vance slamming gymnast Simone Biles for dropping out of the Tokyo Olympics. In the clip from a Fox News interview, Vance expressed his disapproval of both Biles' decision and the media's supportive response. He stated, "What I find so weird about this, and it reflects on the media more than it does on Simone Biles, is that we have tried to turn a very tragic moment — Simone Biles quitting the Olympic team — into this act of heroism."

Vance, who was not yet a senator at the time, went on to criticize what he termed a "therapeutic society." He argued, "I think it reflects pretty poorly on our sort of therapeutic society that we try to praise people not for moments of strength, not for moments of heroism, but for their weakest moments." Following Biles' performance in the 2024 Paris Olympics— she took leadership and helped the United States women's gymnastics team win gold in the all-around final— the Ohio senator's statements are gaining steam once more, as per the Daily Mail. 

During the old interview, although Vance acknowledged the pressure Biles faced, he maintained his criticism of the media's response. "Being an athlete at that level is incredibly tough...a normal response at this moment would be to say— 'It's just a shame that she is going through this. It is a shame that she quit'. But instead, what our press has done, I think, is turn this into this weird therapeutic moment. 'Let's praise her for doing this.' And I think that's really where the problem herein lies."

The resurfacing of his comments has kicked off a fresh conversation about mental health in sports. Many have also argued that Biles' choice to exit the Tokyo Olympics wasn't only about mental health. It was mainly about keeping herself safe physically due to the risks linked to the 'twisties.' Biles has talked a lot about what she went through since Tokyo. She even took a two-year break from competitive gymnastics before returning to compete in Paris, as per The Daily Beast.

Her recent performance, in which she scored the highest in the team final, has garnered her a lot of praise. The uproar over Vance's statements comes after he was chosen as Donald Trump's running mate in the 2024 race— an unavoidable job hazard as election candidates face relentless scrutiny. In another 2021 interview, that resurfaced recently, Vance made crude assertions regarding Vice President Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats. He had opined, “We’re effectively run in this country — via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs — by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. You look at Kamala Harris…”