Simone Biles was all over my social media feeds after Monday's episode of Dancing with the Stars. Her feedback from judge Carrie Ann Inaba included some negative and positive comments, which Biles listened to respectfully. When Biles and her partner were interviewed by host Tom Bergeron, he chided her for her reaction, "I was waiting for you to smile at some of the compliments — you didn't."
One of Inaba's comments was that it was great when "you let out your signature smile after you did your trick," which seems to move from an objective assessment of the trick, to Biles' emotions after performing it. I don't know if that's one of the "compliments" Bergeron was referring to, but if it is, I don't blame Biles for not being visibly excited to hear it. And no one deserves to have their facial expressions- or their emotions- policed.
What I know of Simone Biles I mostly learned watching the Summer Olympics, and here is what I gathered: 1) She is an incredibly talented gymnast, and an extremely hard-working and focused one. 2) Gymnastics coaches are not shy about telling their athletes what they've wrong and right, and even though she's only 20 years old, Simone Biles has a lot of experience getting feedback. It's probably been in her best interest to learn to take it in without putting herself on an visible emotional rollercoaster. 3) She seems to take a lot of pride in her abilities, and takes her performances seriously, but also is genuinely happy when she or her teammates do well. 4) Simone Biles isn't about to let Tom Bergeron tell her what expression she should wear. Her response:
