“Let down the country” – Twitterati fumes as Simone Biles receives Presidential Medal of Freedom ahead of swimming legend Michael Phelps

“Let down the country” – Twitterati fumes as Simone Biles receives Presidential Medal of Freedom ahead of swimming legend Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps and Simone Biles

Simone Biles along with the United States women’s national soccer team star, Megan Rapinoe, and 15 others received the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House. Though this may have been a joyous occasion for many, Michael Phelps fans didn’t react positively on Twitter regarding it. They clearly showed their dissatisfaction with the honor achievement and questioned their ruling.

Many are agreeing that Michael Phelps is more than worthy to receive the award instead of Simone Biles, without disregarding her contribution to the athletic world. Both the athletes are extraordinary in their own fields and have contributed to their specific sports in a lot of ways. Questions arose as to why Simone was chosen and Phelps weren’t given the same consideration. 

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Supporters of Michael Phelps upset at the decision of the White House

Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps

According to the White House, there were several reasons for choosing Simone Biles instead of Michael Phelps. They noted that Simone’s achievement included reasons beyond that of sports. She has vastly contributed to conversations around mental health in sports, and advocated for children in foster care and victims of sexual assault, as noted on essentiallysports.com. 

Though this explanation was not enough to calm the Phelps fans who were already dissing her on Twitter. As for record tallies, Phelps has 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold, and has won across 4 Olympic games. He is the definition of what it means to dominate a sport. He is regarded as one of the greatest athletes ever.

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He shared his story with others, for them to learn from it, “Hopefully, I can save a life. I can help somebody else because I know the feelings that I have, had, what I go through every single day, every single week, every single month. I know I’m not alone and I understand that for me it’s OK to not be OK,” he exclaimed. Both Simone and Phelps have strongly cemented themselves in their sports history. None of them is any less deserving than the other.

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