If You Can’t Beat Them, Change The Rules: “The Biles” And Unfair Barriers For Excellence In America

When it comes to merit, achievement, and excellence in the gymnastics world, Simone Biles is literally changing the game. Her landslide win in the all-around competition at the US National Championships in August 2019 included a triple-twisting double somersault in her floor routine so complex that on the international A-I scale for difficulty, judges concurred that Biles ought to earn a “J” rating for this move. As a result, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) updated their ranking system to account for the unquestionable difficulty of this move. This move is officially known as “The Biles II” after she executed it successfully October 5 at the World Gymnastics Championship qualifying round.

“The Biles” is her other signature no-one-in-the-world-but-her-can-do-this move: a double-twisting, double somersault dismount off of the balance beam. She nailed this move at the very same competition on the very same day.

But despite the unquestionable difficulty of “The Biles,” FIG assigned the move a difficulty rating of “H.” Although no one in the world can currently do this move but Simone Biles, FIG chose not to value this move as an “I” or a as a “J” which may have also been appropriate. FIG justified this by claiming that this move carries increased risks for gymnasts, “including a potential landing on the neck.” Aside from the fact that from a layperson’s perspective, every gymnastics move seems like it could result in a potential landing on the neck, something seems familiar about this situation. It turns out that creating rules to stifle excellence is an all too common, cross-sector approach to limiting competition.

Opposing teams could not defend against slam dunks by UCLA’s 7’2” center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then named Lew Alcindor) and other incredibly gifted athletes, so the NCAA decided to ban dunks for several years from 1967-1977. They cited safety concerns and damaged equipment as the reason for the ban. Because it certainly had nothing to do with Alcindor’s dominance leading UCLA to a 30-0 season and national championship.

Rich Paul, agent to National Basketball Association superstars like LeBron James and Anthony Davis negotiated over $625 million in contract deals. This did not stop the NCAA from creating a certification process for agents that required them to have a bachelor’s degree. This rule was later rescinded after observers dubbed it the “Rich Paul Rule” because Paul obtained his tremendous success despite not earning a bachelor’s degree. Because college athletes need to be protected from unscrupulous actors. And anyone without a college degree can’t be trusted, right?

The “if you can’t beat them, change the rules” mantra is not limited to sports. In politics, jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination were required to seek preclearance for changes to their elections law until the Supreme Court overturned this requirement in in 2013. Unsurprisingly, as nonwhites have grown to represent one third of the electorate, jurisdictions previously subject to preclearance have purged their voting rolls at a rate 40 percent higher than jurisdictions without this history of discrimination. Anything to protect the integrity of our elections, right?

In business, the urge to stifle competition by changing the rules is oddly ubiquitous despite the common rallying cry for free-market capitalism. Almond milk and soy milk companies continue to fight for the right to call their increasingly popular plant-based products “milk” because of lawsuits from dairy farmers. Restaurant owners across the country push for laws to limit competition from food trucks. And in Los Angeles where street vending has been decriminalized, food trucks are now fighting against unlicensed street vendors using similar logic. Even a successful African hair braider in Utah ended up fighting against her state cosmetology board to unsuccessfully argue that she should not be forced to cosmetology school (which does not include classes on African hair braiding) to continue her thriving business.

Instead of changing the rules to limit excellence, what if our knee-jerk reaction to excellence, merit, and achievement was to exhibit more excellence, show greater levels of merit, and accelerate achievement? This would be a notable difference from our status quo where we root for the underdog but sabotage the underdog’s success. Because when we look at the odds that must be overcome for a Simone Biles to become a legendary gymnast or for a Rich Paul to become a successful sports agent, their degree of difficulty is already at its maximum. So here’s hoping we can exchange this unfortunate status quo for a new rule: “If you can’t beat them, do better.”