Mitchell Johnson: Saya and Kai Sakakibara are Olympic inspirations, Simone Biles proves haters wrong

Only a few days ago I was watching the story on Saya and Kai Sakakibara, the brother-sister BMX-riding duo. My kids were watching with me and it was quite emotional for so many reasons.

Other parents who have kids playing sport probably had many of the same feelings watching that story.

When my kids found out Saya won gold in her event on Saturday morning, they told me they were both very happy, but also sad at the same time. Sad for Kai, but so happy for Saya.

I did tell them that Kai is trying to be ready for the next Paralympics as a rower and they were pretty impressed by that.

It’s such a emotional story for their whole family and their friends. I’m sure it’s been a difficult ride, but now they must be so proud of Saya and Kai.

Saya was at the Tokyo Olympics but crashed out, which left her knocked out and suffering from concussion.

She had doubts about competing after that, so to be able to mentally get herself back into the positive mindset shows great strength and character.

There is nothing more satisfying in sport and life than coming back from your biggest setbacks.

Having your mind telling you not to go back out there or thinking ‘what if I crash again’, is not easy to overcome. It takes a massive amount of courage to get back out there. Especially at an Olympics.

I think sometimes athletes get a bad wrap because some people think it’s easy to do and see it as something you love doing — so it can’t be that hard, right?

I use to struggle with that kind of thinking, because, in actual fact it’s much more than just a fun thing to do. It is your career and a significant part of your lift. Good athletes don’t get lucky, they are dedicated and committed just like anyone else in any career.

To me, both Saya and Kai prove this. Saya, with her failed Tokyo Olympics and almost career-ending crash. Kai, with his career and almost life-ending crash. But both returned and never gave up.

Saya is now the BMX Olympic champion and Kai fought for his life and is now looking to become a rower and an elite athlete again. To me, that is inspirational no matter if you like sport or not.

I look forward to seeing where this story goes in the future. Let’s say it doesn’t all go to plan for Kai — although I’m sure it will — he has already made his family and friends proud, I’m sure.

There seems to be a fair bit of controversy around these Paris Games and it would be easy for me to write about some of it.

But for me the Olympics is about this type of triumph and I have enjoyed taking it in. I’m trying to keep politics out of it. I’ll leave that to others.

I have followed more of the events including Australians, but I was drawn into watching an American gymnast.

My family watched the Simone Biles documentary before the Games started and found it really interesting.

While I only saw bits of it, I found two parts of it really interesting. The first thing that got me was her upbringing. For a young child to go through what she did and to become the greatest gymnast with three or four different tricks named after her — I think it is incredible.

And the second thing was just how much she was crucified by her own media for pulling out of the Tokyo Olympics with the “twisties” — a serious conditions for gymnasts where they basically lose any idea where their body is in relation to the ground.

I like the way she has been so open about it in the documentary. She has shown her fans and the public that the reason she pulled out was because she didn’t want to let her team mates down and not —as was written — that she let her team down.

She also had to make an extremely tough decision for her own safety.

Those who wrote and spoke about her decision had no clue what Biles was going through and decided to write garbage about her, are also probably those that are praising her after a successful games.

In the end, as an athlete, you do build resilience from being in the limelight. There is a certain responsibility that comes with that but also there is responsibility as a fan and a journalist too.

While I think overall these Paris Olympics has shone a light on some not-so positive things, our Australian athletes have made us proud.

To be still winning many golds so far into the Games and racking up the silver and bronze medals too, we seem to be in good shape to have a good finish.

Bring on the track and field!