Simply recognize that although her athletic talents are quite notable, but she is not a big enough person to be magnanimous towards those less talented. Perhaps if she had obtained Olympic victory, rather than serious health issues, as the result of her training, she could be bigger.

Instead, she is a no-name compared to most popular gymnasts that people who watch TV sports relate closely to (despite having written a confessional memoir). It irritates her that people identify with her when they should rightfully be 99.5% as impressed and worshipful as if Nadia fuckin' Comaneci were in their living rooms, since that difference is all that separates Jennifer from Nadia in talent and drive.

Jennifer was great at gymnastics, but suffers from very obvious deficits in some other skills. It shows no more kindness or humility to scorn her for these deficits than she shows in her essay.

That logic is amazing.

Will anyone be able to talk to Michael Phelps about swimming, or gold medals? The guy has won more gold medals then some countries have won in the entire history of the modern Olympics. Can you imagine some poor Olympic swimmer with "only" 2 or three medals trying to understand what it takes to win over 12 gold medals or more?

Or take baseball. You have the weekend warrior, who is nothing compared to the triple-a player, who can't touch the MLB player, who is a notch below the All-Star, who isn't quite as good as the Hall-of-Famer who can only wish he had been in on the first ballot.

This is about the lines that we draw to catergorize people by ability, achievement, and distinction. I can do it better, therefore a am better,

I don't know if you're a jerk or not -- my comment isn't really about you. It's about your perception of what others are thinking when they watch Olympians compete. For the rest of us, however much we treasure our youthful sports pursuits, they were at least partly a clear demonstration of our lack of elite talent. Sports aren't very forgiving, and few people are dim enough to think they're deeply talented when they're not.

I was an excellent pitcher in Little League, and a thoroughly mediocre one in high school. The very best pitchers I knew in high school didn't make it to the pros, and those people I've met who did make it to the pros didn't succeed there. Every step in that ladder is farther removed from my own achievements, more and more unattainable. Same thing with my bicycle racing, and my daughter's distance running. We enjoyed it, we did better than we expected, and we weren't nearly as good as the people who weren't nearly good enough to compete in the Olympics. We get it, really. Not every detail of an Olympian's dedication, but the vast gulf between their athletic achievements and our own. That sense of awe is why we watch -- unscripted excellence is wonderfully engaging and inspiring. I'm not sure why we should feel embarrassed to care, even though we're not on the inside.

Sorry Jennifer but without all those "former athletes" and "wannabes"and "coulda wouldas" there would be very little market for what you used to do and virtually no market for what you write

...who thinks she's better than everybody else. You really think you're special because of your genetic gifts? Give me a break. Jennifer, you're no different than someone who is tall making fun of short people. The arrogance of the special people who play sports is undending.

The funny thing is athletes are only there because of the fans. Just like there wouldn't be any cows if people didn't like hamburgers or writers if there weren't readers there wouldn't be any obsessively trained athletes if there weren't people who found amusement in watching them. We make you possible. We delayed your puberty and made you wear ugly leotards.

This is why great unwashed who run a mere 15 miles a week despise athletes, revel in your failures and read Deadspin.

as there are a lot of judgmental jerks on this thread.

It's amusing to see so many people get their panties in a twist over this article, which expresses a sentiment I see regularly on Salon's threads. The "You don't know what is like to be really hurt/sick/gifted/poor/in love/educated in this field/broken hearted/etc/" theme is universal. It's fairly common for people to feel that an equating an experience of lesser magnitude belittles their own. Sey admits as much and admits that her behavior is jerky.

Apparently a number of the people on this thread expect her to crucify herself because she doesn't feel universally positive about her experience or in her response to people. It would be a pity if that became the norm around here. None of us would be able to type anymore with the chunks of steel running through our wrists.

you're not a jerk. You are, and recognizing it doesn't make it better .

Articles such as yours that put an inflammatory position out there for no reason other than to get a rise out of people, trot out your storied past, and oh right, mention how much effort these wonderful athletes put in every day serve little purpose. You could have praised them all without bringing your condescending attitude to the table--but you honestly seem just as proud of that as any athletic ability.

I played tennis in high school and college. Chronic wrist injuries kept me from continuing further, however I follow the sport enthusiastically and yes I tell my daughters "I played tennis", because I did, and no ego-driven semantics-obsessed jounanlist is going to tell me otherwise.

Being a gymnast, and being an Olympic gymnast are decidedly different. However, participating in a sport in any form, gives a person a fondness and appreciation for it that is indeed special, something you cannot take away, whether it is for controversy or humor.

I'm a professional drummer. Since I was a little kid, I've practiced, learned to read music, worked at drumming. I've been getting paid for doing it since I was a young teenager and I've played in front of millions of people (that's an estimate, maybe it's only hundreds of thousands). When people come up to me after a show or on the street and tell me "I'm a drummer, too," it makes me happy - they aren't truly trying to compare our abilities or level of commitment or history or the blood, sweat and tears of blown auditions (there have been some) or saying they have felt the thrill of getting a huge ovation playing in a baseball stadium - they're just finding common ground and feeling a little comraderie with someone who just had a little star dust sprinkled on them for a minute. Lighten up. However snotty you want to be about it, these people did, in fact, do gymnastics or swim or whatever when they were kids. Just not as well or in as committed a way as you did. And no, I'm not the world champion drummer, so I guess you'll say I'm not qualified to talk to you about this either.