The Courage Of Simone Biles

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This past weekend, Olympian Simone Biles competed for the U.S. Gymnastics Championship title—and won in convincing form. The achievement notched Biles her eighth all-around U.S. title, a record. At 26, Biles is also the oldest person to win the national award since the event’s inception 60 years ago.

And yet, as Forbes contributor Penny Abeywardena writes here, even more impressive than Biles’ near-perfect Yurchenko double pike vault is the manner in which she has returned to competition after a two-year break for her mental health. Biles was “contending with a high bar of social pressure,” Abeywardena writes, and yet has chosen to return to the sport on her own terms.

“She chose to bear witness to what so many professionals, in sports and other fields, are only now discovering: that a mental health setback need not be permanently debilitating nor worthy of a stigma,” Abeywardena says. “Biles’ courage in changing perceptions of mental health has made her a champion for all times.”

Cheers to that!

Maggie

Featured Forbes Profile: A $43 Billion Value Investor’s Winning Formula For Buying Unloved Foreign Stocks

Sarah Ketterer, CEO of Causeway Capital Management, thinks most of the gloom is in the past for international stocks and is now eyeing a buffet of companies with glaring valuation gaps compared to U.S. peers. The Los Angeles-based firm managing $43 billion is already outperforming with its portfolio of undervalued stocks it selects through a blend of quantitative screens and fundamental analysis. “The benefit of investing internationally is finding less well-trodden, less well-understood companies listed in markets that many people are neglecting,” says Ketterer. Read more.

ICYMI: News Of The Week

Backed by $120 million in venture funding, Stanford professor Christina Smolke’s company Antheia just completed its first scaled production of thebaine, a key ingredient for several essential drugs, using a process that looks very similar to beer-brewing.

Women serving in the U.S. Army’s elite Special Operation Forces face “blatant sexism,” according to a new study by the US Army Special Operations Command. And nearly half of the women in this military branch must wear equipment that doesn’t fit correctly.

The new Professional Women’s Hockey League was officially unveiled on Tuesday, along with its original six franchise locations — Boston, New York and Minnesota on the U.S. side and Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal in Canada.

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie passed another huge milestone Monday when it surpassed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 as Warner Bros.’s highest-grossing movie ever, the company said, after Barbie’s sixth consecutive weekend bringing in more than $15 million.

FIFA suspended Luis Rubiales, president of Spain’s soccer federation, for planting an unwanted kiss on star forward Jennifer Hermoso during the Women’s World Cup award ceremony. The incident has renewed conversations about sexism in soccer and, more broadly, unwanted physical contact in professional settings.

The Checklist

1. Make your emotions your superpower at work. Emotional intelligence is one of the most sought-after skills in leaders. Here’s how to better recognize and act on your feelings.

2. Master the art of worse-case-scenario planning. It starts with one simple question: What could put our company out of business in the next year? Ask your employees for honest feedback, and from those conversations, an action plan can emerge.

3. Accept that email is overwhelming us. If email paralyzes you or produces procrastination in a way that other seemingly small tasks don’t, it’s because of the psychological, emotional and even sometimes physical responses your body has to the task at hand. Here’s how to set some boundaries.

The Quiz

Tennis star Ons Jabeur, ranked No. 5 in the world, seeks to become the first African woman to win a Grand Slam as she competes at the U.S. Open this week. Which North African country does she hail from?