There are still four months to go in 2021, but it’s safe to say that this will go down as the year when many supposedly superhuman sports stars finally decided it was OK to admit they are human after all.

Simone Biles withdrew from the Olympic gymnastics team final because the pressure had caused her to lose the ability to track her body as she tumbled through the air. Naomi Osaka pulled out of Grand Slam tennis tournaments to address her own mental health struggles. The runner Noah Lyles talked about taking antidepressant medication.