Michael Phelps stands 6 feet, 4 inches tall.
Simone Biles stands 4 feet, 8 inches tall.
If you’re decent at math, you’ve already figured out that there is almost a two-foot difference between them, but that doesn’t tell the whole story, even though that’s the part of the story that most people would notice first.
There may be a difference in their size, but there’s a similarity in their health.
Sure, Phelps is tall and Biles is, ummm, less tall, but both of them are world-class athletes who spent considerable time at the pinnacle of their respective careers, and between them, they have 30 gold medals (23 for the swimmer and 7 for the gymnast).
So to make a snap judgement about them based on their size would be premature and, more than likely, inaccurate. The same could be said for linemen in the NFL who, at first glance, look like men who just like to sit around and eat donuts. But if you made that assumption on a football field, you’d get hurt when all that weight ran through you at top speed. They may be big, but they can move!
We even have expressions to remind us of this truth:
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
“Looks can be deceiving.”
