The Reality of Mental Health Struggles Among Olympic Athletes
| Google Reviews
Peace Valley Recovery is located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Our mission is to provide patient-centered care that focuses on healing and recovery from addiction. This blog provides information, news, and uplifting content to help people in their recovery journey.
Imagine sprinting 82 feet down a narrow runway, launching yourself onto a springboard, vaulting off of a four-foot-high table, and then performing 2 flips and 2 ½ twists before landing.
Now try to imagine doing that after losing your sense of balance.
And then add the pressure of doing it in front of a worldwide audience who expects you to perform it perfectly.
What kind of impact would that stress have on your mental wellbeing?
This is the exact situation Simone Biles found herself in before choosing to step down from competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She found herself racked by a case of the “twisties”, a phenomenon where a gymnast’s brain suddenly loses track of where they are in the air. Rather than risk her physical health, Biles chose not to compete in the finals and immediately found herself under a horrendous amount of backlash.
But could you perform under the same conditions?
Pressure Despite Potential Danger
After watching dozens of flawless perfect flips performed during Olympic competitions over the years, it’s easy to forget about the immense danger of these stunts. The very real risk of injury for these athletes often becomes an afterthought. They make the twists, flips, and spins look as effortless as walking down the street; especially high-level gymnasts like Simone Biles.
Her 7 Olympic medals, 4 of which are gold, only serve to support this phenomenon. She’s recognized as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time and everyone expects her to live up to that, coaches and coordinators included. During a 2016 interview with Marta Karolyi, former U.S. national team coordinator, Karolyi insisted that fear is not a problem at the elite level.
However, Biles’ difficult decision to gracefully bow out from competition showed that this isn’t the case. Only now are gymnasts starting to acknowledge and push back against this relentless pressure to perform. These elite athletes are as human as anyone else. The worldwide expectation of perfection takes a toll no matter how “used to it” you may be.
“I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times,” Biles wrote in an Instagram post before stepping down from competing. “I know I brush it off and make it seem like the pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard.”
Mental Health in High-Level Sports
The multi-million dollar contracts, various product sponsorships, and nationwide recognition (or even worldwide recognition) that high-level athletes receive may seem like the dream lifestyle for the everyday individual. How could you possibly be upset when you’re paid exorbitant sums of money to play sports, more than most people make in their lifetimes?
An estimated 46.6 million adults in the United States, or about 1 in 5 people, live with mental illness. Exercise is often touted as a natural remedy for mental health troubles. Although that might be the case for people living normal lives, those healing effects fall to the wayside when you have millions of people expecting a constant stream of greatness from you.
The pressure to perform doesn’t only apply on the field, the court, or the mat, either. Many people place professional athletes on pedestals and assume the same from their overall lives. Similar to celebrities who struggle in that neverending spotlight, the demand for perfection is a strain on their mental health.
Researchers are finally looking into the mental health of athletes competing in high-level sports and the results are alarming. 33% of college-level student-athletes reported feeling considerable symptoms of anxiety, depression, or another mental health condition. Additionally, 35% of professional athletes suffer from a mental health crisis at some point.