The psychological well-being of athletes is on full display at the Winter Olympics. Jamie Anderson, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, tumbled many times during the women’ slopestyle competition, finishing eighth. This week, she opened out about the incident, claiming the trigger was psychological.
Athletes discovered.
“I think what Simone achieved at the last Olympics was extremely encouraging and made all athletes feel like we’re important as persons, not just as athletes,” said figure skater Nathan Chen in October.
“And I think she almost created a precedent, since I didn’t even recognise she could do it. In fact, it made me feel better about who I am as an athlete. Realizing that, when it comes down to it, I can choose my future.'”
Arriving at Beijing, competitors like snowboarder Anna Gasser had similar feelings.
“It was a game changer,” Gasser told the New York Times. “Simone Biles’ message was that we’re not just athletes, but humans, not machines.”
Mikaela Shiffrin, one of the world’s best skiers, has also had issues in the Olympics, having not reached expectations. Although Shiffrin hasn’t addressed her mental health throughout these Olympics, commentators have compared her to Biles’ performance final 12 months in Tokyo.
“It’s an honour to train and compete with all of those courageous and incredible girls who have overcome so much to be here,” Shiffrin wrote on Twitter. “But being right here may also harm.”
Shiffrin said Saturday that she hasn’t decided if she’ll participate in the event Tuesday.
“It gives me a boost right now,” said the three-time Olympian. “So that’s the plan. But we’ll have to see how things go because there are areas of this track that some of the faster expert skiers will shine at and improve tomorrow. And I’m not sure where or how I can improve.”
The epidemic and solitude continue to stress
The burden continues as the Beijing Olympics proceed. The strains are there — representing a whole nation, only getting one chance every four years to compete at this level, living up to gold medal aspirations. And that’s just over an Olympics run.
It’s much worse with Covid-19, says Megan Buning of Florida State University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Athletic Teaching.
There are no cheerleaders, no family or friends to depend on. She also emphasised the extra geopolitical stress of competing in China, a hotspot of political issues.
Many people have lost family members, employment, or have been ill during Covid-19. On prime of that, many people have reported feeling worn out and stressed by living during a pandemic. Even Buning is fatigued, she says, but she hasn’t gotten sick and has worked through the epidemic.
Imagine you are an Olympian. Just as seasonal athletes watch and prepare differently during the pre-season, season, post-season, and off-season, Olympic competitors do the same. Like seasonal athletes, these athletes train for 4 years and peak during the Olympics, according to Buning.
After all, these athletes are trained to adapt to change. But they’re humans, too, and like us, many have felt the pandemic’s strain, tiredness, and burnout.
“When you have concerns like Covid additional stress, you feel tired,” Buning said.
Then there’s the risk of getting the virus, which means losing the second they’ve spent years training for. Vincent Zhou, 21, had to pass up a determined skating competition following a positive check.
During an emotional 5-minute video shared to Instagram, he says he’s taken all possible safeguards and distanced himself so much that the loneliness he’s felt recently has been devastating. “The magnitude of the situation, the agony of it all is absurd… yet I understand that this does not define me as an athlete, as a person.”
Conversations around mental health precede the past two Olympics.
Psychological issues predate Covid-19. Nick Goepper, a freestyle skier who won a bronze medal in 2014 in Sochi, talked out 4 years later about his challenges.
“In the summer of 2014, I had mental distress. And I started to lose emotional control “Goepper stated in a 2018 interview before the Pyeongchang Olympics. “I was drinking every day and thinking about how to end my life.”
Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams have all spoken up about the pressures of being a top athlete.
Last year, Osaka finished the Tokyo Olympics without a medal, an unexpected outcome for the four-time Grand Slam winner.
“I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure,” Osaka said at the time. “I guess it’s because I’ve never competed in the Olympics before, and the first year was a bit much.”
Some claim these athletes just crumbled under pressure, like Biles did in Tokyo, Buning said. Some believe players should grin and endure any pain, physical or mental, as shown by the classic remark from “A League of their Own”: “There isn’t any crying in baseball.”
“Men have always been told not to show emotion, but to push through it. But females have been informed as well. We’re just not wired that way. No one, “Buning cited.
Why current discussions about athletes’ mental health matter
It’s huge that so many people, especially women, have come up and spoken to the stress they’re under.
“I think females fear saying things out loud for fear of retaliation. And I believe the Williams sisters, Biles, and those who have spoken out since have done so with bravery. This is what I am feeling, regardless of what you think “Buning cited.
In 2020, the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee hired a mental health director. The committee also maintains a list of authorised mental health and performance providers, which Buning is on. Athletes’ psychological well-being is regarded seriously on certain stage.
While it’s unknown how many athletes are actually using these resources or managing their mental health, there is a general sense of more normality. Talking about it is a step.
