"Athletes are human too": Why Simon Biles's withdrawal from Olympics rightly highlights the need for mental health awareness in every field


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Olympics 2020 have kickstarted with a good high after a year's lull driven by the pandemic. With stringent measures and protocols in place, athletes are intensively training to bring home laurels. However, that’s coming at a pricey cost for some of the athletes, such as Simone Biles.

Celebrated athlete and medal-winning, high-profile gymnast’s recent exit from the Tokyo Olympics was not just shocking for fans across the world, but also highlighted a very important point- why mental health matters for sportspersons too.

The 24-year-old renowned US gymnast, whose initial pullout was cited to be a medical injury was later said to be because of mental health issues. In a later conference, her words post the exit not just explained the state of mind she was in, but also won her a different kind of laurels.

"It's been really stressful this Olympic games... it's been a long week, a long Olympic process, a long year. I think we're a little too stressed out — we should be out here having fun and that's just not the case."

In recent months, Japanese tennis player and the world. number 01, Naomi Osaka withdrew from a post-match press conference citing high stress, which also invited her a huge fine and ire, but solidarity from fellow athletes.

Many more Olympians have been vocal about their struggles, particularly hard training sessions during the pandemic, and most of all, how the drive to win has become extra hard on their health.

Even so, while talking of their struggles and challenges haven't brought the athletes medals, mental health professionals worldwide have been lauding them with medals of bravery for speaking of such a taboo, widely undiscussed topic, and it's time we pay attention too- mental health, matters, be it in your personal life or professional life.

International sporting events, including the Olympics, can be extremely challenging and mentally daunting

The Olympics are as good a time as any to highlight the challenges and pressures sporting events can come with.

While sportspersons and athletes have an in-built competitive and resilient spirit in them, the competition in itself can get quite scary. Biles' pull out right before the team finals event is now serving as a good example of the undiscussed mental health issues amongst Olympians and athletes in general.

The competitive spirit for one, and the pressure to excel, in an event of such a broad spectrum, can invite undue stress and anxiety. With the Olympics, not only could athletes represent their best talent at the sporting show, but also represent the country, and hence, there could be immense pressure to do well or win 'exemplary honours. Skateboarder Nyjah Huston, who was placed 7th in the Olympic event also recently talked of the challenges and the pressures he faces, like many of his peers of being an 'internationally-medal winning athlete'. Taking to Instagram, the acclaimed athlete shared that he often struggles to treat the sport as a sport, and feels bad if he doesn't win all the time.

"I feel like I let a lot of people down. I’ve had a lot of high moments in my career over the years but I’ve also had some very low ones and It’s something I’ve always mentally battled and tried to be better at. I’m human and dealing with all the pressure and expectations really isn’t easy at times. I’m also just so damn competitive and the downside to that is me being really hard on myself when I don’t skate good. Like days after contests when I just don’t wanna talk to anyone and replay everything I did wrong over and over."

He also added that he is working to prioritize his mental health, and feel okay with both success and failure as he moves forward:

"Mental health is so important! I’m gonna continue to work on being happier and just being thankful to even be in this position of living my dream of being a professional skateboarder. Because when it comes down to it. I don’t skate to be the best, or to be famous, or make money, or just be an Olympian."

Why do sports invite high pressure?

Another athlete, swimmer Simone Manuel, shared that she went through modes of depression, anxiety and sleeplessness because of overtraining for the Olympics event, which she ultimately didn't end up qualifying for. Overtraining syndrome is an often-discussed, negative aspect of sporting events as such, with athletes facing immense scrutiny for their performance.

While mental illness and poor well-being could strike anyone, researchers also say that Olympians particularly, and sportspersons participating in such high-profile events are more susceptible to poor mental health and illness than others, because of the different challenges they face. Identity struggles, personal, financial pressure to do well, the honour of representing the country, post-event-crash and unavailability (or lack of) adequate mental health resources also make problems worse for sportspersons and put their mental health in jeopardy. A survey also highlighted that amongst elite athletes, the rates of anxiety and depression could be as high as 45-50%.

Being a celebrity athlete, while, comes with its own glory and accomplishment also requires a lot of sacrifices, hard work and foregoing comfort, which not just requires a lot of courage, but comes with side-effects too. Many athletes, also suffer from eating disorders and performance pressure challenges. Being called on stage, representing their country at an international level can also invite extreme pressure, which is something Naomi Osaka also highlighted as one of her reasons.

Osaka, who, too bowed out of the Olympics this week (July 27) also addressed that taking a stand, focussing on her well-being and not giving in to the pressure of presentations after match events helped her calm nerves to an extent, and do away with some of the pressures which accompany being on stage.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the postponing of Olympics as well as other training sporting events only made problems worse and brought upon a hard mental health crisis.

While Olympians are now being applauded for taking such a brave stand for speaking up and allowing us to peek into their not-so-perfect, struggle some lives in the limelight, many also feel that when elite athletes speak up, it allows other people pursuing sports to prepare themselves well, and know what to expect, and when to speak up about issues.
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