Dr. Kim Bissell
Dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. She studies the intersection of sport and health communication, with an emphasis on media effects, and body image and mental health in women athletes.
Email: kbissell@lsu.edu
Twitter: @KimLBissell
One of the top stories from the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games was the evolving story of Simone Biles, a.k.a. “The G.O.A.T.,” removing herself from the individual all-around competition after experiencing what she called “The Twisties” during a gymnastics practice. Her decision to step back and focus on her mental health raised praise and criticism, as some questioned her ability to “tough it out”. Later, The Associated Press reported that a significant portion of Team USA athletes at the Tokyo Games faced mental health challenges. Specifically, just under half of the athletes reported experiencing issues such as anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, eating disorders, or substance abuse. This statistic highlights the growing awareness and acknowledgment of mental health issues in the sports world, reflecting the pressures and stresses that athletes often face. It also underscores the importance of providing mental health support and resources to help them manage these challenges effectively.
However, the storytelling that occurs during the Olympic Games is often focused on athletes’ challenges and triumphs with mental health remaining a relatively invisible and unspoken topic for conversation. Despite the backlash Biles received from some on social and news media, she also received tremendous support from other “G.O.A.T.’s” in their respective sports–Michael Phelps and Serena Williams, among others. While Phelps and Williams have spoken publicly about their mental health struggles before Biles, some credit Biles with elevating the issue to the Olympic platform for the Paris 2024 Games.
Mental health has increasingly become a part of the narrative in sports conversations as more athletes are beginning to speak publicly about the games being more than physical. As several have noted, athletes aren’t questioned when a physical injury has occurred and an athlete has to take time off; however, that acceptance often has not carried over into recovering from a more invisible illness such as mental health.
Olympian Michael Phelps stated that he started experiencing depression following the closing of the 2004 Olympic Games and experienced it again after the 2008 Olympics. It was only in 2014 when he began to realize what he had experienced and called it a post-Olympic depression. Apolo Ohno, Shaun White, Bode Miller, Lolo Jones, and Sasha Cohen have also gone public about their struggles before, during, and after Olympic competition. However, stigma, largely, still surrounds mental health, especially in the context of sport, until Biles’ story started to unfold. In conversations following the Tokyo Games, Biles stated, “It is ok to not be ok.” This statement paired with that of other professional athletes, some who had not spoken publicly about the issue, became a turning point where conversations about mental health and well-being were normalized rather than stigmatized.
When asked about how she has managed her mental health in between the Tokyo and Paris Games, Biles noted the use of a therapist as well as training herself in meditation to help center herself prior to a competition. While Biles is credited with initiating these mental health conversations, many other Paris 2024 athletes have used their own social media platforms to share their stories and struggles with mental health.
After winning the gold in the 100m, Noah Lyles took to Twitter to share his struggles with depression, anxiety, ADD, allergies, asthma and dyslexia, noting, “What you have does not define what you can become.” Men’s gymnastics sensation Stephen Nedoroscik, referred to as the “pommel horse guy,” was seen meditating on a chair with headphones on prior to competing in his only Olympic event where he helped his team win Olympic Bronze, saying the practice allowed him to focus and get the job done. Following the conversations across media platforms about athletes and mental health, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee expanded its mental health services, including the addition of 14 mental health professionals and making available other physical and mental health practitioners to athletes. As the 2024 Paris Olympic Games came to a close, athletes returned home, some with medals in hand, and were able to celebrate the pinnacle of global sports as Olympians. More importantly, this wave of elite athletes who have spoken publicly about mental health has allowed viewers and sports fans to see them as humans rather than machines who can’t be broken.
Giana Levy, writing for Refinery29.com said, “But for me, these games, more than ever before, have elevated mental health alongside physical health, and therefore reduced its stigma, as keys to winning in sports as well as in life. Images of athletes taking time to relax, meditate or even sleep while waiting between events is a great reminder to the millions of people watching that even the best need to focus on their inner selves, too.” Levy further elaborated, “the prize that genuinely matters for athletes has come from conquering the battle from within.”
