Lydia Jacoby was a rising star in the pool for the United States at the last Summer Games, winning the gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke and silver in the relay. Part of what comes to mind from those heady days in Tokyo? “People talking about post-Olympic depression,” she said.
She was 17 at the time and her initial response when other athletes broached the subject was, “Well, that doesn’t apply to me.”
“I essentially didn’t understand the topic of depression,” she said. “It was only after the Games that I thought, ‘Oh. … OK. Yes, I’m feeling that a little.
Jacoby, who did not qualify for the 2024 Olympicsis now fully aware of the phenomenon, has experienced it, overcome it and discusses it casually, which points to how things have changed in just a few years when it comes to mental health.
With the Paris Games opening on Friday, followed by the Paralympics starting on August 28, athletes have more access than ever to the resources of this once-taboo realm and seem more willing than ever to use them. This seems particularly significant given that Jessica Bartley, senior director of psychological services at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, says that about half of the country’s athletes at the last two Olympics were flagged for at least one of the following: anxiety, depression, sleep, eating disorders, substance use or abuse.
“We really are just part of the conversation now,” Bartley said, “and not an afterthought or anything like that when someone is struggling.”
Among the key questions now: Will everyone seek the help they need? And is there enough help available?
As for the former, Bartley said, “I’d like to think we’re over the hump, but we’re not there yet. I feel like there’s still some stigma. I think there’s still some connections to ‘weakness.'” ‘”
And the second? “I think there could still be more” track star Gabby Thomas said, “but, I mean, they’re there.”
Three Olympic athletes – Simone Biles It is Naomi Osakawho participated in the last Summer Games postponed by the pandemic and is returning, and retired swimmer michael phelpswho has more medals than anyone in any sport — has provided some of the loudest voices in the growing global debate in sports and society at large about the importance of protecting, evaluating and improving the state of the mind as well as the body.
Phelps spoke about having suicidal thoughts at the height of his career and helped produce a documentary about depression among Olympic athletes. He also called on the International Olympic Committee and the USOPC to do more.
“I think there is something to be said when a lot of really good athletes talk about the same topic. I know that not all athletes feel the same; you have to be a certain type or be in a certain mental space. Some people just feel things differently,” said Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 tennis player who lit the cauldron in Japan.
She has spoken openly about her bouts of anxiety and depression and was one of the first sports figures to take a break from competition to take care of her mental health, paving the way for others.
Osaka, for her part, said she felt “very heard” listening to Biles and Phelps.
“I’m sure a lot of different athletes felt heard as well,” Osaka said. “They didn’t feel like it was a weakness or anything like that, so I’m really glad we all talked about it.”
Biles, who redefined excellence in gymnastics and won seven Olympic medals along the way, drew attention, and some criticism, for withdrawing from events in Tokyo because of a mental block — known in the gymnastics world as “the twisties” – this made her afraid to try certain dangerous moves.
The fact that his explanations for what went wrong occurred in such a public setting as Tokyo’s Biggest Star only made it all the more meaningful for other athletes.
“She didn’t need it,” said the basketball player Breanna Stewart, a WNBA MVP. “She used her platform to help other people.”
What Biles did resonated with athletes like kayaker Nevin Harrisongold medalist in Tokyo, who said that “anxiety, fear, stress… will all play a role in competing at such a high level.”
Biles made them see that there could be a way out.
“I was, once, in that place,” said boxer Morelle McCane, “where I was like, ‘It’s do or die! It’s do or die!'”
Janet Evans won four swimming gold medals at the 1988 and 1992 Games and recalls the constant pressure to perform well. In her time, she says, there wasn’t the empathy or means of help available like there are for Olympic athletes today.
“We don’t talk about the fights. Nobody taught me that it’s okay to lose, right? I mean, I was Janet Evans, and when I went to a swim meet, I was supposed to win,” Evans said, the athlete director of the 2028 Los Angeles Games. “We talk about it now and we recognize it with our athletes. And I think that’s an important first step.”
Which means that even at 38 rugby player Perry Baker has undergone changes since his Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
“You had to endure it. You kind of felt alone. You kind of felt like you couldn’t talk to anyone,” said Baker, who was briefly with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.
The balance national Olympic committees must strike between caring about athletes as people and ensuring medals accumulate is “threading the needle,” Evans acknowledged.
“We should go to the Olympics and Paralympics and win medals. But I don’t think it should come at the expense of how we are preparing our athletes for the future,” Evans said. “Both can happen.”
That’s where Bartley and his counterparts in other countries and at the IOC come in.
The Beijing Winter Games two years ago were the first with additional credentials issued to national Olympic committees to bring athlete welfare officers – registered mental health professionals or qualified safeguarding specialists – and more than 170 people from more than 90 countries will be in Paris.
“We didn’t have this in Tokyo and now it will be implemented at every Games,” said Kirsty Burrows, head of an IOC unit focused on athletes’ mental health. “Because we really see the impact.”
There will be a 24/7 helpline with mental health counselors who speak more than 70 languages, a program started for the Beijing Games but now available to all Olympic and Paralympic athletes up to four years after the event. There’s also AI to monitor athletes’ social media for cyberbullying and a “mind zone” in the athletes’ village with a yoga area, low lighting, comfortable seating and other tools “dedicated to disconnecting and decompression,” Burrows said.
The USOPC has gone from six mental health providers three and a half years ago to 15 now; 14 will be in France. Last year, 1,300 Team USA athletes participated in more than 6,000 therapy sessions hosted by the USOPC.
“I expect the numbers to be even higher,” said Bartley, “especially in a Games year.”
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