Gold Medal Mindset
SAMYUKTHA SRIDHAR | NOV. 10, 2021 | SPORTS
The world was stunned when Team USA gymnast Simone Biles announced she was pulling out of the team’s all-around final at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. This was a defining moment for the games, showing the world that athletes are more than just a form of entertainment. Viewers from all over the world tune in for sports games, wondering who will set the next big record, or which athletes will come back home with a medal, but the pressure of representing one’s country or even one’s school and its entire population can affect an athlete’s mental health for the worse.
This issue, present within athletic culture for centuries according to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, was brought to light only recently in the hopes of taking down the mental health stigma in sports. Athletes are taught at a young age to hide their vulnerability, with the emphasis being placed on their physical appearance. However, many viewers fail to see past the physique of the athletes, not realizing that they too face challenges and stressors. By stepping off the podium to take care of their mental health, Biles and many other athletes have brought attention to the ongoing mental health stigma in sports.
“Put your mental health first,” Biles said in an NBC interview in July. “That’s more important than any medal you can win.”
Many non-athletes are unaware of the mental health challenges athletes face due to the way they are portrayed in the media. After seeing famed athletes such as Jamaican track star Usain Bolt run 100 meters in 9.58 seconds in the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin and Georgian weightlifter Lasha Talakhadza lift 588 kilograms at the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships, people wonder whether athletes are even human.
Athletes like Biles are often drawn as superhumans, setting records that surpass the human limit. But despite their great physical health, an athlete’s participation in sports does not make them immune to mental health disorders. The overgeneralized stereotyping of athletes has caused a struggle in understanding the challenges athletes face mentally. While the media may showcase athletes as fierce and proud, the pressure to perform well while representing schools, school districts, states, and even nations can be incredibly challenging to cope with.
According to a 2019 NCAA survey, among professional athletes, “approximately 35% suffer from mental health issues including eating disorders, depression, burnout, and anxiety.” The Northern Ireland Association of Mental Health suggests competitive failure to be a leading cause of psychological distress among athletes. Similarly, the stresses elite athletes face are present among many high school athletes as well.
“At times, I definitely feel like my life is being consumed by the sports I participate in,” said Justice Lofton, a junior on Stanton’s varsity volleyball team. “It’s hard to balance life when there’s so much pressure on you to do well in one certain aspect of your life.”
The stress and anxiety such students face are present among all sports. As people become more serious about their sports, the pressure of leading the team and performing well can begin to exhaust them.
“As someone who has been playing a competitive sport for over five years, I've noticed that as i've gotten older and more experienced, I feel more pressured to represent the team and perform well in competitions,” said junior Harshadha Kondapalli, a tennis player for Stanton’s tennis team. “Feeling like you have the weight of the entire team placed on you is never an easy position to be in.”
Photo by Sarah Bernardo
As an athlete becomes more serious about the sport in which they participate, the intrinsic motivations become overlapped by extrinsic motivations. According to the Association for Applied Sports Psychology, most athletes begin their athletic careers through intrinsic motivation, where they are simply motivated by personal and meaningful rewards, such as the opportunity to learn more about the sport and explore their interests.
In time, athletes begin devoting a large portion of their lives to the sports in which they participate; this transforms their intrinsic motivation into extrinsic motivation, where their validation lies within the wins and gold medals they receive. This can result in a toxic mindset for many athletes since their reason to play isn’t for their self-satisfaction anymore, it’s for the fans, the team, the school, the country, etc.
“There is external pressure in sports outside of the regular internal motivations,” said Christian Romyanond, a junior on Stanton’s boys soccer team. “Winning can be an internal motivation, but when you also have the pressure to perform well for your team and those you are representing, your personal goals end up taking a backseat.”
The mental health stigma has remained a persistent concept in athletic culture. From a young age, athletes are constantly reminded to put on a face that reflects ferocity and strength. Likewise, they are taught to hide their feelings, claiming emotions and vulnerability make one weak. Historical stereotyping stemming from the creation of sports has led to the stigma found in present-day society. The historical social bias is what drives the stigma attached to athletes who suffer from mental health problems. When an athlete struggles with their mental health, they are labeled as “mentally weak,” and are ridiculed for it.
“Team members usually have a much more comfortable bond, which allows them to feel welcome even at vulnerable times,” said Romyanond. “But since there is such a lack of awareness and representation of athletic vulnerability in the media, it becomes difficult for athletes to embrace that side of themselves publicly.”
Although mental health issues are present among all sports, differences do exist between team sports and individual sports. Studies from the National Library of Medicine have found a greater prevalence of mental health disorders and psychological distress among individual sports athletes as opposed to those who compete as a team. Individual athletes have to own up to their failures and wins, whereas athletes in a team are able to share the responsibility. When individual sports athletes attribute themselves to failure due to a lacking performance, they become more susceptible to mental health struggles.
Biles and other athletes including tennis player Naomi Osaka, who withdrew from the French Open in June to take care of her mental health, have inspired many young athletes to prioritize their mental health By withdrawing from internationally recognized tournaments, these athletes have highlighted the importance of mental health.
“When athletes like Simone Biles put their mental health forward, it gives younger athletes like myself the confidence to do the same,” said Julia Adamczyk, a senior diver on Stanton’s swim and dive team. “‘The way she prioritized her mental health over an international competition is so empowering and shows how important mental health really is in sports.”
Recently, many athletes have started sharing their experiences on how competitions have affected their mental health and how they cope with it. The spread of awareness has given athletes the sympathy and recognition they have desired for so long, not for winning gold medals, but for enduring the hardships they face retrieving their gold medals.
“It comes to show that mental health should be weighted equally to that of physical health,” said Lofton. “And when I struggle with my mental health, I make sure to take time off to destress and focus on myself. That time to myself reinforces my importance as a human, and that my performance in competition is not what defines me.”
Blythe Benton, a sophomore on Stanton’s swim and dive team, has also learned to prioritize her mental health while still being involved in the sports she is passionate about. She emphasizes the importance of athletes taking time off for themselves and creating a balance.
“One of the biggest things that has helped me cope with the stress I face from sports and competition is having a routine,” said Benton. “I like to have days of the week reserved for practice and competition, and the remaining days reserved for time off, allowing me to cool off on my own and give my body and mind a break from all the stress and pressure of swim.”
While some people take a break from sports competitions, others use sports as a way of destressing. According to the Mayo Clinic Research Information Center, participating in sports can be an effective way for reducing stress levels. Activities like swimming, running, and biking, are all activities one can do solitarily to destress.
“Running is what cools me off. I find that running clears my mind and helps me disconnect from the pressures I face in pretty much all aspects of my life,” said Ian Kuhn, the senior captain of Stanton's cross country team.
Despite media portrayal, the lives of athletes aren’t always filled with gold medals. As athletes share their experiences concerning their mental health challenges, spectators are being asked to recognize them for who they are and not just their ability to compete. Together, athletes and non-athletes can work to erase the mental health stigma in sports.