The Weight of Gold

The Weight of Gold

Captivating a worldwide audience with her impish smile, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci scored the first-ever perfect 10 in the history of the Olympic event in 1976 and went on to win multiple gold medals, all at the age of 14. She returned to her country a national hero. One year later, having earned widespread fame and recognition, she tried to kill herself.

Dubbed “America’s sweetheart,” figure skater Dorothy Hamill won our hearts and the gold at the 1976 Olympics. Later, she chronicled her longtime battle with depression in the years following the Games.

Gold medal swimmer Missy Franklin was diagnosed with depression and anxiety prior to the 2016 Olympic games in Rio. She described her mental health difficulties, which she kept hidden, by saying: “Going into Rio, I was in the best physical shape of my entire life. I had the best year of training I’d ever had, and that meant nothing because mentally I was in such a terrible place that I was useless, my body was useless.”

Simone Biles is not the only Olympian to battle mental health issues. A growing list includes Michael Phelps, Lindsay Vonn, Simone Manuel, Naomi Osaka, Raven Saunders, and many more. Nor is she the only one to withdraw from competition; figure skater Gracie Gold opted not to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics due to struggles with her mental health.

Michael Phelps talks about “the weight of gold” experienced by Olympic athletes and the impact this has on their mental health: “We carry a lot of weight on our shoulders and it’s challenging—especially when we have the lights on us and all these expectations that are being thrown on top of us.” Phelps, who started a foundation to teach children about the importance of mental health, was one of many athletes who supported Biles’ decision to withdraw and hopes it has a long-term, positive effect:

“I hope this is an eye-opening experience. I really do. I hope this is an opportunity for us to jump on board and to even blow this mental health thing even more wide open. It is so much bigger than we can ever imagine. Look, for me when I started on this journey five years ago, I knew it was big. I knew it was going to be challenging. Five years into it now – it’s even bigger than I can comprehend. So this is something that is going to take a lot of time, a lot of hard work, and people that are willing to help.”

It is estimated that 46.6 million people suffer from mental health issues in the United States alone, affecting 1 in 5 adults. While such issues have always been present, the pandemic escalated its scope and scale and threw a spotlight on this growing health-care crisis in our country—one that affects all ages, races, genders, and backgrounds.

A 2019 Harris Poll survey conducted for the American Psychological Association revealed that a majority of American adults holds positive views about mental health and treatment, although some stigma remains. Such sigma was apparent from many who harshly and coldly criticized Biles’ decision, referencing her withdrawal as a joke, an excuse, and nonsense; Texas Deputy Attorney General Aaron Reitz even went so far as to call her a “national embarrassment” (but later apologized for the comment).

In “What It Takes to be an Olympic Athlete,” the American Psychological Association interviewed sport psychologist Shane Murphy, who described the Olympics from the athletes’ perspective:

“But it’s fair to say that the Olympics places special pressure on most athletes. Of all sporting events, the Olympics come with the greatest pressure—nothing else matches it for gut-wrenching anxiety, not the Super Bowl, not the World Series, not Wimbledon or the Masters. It’s a combination of the once-every-four years pressure but also the intense nationalism of the Olympics. For athletes in many sports, it is only at the Olympics that they face the media blitz of worldwide attention. They toil in obscurity otherwise. Some athletes revel in the attention and perform their best under the pressure. Others come up far short of expectations when placed under this intense spotlight.”

As someone who writes self-help books—an arm of the publishing industry valued at more than $11 billion annually—it is abundantly clear that the need for help and healing is strong. Yet books are impersonal and private. Being able to openly admit to experiencing a difficulty, particularly mental illness, even to those within a trusted circle of friends and loved ones, takes an enormous amount of courage.

But being able to admit it on a world platform, where news outlets and social media can sometimes bring out the worst in humanity, takes so much more. It takes strength, confidence, toughness, sacrifice, integrity, dedication, discipline, focus, and vulnerability.

Such are the qualities of a true Olympic athlete. ??

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