Sport embraces mental health: Simone Biles, Michael Phelps, Andre Agassi…
Mental health problems have ceased to be taboo in recent years. It is becoming increasingly common for people from all walks of life to speak openly about it, and this includes top sportsmen and women. Behind the million-dollar contracts, successes and trophies, there are sometimes internal struggles that some of the stars have revealed throughout their careers.
The International Olympic Committee, in a 2023 report, stated that 33.6 per cent of elite athletes suffer from anxiety and depression. In addition, 26.4 percent have mental health problems when they decide to retire from active sport. On October 10, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, we take a look at some of the most illustrious cases.
The ever-smiling Simone Biles, who won three golds and a silver at the Paris Olympics, has a sad story behind her. She lived in foster care and was raised by her grandparents. She was also one of the victims of sexual abuse by US national gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar. She did not compete in the Tokyo Games. “I didn’t want to continue, I have to focus on my mental health. We have to protect our minds and bodies and not do what everyone wants us to do,” he said.
The swimmer, another Olympic star, is one of the most talked-about cases regarding the relationship between sport and mental health. At the 2004 Athens Games, after winning eight medals, he suffered from depression. In 2014, he did so again. “I didn’t want to be alive, I didn’t eat and I didn’t drink. I was fighting for my life more than people could imagine,” he commented. Michael Phelps insisted that if all people spoke without complexes about these problems, “it would be normalized” and positive. “By sharing what is going on we can help each other a lot,” he reflected.
Ricky Rubio, a child prodigy of basketball consecrated as a world star, parked the courts in August 2023. “At the time I felt like the most cowardly person in the world, I didn’t understand that I wasn’t able to overcome the problem after such a long career. With hindsight, I think I was very brave. My problem was bigger than basketball,” he explained at a press conference in February 2024. Never too high, never too low’ is one of his mottos. Balance and consistency.
The Milan footballer opened up about his mental health problems in an interview with Cope: “When you have really hard times – depression, panic attacks – it doesn’t matter what job you do and the situation you have in life. You have another person inside that you have to fight against every day and every night. For me it was the best thing to leave Spain, I couldn’t stand it. I had a very bad time. I thought I was never going to be able to put my boots on again.”
The death of Dani Jarque, Espanyol’s eternal captain, hit Andres Iniesta, one of his closest friends, hard. That trigger shattered his mental health completely. “I lost the will to live and the best time of the day was when I took pills and went to bed,” he candidly told The Wild Project. “I can have all the cars in the world and everything I want, but it’s still hard to face life’s problems,” added the former Barcelona player, who has been involved in several awareness campaigns.
Andre Agassi, tennis legend, opened up like never before in his book ‘Open’. In his memoirs, the athlete confesses his drug use, his mental health problems and even states that he came to hate the sport because of all the pressure it put on his day-to-day life. The role of his wife, fellow tennis player Steffi Graff, was key to his recovery. Agassi has collaborated with numerous organizations and events to raise awareness of the importance of mental health.
