World Mental Health Day 2024: Sports stars reveal how they take care of the mind

Ten of the world’s biggest sports stars reveal their strategies for maintaining good mental health, and how anyone else can use the same techniques.

Rayssa Leal, Simone Biles, and Naomi Osaka are some of the world’s best athletes, but they have something else in common.

They have all faced mental challenges while striving to be the best and needed to develop strategies to protect themselves.

To mark World Mental Health Day on 10 October, we look at the techniques and tips these stars and several others have shared to create peace in their mind.

These practices are just as useful for the average person as they are for an elite performer, and are mostly readily available from the comfort of your home.

Brazilian skate superstar Rayssa Leal experienced a roller-coaster of emotions at Paris 2024.

After two disappointing runs, she sought therapy and support. A calmer Leal then put down a brilliant final run to seal bronze in the French capital.

“After I messed up the two runs, I said to myself, ‘Dude, I’m not going to be able to do it anymore’,” Leal told Olympics.com.

“My team actually helped me and said: ‘The game isn’t over yet, come on’. My family was there, my whole team was there and a hug solved a lot of things there at that moment, you know? So, having received a hug from everyone, and having heard very positive and motivational words, for me, man, that’s what changed the game right there.

“Then I came back 100 per cent. I came back even more focused. I think having had all the therapy I do, the conversations with my team that we always have; that helped me a lot at the time.”

“I think the most important thing is not to put too much pressure on yourself,” she said. “So, depending on what you do, the sport you do, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Go with it, with love, with affection, having fun, and everything will work out.”

Mental health struggles can come from a variety of sources. Shooter Abhinav Bindra was consumed by loneliness after winning India’s first individual Olympic gold medal at Beijing 2008.

“I would like to tell every athlete to ensure that their well-being as a human is at the heart of their performance. Tuning in to your own mental health and well-being is essential. And, of course, if any athlete is struggling, I would encourage them to seek help. There is absolutely no shame, and it is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of great strength to seek help to get better,” he told Olympics.com.

Bindra is now the vice president of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Athletes Commission and an IOC Mental Health Ambassador, which allows him to study and reflect on what it takes to overcome the challenges athletes face.

“When I reflect back on those hard moments, I think surrounding yourself with positive individuals becomes critical. I was able to surround myself with friends, family and coaches who did not love me more or less if I had a medal or not. They just loved me for the person that I was,” he continued.

Through his tough times, he was inadvertently able to find clarity through one of the many techniques he has used to maintain and improve his mental health. “I went to a silent meditation retreat for 10 days to try to find my next calling in life,” he recalled. “Ironically, instead of meditating, all I did was think back to my sport and how I could get better. That gave me a very intense realisation that I loved what I did and that really inspired me to get back and start again.”

British pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw will join Bindra in a team of Olympians selected by the IOC who will foster mental health conversations among athletes in their respective regions, offering support and advice based on their own experience.

“I always say to give yourself 24 hours to feel down and be angry at yourself after a poor performance,” Bradshaw shared. “But then try and draw out any positives or acknowledge what went wrong. I think a lot of athletes like to bury it, but a lot can be said for learning from those experiences. It’s those times and experiences where you underperform that you learn the most,” she told Olympics.com.

The Olympic star revealed that she was abused online at the age of 19. Journaling has also been a useful tool for the track and field athlete, who offers advice to young athletes navigating the ups and downs of elite sports.

“I do a lot of journaling before I go to bed, where I write down what was good and bad in my day. It’s really helped me over the last 10 years of my career. But for me, the best thing is to talk to someone.”

Simone Biles has been at the forefront of the mental health conversation in sport after withdrawing from a majority of the events in the Tokyo Olympics due to a mental condition known as the ’twisties’.

Her decision to take some time away from the sport and only make a comeback in the Paris Olympics earlier this year resulted in the 27-year-old winning three gold medals and a silver.

Her message was that it is not wrong to have a break and refresh from whatever your chosen pursuit or industry is.

While Biles still had her therapy at that time, she encouraged everyone to carve out their own self-care time. She’s shown us that even the most accomplished individuals need to prioritise their own health and happiness.

“In the beginning, I think the hardest part is logging on to my therapy sessions and convincing myself to go,” Biles told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview last month.

“But as soon as I see my therapist and we start talking, it’s like I’m yapping the whole time. I’m so grateful for that.”

Biles took inspiration in her own mental health journey from tennis star Naomi Osaka.

The Japanese four-time Slam champion suffered from the pressure of expectations and in one particularly unsavoury incident, a crowd heckler that caused her to burst into tears on court. She decided to step away from the sport to recover.

“Growing up, I was told to tough it out. And I was in my head thinking athletes are supposed to stick it out and you’re actually weak if you show your emotions… You have to really mentally strong to play tennis so it was a very big internal battle,” Osaka told PEOPLE.

She is now a much happier individual in court thanks to the techniques she uses every day like meditation, staying away from social media, using music to dull her social anxiety, and travelling with a health coach.

Like many athletes, Mary Tucker of Team USA experienced extreme lows when the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed due to the pandemic.

The accomplished shooter felt that everything she had worked so hard for was put on pause and she couldn’t even look at her guns.

She spoke to a psychologist and began prioritising her mental health. She eventually won silver in the Japanese capital, but the lessons learned from that moment still influence how she trains today.

The main change needed was in scaling back her training routine, where she would practise six days a week for five or six hours a day.

“Shooting is such a mental sport that all of us have things we do (to maintain our mental health). I’m confident in my mentality, but I try to see what different perspectives there are,” she told 

“I definitely do (get burnt out), but I’ve been lucky because I haven’t had a huge burnout. Even now, I’ll take a week off here and there to make sure I don’t burn out.”

It was a similar story for Tucker’s compatriot, and 12-time national diving champion, Jessica Parratto.

To avoid over-practising, she makes space for activities that make her “feel human again and ‘normal’,” like eating junk food or hanging out with friends, per The Guardian.

“The longer I am hyper-focused on being the most regimented, healthy athlete I can be, the more chance there will be for burnout,” she says.

Sunny Choi was the first U.S. female B-Girl to qualify for the Olympics at Paris 2024, but felt the pressure to deliver and started to over-train.

Seeing a therapist was key in discovering how to take better care of herself.

“I talk with her regularly about breaking, because it’s so artistic and it requires me to really dig deep and figure out who I am. The better I understand myself, the better I can do out there,” Choi told a Team USA Media Summit.

“It’s about getting through my personal blocks in life. I go through some depressed cycles. So when that happens, how do I get out of it? I can be kind to myself and allow myself to take a day or two off and come back stronger.”

Gabby Thomas took three gold medals home from Paris 2024, including the coveted women’s 200m sprint title.

She lists knowing ‘who Gabby is’ away from her sport as key in not becoming consumed by it.

“Running has always been something that has complimented my life. I’ve always seen myself as Gabby Thomas first. My academics were always kind of coming first. Who I was as a person always came first, and track was just this really great added bonus that I love and I get to do. That adds a really important perspective that all athletes should have, which is that your sport is not who you are,” she said.

The USA star also pays close attention to her use of social media, making sure that she takes a break from it periodically.

“I’m pretty mindful of how I consume social media. I like to post. I’m posting almost every day on my socials, but I like to put out the content and not consume too much of it, especially these days, and people have such close access to athletes. There’s always some anxiety around it, and I think that’s why I choose to handle social media and all the media outlets like I do. I don’t like to read anything about myself or watch anything about myself. I really do keep it at arm’s length, and maybe someday down the line I’ll come back to it and read it. I think it’s a little bit of an anxiety response, but it’s also just protecting my mental health.”

One of the sport’s finest players ever, the India captain was known as a mentally strong player. But several disappointing performances during his team’s 2014 tour of England led to a period of self-doubt and then depression.

He described himself as the ‘loneliest guy in the world’ at the time, and emphasised that seeking help was the most important step in his recovery.

“There’s much more to life than just your profession. Or when the environment around you is such that everyone looks at only your professional identity, somewhere you start losing perspective as a human being,” Kohli told Star Sports.

A month-long break helped him rejuvenate and rediscover his love for training.

“When you remove yourself from that environment, then you realise what was happening to you. It was an amazing break and the first thing I realised when I woke up one morning was that I was excited to go to gym.

“It’s not abnormal to feel down. Talk about it and discuss with people. No one will think you are weak. You will get help from people you never imagined. Trust me, faking to be strong is far worse than anything else. I’m not feeling any shame that I was feeling mentally weak.”