Mental health, that aspect that not so long ago was a real taboo, is beginning to normalize in the world of professional sports. Due to shame, fear or sheer ignorance, common disorders such as depression or anxiety barely had visibility in elite competition until recent years, when the example of various international figures has highlighted them.
The American gymnast Simone Biles was the great star of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016 with five medals, four of them gold. Five years later, in Tokyo, she showed the other side of the sport when, as the absolute favorite, she decided to withdraw from the team final. Anxiety broke the mental health of an athlete who at the time confessed to having been a victim of abuse by Larry Nassar, who was a doctor for the US gymnastics team, in a traumatic episode for which she suffered depression.
His compatriot Michael Phelps, the greatest medal collector in Olympic history, also went through very difficult moments in his life, especially after announcing his retirement after the London 2012 Games. «I am someone who has gone through at least three or four periods of strong depression after the Games and I even put my life in danger. In 2014 there were moments in which I did not want to live, “acknowledged the Baltimore Shark, who, after placing himself in the hands of a specialist, redirected his life and even resumed his professional career with the epilogue dreamed of in Rio 2016.
The Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka, in charge of lighting the cauldron of the Tokyo Games, has been another of the athletes affected by mental health problems in recent times, in her case overwhelmed by media pressure and the episode of stress that precipitated his abandonment at Roland Garros in 2021.
In Spain, Andrés Iniesta revealed that between 2009 and 2010, before the World Cup in South Africa, he went through a delicate phase after the death of his friend Dani Jarque, to whom he paid tribute after the historic goal against the Netherlands in the World Cup final.
2023-08-05 18:56:46
#Simone #Biles #Michael #Phelps #Iniesta #suffered #anxiety #depression
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