The mental health of athletes

This is Virginie Phulpin’s sports editorial. We are talking again about the mental health of athletes. Current events show us that this is indeed one of the major issues in sport today.

The picture is from the weekend. On a tennis court in Indian Wells. Naomi Osaka is in tears after a spectator insulted her. The player took the microphone at the end of the match to explain that she had heard others in her career, but that there she had cracked. Because it can happen. We know that Naomi Osaka is psychologically fragile, last season she stopped for three months to try to regain the upper hand. But here, what is important is that she chose to talk about her discomfort in front of the public. It is fundamental for her, for her to free herself, but also for the spectators who must hear the humans behind the champions. I am also thinking of Neymar and Lionel Messi. We talked a lot about the jokes wiped out by the PSG players on Sunday. Fans have the right to be angry. But we can also stop for two seconds on what the players can feel. Thierry Henry said in L’Equipe a week ago about Neymar “has anyone ever asked him how he is”? How are you ? It remains a taboo question in sport. Especially the response. A sportsman is necessarily well. He is paid to play sports, we are not going to complain about him.

When in fact depression affects many athletes

Rare are those who have never been victims of it in their career. Even more with the pandemic. Athletes often devote themselves solely to their sport, and this from a very young age. So when they fail, they can see it as the failure of a life, and not just of a career or a moment in their career. It’s violent. And this pressure is not there only at the time of failures. French Paralympic athletes return from Beijing today. They have had great success. But winning medals can be very complicated to manage mentally too. There is a backlash, a feeling of emptiness in front of you after a competition that only takes place every 4 years. Michael Phelps, the multi-medal American swimmer, spoke about his post-Olympic depression. And then in team sports, those who are not doing well don’t dare say so, don’t dare stop so as not to let others down. This is what the wife of Jordan Michallet, this rugby player who ended his life a few weeks ago, said in a moving testimony to Canal Plus. The clubs, the federations, are realizing the importance of the mental health of athletes. There are things that are put in place, like psychological evaluations during a career. We are at the beginning of the path. But hearing testimonies like these will help. Let it be talked about too, we, who comment on or watch sport, and the taboo will end up no longer being one.

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