Another swimming legend, Olympian Adam Peaty, raises the white flag.
Stress, burnout, depression or mental problem, the British champion has decided he cannot go on with his usual life, between exhausting workouts and always new challenges to face in the race, without facing it.
He thus announced to everyone that he will stop for a while, giving up the national championships and therefore the World Cup, the main appointment of 2023, to try to get back on track in view of the Paris Olympics.
The ghosts of the mind, the shadows of depression, the rejection of the daily internal and external pressure to overcome oneself are unfortunately a trait common to many sport champions, as confirmed by the psychologist Monica Vaillant, multiple medalist with the Setterosa: "To us they seem , and they feel,
"It must be considered that a champion continually experiences moments of great tension, due to the commitment he must put in to arrive and stay at the top, leading him to invest everything on that front - explains Vaillant -, with the further burden of experiencing this situation from a "very young age, in a moment of growth, of development of the sense of self. The foundations on which one builds, therefore, are often precarious. But the crisis can arrive even after having left the limelight. All that one is by force neglected or lived without due attention, from preparing for a job to love life, can have a heavy impact".
When it happens that some 'superhero' of sport admits her problems, the case immediately causes a sensation, precisely because of the image one has of her or of him,
Among the swimmers, before Peaty, the king of swimming pools Michael Phelps, record holder of Olympic gold medals, his Australian counterpart, Ian Thorpe, and another swimming great such as Ryan Lochte also admitted and addressed their problems.
Battles with one's mind like those faced even by those accustomed to solitude and fatigue on the saddle of a bike, such as Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Tom Dumoulin and Gianni Bugno, or to grueling duels on a tennis court, such as the Japanese Naomi Osaka and the Australian Ashleigh Barty, but also champions with a team behind them, such as Andres Iniesta or Josip Ilicic, and even earlier Paul Gascoigne, perhaps the most famous alcoholic sportsman ever.
In some cases the epilogue of these stories is tragic, as for Kelly Catlin, cycling champion, who ended up after two falls in a spiral that
Psychological assistance, according to Vaillant, should be a primary concern for every high-level athlete, usually followed 'only' by coaches, athletic trainers and doctors.
A preventive support that could avoid, or alleviate, many crises.
"If in team sports the figure of the psychologist is now almost normal, to manage internal dynamics but also for possible help to individuals - he underlines -, for individual sports this support is adopted much less frequently, or perhaps only when have problems".
(HANDLE).
