Letters

Mental health important for elite athletes

LETTERS: We had witnessed some exceptional epitome of human performance from some elite athletes in the recent Tokyo Olympics.

They include Elaine Thompson (Jamaica) in the 100 and 200m women; Sifan Nassan (Netherlands) in the women's 5000 and 10,000; Athing Mu (USA) in the women 800m; Sydney Mclaughin (USA) in the 400m hurdles with a world record and Lamont Jacob (Italy) winning in the 100m.

Menawhile, Neeraj Chopra (India), created a major upset beating former world champions in the Javelin while China's 14 years old diving sensation, Quan Hong Chan brought some smile to spectators.

However, there were some athletes such as gymnast Simone Biles of the USA and Japanese Naomi Osaka (tennis) who struggled with mental health stress and anxiety of having been under the microscope.

Biles withdrew from the team event saying that "her mind and body are simply not in sync" but later returned to win a bronze in the individual event. She is recognised throughout the world as the best gymnast.

As for Osaka, she lost in the third round of the Tokyo Games. Before the Olympics, she withdrew from the French Tennis Open after the 1st round complaining of the journalist not giving her space and privacy. She also did not compete in the prestigious Wimbledon.

The withdrawal of Biles further added value to the plight of Osaka mental trauma, that the International Olympic Council (IOC) and individual world sports bodies to be aware of the emotional and psychological functioning of top elite athletes.

Their constant pressure of to win for their country and the expectation of fans have forced them to admit their mental struggles. Little or not much effort is made towards mental wellbeing of athletes and even USA retired world swimming multiple gold medal winner, Michel Phelps even contemplated suicide.

Many of these top athletes including Biles felt that the expectations, the entire burden of winning rests on their shoulder. An International Olympic Sports body found out that in a survey that 45 per cent of elite athletes face pressure and depression in their sporting journey.

The current 'state of play ' in supporting elite athletes mental health and wellbeing literacy or awareness is crucial, the needs of elite athletes who are risk of developing or already experiencing mental health symptoms or disorders. Early detection of it and intervention will contribute to the mental wellbeing of the athlete in optimising with their performance excellence.

No doubt while genetics do play a role in shaping an elite athlete, life experiences, environmental factors, coaching relationship, coaches must be well aware and knowledgeable about sports injuries, over training, performance failure and training demands and social support are equally also very important for a continued top notch performance by this elite athletes.

We have pinned our hope on Pandelela Rinong on the 10m platform category, after she delivered a bronze at the London Olympics in 2012 while another, June Hoong won a silver in 2016 Rio Games.

Now the question is, was she a victim of pressure and expectation from the Malaysian public and the press? In the individual 10m platform, in her first jump, she scored 18 points, killing her chances for a medal.

Olympic champions athletes often have to deal with multiple stressors relating to their sports performance, jobs and personal lives and they must develop resilience and approach stressors as challenges during the competition.

C. Sathasivam Sitheravellu

Seremban, Negri Sembilan


The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times

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