The Olympics ought to be the top of an athlete’s profession. But scratch beneath the floor and the bodily toll is commonly accompanied by an emotional comedown generally known as the ‘post-Olympic blues’.
That’s an expertise which unites swimmer Michael Phelps — essentially the most adorned Olympian with 28 medals, gymnast Simone Biles with seven medals, Allison Schmitt and Adam Peaty, who gained 10 and 5 pool medals respectively. Between them, they boast 34 Olympic golds.
Nice Britain’s 800m runner Keely Hodgkinson and U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles are examples of athletes at their peak who’ve spoken of post-Olympic comedowns.
Dr Karen Howells, an educational and sports activities psychologist, explains that athletes first coined the time period ‘post-Olympic blues’. “The blues undermined the seriousness,” she says. “The issue with utilizing the phrase ‘melancholy’ is it’s a psychological sickness, recognized by medical psychologists and psychiatrists. As a researcher and utilized sports activities psychologist, I’m not certified to diagnose.”
Noah Lyles (Patrick Smith/Getty Photos)
Jessica Bartley, senior director of psychological providers for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), explains the ‘blues’ as a spread of feelings.
“We attempt to make it broad as a result of it’s not all the time ‘blues’. I don’t wish to alienate athletes who aren’t feeling unhappy. In the event that they’re feeling anxious, the blues typically seize plenty of them, nevertheless it’s not everybody’s expertise.
“Different athletes say, ‘I had the proper expertise, I did every thing that I wished to.’ It’s difficult, however we attempt to be as open as potential, as typically as potential.”
It’s not possible to precisely state what number of athletes expertise this. Though there may be educational analysis, there isn’t any standardised questionnaire. Not all athletes are ready to discuss their feelings or have interaction in interventions.
Howells won’t put a quantity on it as a result of she hasn’t carried out a prevalence survey, however says she has “not but met an Olympian who hasn’t skilled” the post-Olympic blues.
A 2023 research of 49 Danish Olympians and Paralympians discovered 27 per cent had below-average well-being or moderate-to-severe melancholy. For athletes who achieved their objectives, as many had above-average well-being as under common (40 per cent).
There are typical signs. “Probably the most useful approach is to recognise deviations from their baseline,” says Dr Cody Commander, the Group USA psychological well being officer for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “Have been they gregarious and outgoing and now they’re not?
“Urge for food and sleep are the primary few issues that may change. You’re consuming and sleeping kind of. You’re additionally seeking to see if there’s any social withdrawal. That’s extra frequent for elite athletes now — not responding to textual content messages, emails and calls. They will’t cope with the psychological vitality wanted to speak to everybody about it.”
Adam Peaty on the Tokyo Olympics (Maddie Meyer/Getty Photos)
Danielle Adams Norenberg, head of psychology on the UK Sports activities Institute and Group GB psychologist references “maladaptive responses” post-Video games. These embrace a dependence on alcohol and overtraining amongst different self-destructive behaviours, as athletes attempt to fill the void.
Commander describes “a crash of feelings afterwards”. He describes an inevitability “as a result of it’s extra of a build-up over time. They’re coaching for years versus only a season and it’s a much bigger stage. Financially, this can be a terrific supply of potential earnings. There may be plenty of expectation and stress.
“It’s extra about making a map of how you can get to a vacation spot. When you get there, it’s like, ‘Now what?’ They’re in a interval with no plans and no spectators and so they don’t know what to do. Elite athletes are used to having every minute deliberate daily for years.
“When there’s no plan, it’s the sensation of ‘I’m misplaced’. It’s very completely different from coaching. That distinction is what they’ve a tough time adjusting to — the liberty can really feel extra awkward.
Howells explains that most individuals can relate to the blues. “It’s regular that after we construct as much as one thing, after which it’s over, we’re going to really feel misplaced and upset,” she says. “There could also be anger, frustration, irritation”.
Current Olympic cycles have seen modified approaches to managing athletes’ emotional well-being, with efficiency now contemplating psychological well being and the post-Olympic expertise, and international locations taking measures to organize athletes for all times post-Video games.
“Now we have a staff of 15 that target psychological well being and psychological efficiency,” Bartley says. We’re assembly often with Canada, Nice Britain, Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands.”
The Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) has began to construct infrastructure which international locations use and there are shared initiatives. “There are over 150 psychological well being suppliers on the Video games from completely different international locations.” All of the nations met pre-Video games to pool sources and share methods. Since Tokyo, Group USA has carried out a brand new course of, screening first-time athletes by way of questionnaires.
“When an athlete makes the staff, we instantly discuss sources, whether or not that’s psychological well being or drugs, profession providers, retirement providers, how you can transition out of sport. We’ve tried to normalise and make the transition piece part of the dialog early. All through their profession, we’re speaking about it throughout what we name an ‘elite athlete well being profile’.
“We discuss to them yearly, doing bodily and psychological well being screenings. Proper earlier than the Video games, we’re screening each athlete. We’ve met with each Olympic and Paralympic athlete, each alternate, coaching companions — everyone who’s within the combine for Group USA.
“Then we’ll comply with up post-Video games. We’ve developed ‘navigating the Olympic blues’ and navigating the feelings. Now we have course of teams and expertise teams, then we have now a extremely cool expertise.” All U.S. Olympians and Paralympians go to the White Home and meet the President, and there are counsellors accessible all through the week post-Video games.
US Olympians meet President Joe Biden in 2022 (Patrick Smith/Getty Photos for USOPC)
For Group GB, the main target is on efficiency decompression. A six-stage mannequin designed by the British Institute of Sport earlier than the Tokyo Video games utilized information and analysis from the army, the Purple Cross and their very own sensible expertise to assist put together athletes for all times after the Video games.
It consists of 4 phases: First, a ‘scorching debrief’, nearly instantly post-competition. Second is ‘time zero’, athletes are inspired to take a break and have interaction with the current. The third part is ‘course of the emotion’, a psychological debrief to debate the emotional expertise of the Video games. Lastly, there’s a efficiency debrief.
“In these pre-stages, we’ll discuss to them concerning the significance of efficiency decompression,” says Adams Norenberg. “We’ll drip-feed the dialog all through. We would say, ‘When may you wish to plan your post-Video games interval?’
“They’ve obtained actually good efficiency decompression plans, they know after they’re going to take a break and, ideally, they know after they’re going to have that course of the emotion dialog. It’s all booked in earlier than the Video games begin.
“In some areas of the army, upon returning residence, there’s a stop-off earlier than, the place people are supported to make sense of their expertise. We knew that speaking it by, understanding and acknowledging feelings which may have come up for them is necessary earlier than leaping straight in to seek out life once more.
“The analysis from the Purple Cross, about help for hostages returning residence, gave us perception into how a stage three temporary, the place feelings are understood, may look”.
However there’s a steadiness required between specializing in the post-Video games expertise and probably problematic feelings, and prioritising competitors.
“You wish to give it some thought earlier than the Video games, however not proper earlier than,” says Commander. “Perhaps six months out. So afterwards, if it goes properly, right here’s my plan. If it doesn’t go properly, right here’s my plan B. I’m serious about it forward of time however now I’ve a plan so I’m not serious about it anymore. I’m simply centered on my coaching and every thing else.”
For Bartley and the USOPC, as with Group GB, athletes are given possession. “We begin after they’re prepared. Even after we’re doing an athlete orientation or introducing our providers, we’ll inform them there’s going to be plenty of feelings that come up. We’re not going to start out speaking at them about what to anticipate. We allow them to know we’re right here and say, ‘If you’re prepared, tell us’.”
Lecturers first recognized the ‘blues’ a long time in the past. In a 1998 research of 18 Australian Olympic gold medallists, competing throughout a number of sports activities at Video games between 1984 and 1992, solely 4 athletes described their experiences as utterly optimistic. Six, nevertheless, cited burnout and a scarcity of help. Athletes had been “missing tips for being a gold medallist”.
A research of 61 Israeli athletes and coaches on the 2012 London Video games discovered one in 5 spoke with others afterwards — most unconsidered their emotions or remoted themselves. A 2021 paper, which interviewed 18 Australian Olympians after the Rio 2016 video games stated: “nationwide system stressors, together with organisational restructures, teaching adjustments and funding cuts, had been impediments to athlete well-being”.
In 2018, Howells and Mathijs Lucassen interviewed 4 British Olympians. They concluded that “destructive feelings are a standard response to returning residence however athletes don’t anticipate it to have an effect on them, they’re incapable of focusing past the Video games earlier than they occur and get rollicked by a return to normality. They battle being away from different athletes with relatable experiences.”
Holly Bradshaw, a pole vault bronze medallist, was a participant. In 2022, Bradshaw turned “researcher as participant” alongside Howells and Lucassen. She facilitated 4 focus teams with 14 British Olympians throughout numerous sports activities, that includes medallists and non-medallists. Researchers had been stunned by how a lot athletes most well-liked focus teams.
“We thought that having Holly run them would allow the Olympians to be extra open. We hadn’t realised how open they had been going to be.
“What got here out very clearly was an actual antagonism and distrust in the direction of sports activities psychologists,” she says. Athletes felt they could relay info to the coach which made them look ‘weak’ or price them their place on the staff. “Sports activities psychologists didn’t actually get it.” Athletes “wished to be supported by the post-Olympic blues by anyone who’d been by it,” Howells says.
Holly Bradshaw competing on the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 (Michael Steele/Getty Photos)
The best way ahead is nuanced, Howells believes: “It’s extra difficult than we thought. We’d be silly to not take heed to the athletes”. She says peer help ought to complement, not exchange, sports activities psychology.
“Simply since you’ve been by it, it doesn’t imply that you’re in the very best place to assist anyone. To get a staff of sports activities psychologists to help Olympians afterwards is simple. It’s a lot more durable to work a mentorship scheme.”
Academia could attempt to shift the dial from encouraging change to initiating it extra formally. In 2020, specialists proposed that nationwide governing our bodies view the Video games as a five-year cycle, with a clearly outlined help system for 12 months post-Video games. Formalised psychological well being care groups and a selected psychological well being officer, bettering athlete training and simplifying screening processes had been additional suggestions.
“There are two areas at which we will deal with the blues,” says Howells. “The primary is pre-Video games, with psychoeducation. That’s the very first thing that athletes had been clear about and that aligned with our personal expectations: the extra that you already know, the higher geared up you might be to manage.”
Stigma is steadily lowering as high-profile athletes open up publicly. The stress, expectation, the heralding of outstanding athletes as heroes and superhuman and the following movie star standing are all elements. It doesn’t encourage athletes to be human.
A 2023 paper on Olympic judokas (judo) defined the identification crises athletes face on account of hyper-fixation on efficiency, leaving their non-sporting personalities underdeveloped. In a 2018 paper, Howells wrote that athletes with a larger “myopic” efficiency focus are extra susceptible to the ‘blues’.
“At elite sport stage, it’s common for opponents to have this very excessive athletic identification. That’s all they’re,” says Howells. “They’ve sacrificed each different facet of their identification for the aim of being an Olympian. Many have an Olympic rings tattoo; they’re branding themselves, their our bodies, as an Olympian”.
(Buda Mendes/Getty Photos)
Bartley, who has labored with the USOPC since 2012, is assured that discussing psychological well being can present “an edge” in efficiency.
“The most important distinction I’ve seen (over that point) is that so many notable athletes have spoken out about their psychological well being that it’s beginning to destigmatise it so much,” she says. “It’s serving to future athletes and even athletes now to grasp that it’s OK to speak about psychological well being and to make use of these sources.”
A 2015 report by Tanni Gray-Thompson, who gained 16 Paralympic medals with Group GB, discovered that “psychological well being and well-being is a serious concern in British efficiency sport and ought to be handled accordingly”.
Howells factors to it as a turning level in lowering stigma. “There may be definitely a really darkish facet to elite sport,” she says, however stays optimistic about affecting change.
“Change doesn’t occur shortly, the stigma remains to be there. It takes a very long time to result in attitudinal change, however we’re getting there.”
(Header pictures: Getty Photos)