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Mental health has long been a taboo subject within sport but
U.S. gymnast Simone Biles brought the topic to the forefront at
the Tokyo Olympics, leading others to become more comfortable
speaking about their struggles as elite athletes.
"We learned a lot in the Tokyo Games and are looking forward to
Beijing to better understand what our athletes are needing
around mental health," Jessica Bartley, the USOPC's director of
mental health, told the virtual Team USA media summit on Monday
ahead of the Feb. 4-20 Beijing Olympics.
The Olympics can often be both an emotionally and mentally
strenuous journey for athletes who strive for years with a
single-minded focus to compete there and COVID-19 has created
additional challenges.
Bartley said the USOPC has already conducted mental health
screens around anxiety, depression, eating disorders, sleep,
alcohol and drug abuse in recent months to get a better baseline
on where athletes are at.
Licensed mental health officers will be made available to U.S.
athletes competing in Beijing along with therapists and
psychiatrists at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
There will also be a crisis line set up as well as other
initiatives around individual and group therapy as well as
programming around transition out of sport for athletes who are
thinking about retiring.
"One of the things that we do want to message a little bit
differently from Tokyo is that this is accessible to any athlete
who is on Team USA, any staff member, any family member. So we
are there to really support the delegation for Team USA," said
Bartley.
Restrictions related to COVID-19 denied athletes from having
their usual support systems in Tokyo and while conditions will
be similar in Beijing, winter athletes could be better prepared.
USOPC senior sport psychologist Sean McCann said many U.S.
winter athletes are familiar and have adapted to being away from
their support system for long stretches given that a number of
their competitions happen in Europe.
"In some ways I would argue our winter sport athletes are a
little bit better prepared for sort of being cut off from their
support system," said McCann.
"They are really good with Zoom and FaceTime and any other
technological way to get connect with their families ... that is
a challenge but I think honestly our winter sports athletes are
really trained in how to manage some of that."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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