Rare taboo break: these top athletes speak openly about their depression

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The outrage was great when American top gymnast Simone Biles (26) surprisingly withdrew from competition at the 2021 Olympics, in the middle of the team final. Many questions arose. Has the world’s best gymnast become so arrogant that the team competition means nothing to her? Didn’t she feel like it? These assumptions did her wrong. Biles was mentally exhausted.

A few weeks after the unexpected withdrawal, she spoke publicly about the mental block that had developed in Tokyo. Many things she had suppressed in recent years came back in one fell swoop. “The confidence was gone, the body said stop,” she told the New York Times Magazine. Since then, the gymnast has focused on her mental health. “I don’t know how long it takes to heal,” she says. Since the blockade at the Olympic Games, the exceptional gymnast has not competed.

Ciriaco Sforza (53) was one of the absolute export hits of Swiss football in the nineties. With 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Sforza won the German championship in a sensational way in 1998 and three years later he won the Champions League with FC Bayern Munich. In between, however, he continued to struggle with psychological problems, as he told the German football magazine SPOX in 2019: “I was in bed at 2 a.m., with dilated pupils, soaking wet. I was afraid to be alone because I was afraid something would happen to me. That was the first phase in which my body was flat and closed.” Sforza didn’t know how to do it. “Don’t be afraid, fear is a dangerous sign.” Eventually, the Wohlener got professional help. He would advise any athlete who a high pressure is exposed.

At the French Open 2021, four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka (25) caused red heads when she announced in advance that she would not speak to the press during the tournament. Organizers fined the Japanese woman $15,000. It was only after an emotional post from what was sometimes the best tennis player in the world that it became clear why she took this punishment.

“The truth is that I have been suffering from long bouts of depression since 2018 and it has taken me a long time to deal with it,” Osaka said on Twitter. The tennis player also reported anxiety. Those before and during the press conferences were particularly bad. The Japanese then withdrew from the sport for a longer period of time. She is now expecting her first child and wants to return to the WTA Tour next year.

She was the sweetheart of the land. But how much Ariella Kaeslin (35) had to endure during her career as a top gymnast, she only announced four years after her retirement in her biography “Leiden im Licht”. She was psychologically terrorized by the trainer and at the same time suffered from exhaustion depression. With her retirement from top sport in 2012, she pulled the emergency brake. The former gymnast now passes on her own experiences and knowledge in the field of sports psychology to the next generation.

He is the most successful Olympian of all time – and wanted to kill himself. Swimmer Michael Phelps (37) won no fewer than 23 Olympic gold medals in his career. But after his first participation in 2004, the then 19-year-old American fell into a deep hole after the games, he said years later. Drive and motivation were gone, he was never satisfied with himself. He didn’t want to talk to anyone about it. Asking for help scared him.

Depression had such a grip on the world star that he was on the verge of committing suicide in 2012. When he hit rock bottom, he finally sought help. The former swimmer is now committed to dealing openly with the subject of depression. He fights the stigma that almost killed him.

Source : Blick