The most impressive athletic moment of 2021 was when an athlete chose not to compete.
At the Summer Olympics, gymnastics icon Simone Biles decided to sit out because she put her health first.
Her mental health.
Many people scoff at the notion of “mental health” in sports. This is precisely why Biles is one of my two athletes of the year.
The other winner? It’s the Anonymous Athlete. The athlete we don’t know about, at any level of sport, who bravely pulled out of competition because of mental health issues.
It could be a St. Louis-area high school athlete who took time away from their sport, even if teammates challenged that person’s toughness (which is ironic). Or an athlete in college, who worried about their scholarship or their future yet attended to the present. Or an adult athlete, perhaps a long-distance runner training for a race, who had the courage to end a dream to confront a reality.
Why are we honoring these people? Because they are the trailblazers. They are the ones who sought help, who spoke to therapists or doctors or loved ones, who took medicine to make themselves feel better, who searched for (and hopefully finally found) calm.
Maybe they got push-back, maybe they got bad-mouthed, maybe they had inner-struggles with themselves because of their own conflicting viewpoints. After all, an athlete often is built to challenge any challenges in the way of their athletic glory, so quitting would go completely against that.
(Incidentally, quitting might not be the right word for this. Yes, quitting means leaving something you’re working on. But it has a negative connotation. Those who stepped away from sports are not quitters.).
So, today we honor the people who addressed their mental health because they did something that should be normal but, instead, is against the norm.
Biles, 24, made international news during the team event of the Olympic gymnastics competition. The young woman carried in inordinate amount of weight, expectations and stress on her shoulders. Then, she found herself in an inescapable mental state of uncertainty … while in mid-air. Literally.
During a vault, she experienced “twisties,” a phrase gymnasts use to describe the fright of losing body control while in the air. If she had “fought through it” or “toughened up,” as some in sports might’ve suggested, she could have been seriously injured. Instead, she stopped competing in the team event at the Olympic Games.
“I say put mental health first,” Biles told reporters in Japan. “It’s OK to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself.”
She also posted on social media: “Physical health is mental health.”
What she did was impressive.
Will it leave an impression?
That’s what we can hope, that Biles helped changed the perspectives of people in sports. That someone reading this might share it with others, or share the sentiment. That a person in charge of youth sports can accept that mental health issues are as common as injured arms or knees. That parents can be more sympathetic. That a coach or athletics director can realize the safety that comes from addressing mental health issues, as well as the grace it exudes. That kids catch themselves from talking down about a person who gets help, and instead compliment the person for taking care of themselves.
It’s not always as easy thing to do, especially when you’re in the season, in the flow, in the fire — and someone you rely on steps away.
I played varsity sports in high school, worked as a student manager for a college team and then have spent the past 20 years writing about professional athletes. I know all sides of athletes, all sides of fans, all sides of parents. I know that the “default” is to fault anyone who comes across as “weaker.” And that being “weak” or “soft” often is considered the worst thing someone can be in sports.
The goal — the hope — is for the judgers to compartmentalize someone’s softness on the field with someone stepping away from the field to get help for an invisible injury and issues in their brain.
Some people have said to me: Mental health wasn’t a thing in sports when we were growing up. If mental health always has been an issue, why didn’t athletes when we were growing up pull out of competition?
There always have been athletes struggling with mental health issues. And many of them hid from their problems, possibly losing themselves in alcohol or pills — or worse. Imagine if (insert athlete here) had talked to someone about his or her mental health, instead of trying to drink away the stress?
At the time, many athletes might’ve made you “proud” by playing through the mental stress. But by doing so, it only damaged those athletes even more in life. And if anything, not addressing mental stress surely led to even more stress for the person already going through hell.
I think changing the stigma starts with the leaders. Imagine if every high school quarterback, in addition to their toughness and coolness, added compassion to their arsenal? If the quarterback accepted empathy? I don’t think it would weaken the quarterback as a player. On the contrary, it would strengthen and embolden the quarterback overall.
By speaking up about mental health, by stepping in when a teammate says something mean, by encouraging courage, the quarterback could have a positive impact on the lives of teammates and, really, all classmates. Now that’s a pretty cool legacy.
If anything, Biles’ controversial decision led to conversations (or debates and arguments but, still, conversations). And perhaps these are conversations that athletes or teams never had before. It brought light to an issue that was hidden in the darkness.
And now, the onus is on us.
Everyone in a sports community can be better in 2022. Everyone in a sports community can do more to influence athletes to address issues with mental health — and team leaders can provide those athletes with avenues in which to do so.
