Mental health and wellbeing in elite sport is currently a mystified, taboo subject which is seen by the media to be poles apart from the prescribed stoicism required to participate in top-level sport. This blog attempts to investigate and highlight the hyprocrisy currently surrounding this and the needed steps to solve this.
England International Footballer Dele Alli's recent interview with Gary Neville provided another example of the need for an explicit moment of honesty to develop a humanistic understanding of an elite athlete. Typically elite athletes are merely a character to most, a player, an untouchable figure and not a person. In this interview, Dele opens up in a beautiful way, expressing his deepest secrets for the world to hear. This is so courageous and admirable, a man who has had more than a fair share of criticism from the wider-sporting media revealing the most personal stories of his life, with his sole aim being to provide awareness and help others.
Dele joins a growing list of elite level athletes who have opened up about their mental health and their issues surrounding it, each story told seemingly shocks the world media into support, when without this context the criticism would be needless and destructive to the human behind the athlete. NBA All-Star Kevin Love, Olympic Greats Simone Biles and Adam Peaty alongside Cricket icon Freddie Flintoff have all recently shared their struggles which have helped to improve the narrative surrounding mental health in sport and the need for it's consideration.
I would strongly recommend anybody remotely interested or intrigued into the development of mental health awareness in sport to read Kevin Love's open letter to the Players' Tribune in 2018. Kevin's letter entitled "Everyone is going through something" is an honest, frank breakdown of his experiences with mental health issues and how he suffered in silence and was apprehensive to share his experiences with anyone through fear of judgement along with his confusion with what was happening to him. Kevin's experiences and recollection of his feelings around his first experience perfectly highlight all the problems with society's understanding of mental health and the naivety to the problem within elite sport.
This leads into my first problem with the expectations of athlete's and how society's treatment of them counteracts them. Currently, a dichotomy exists between how mental health is seen with a "non-sportsperson" and an elite sportsperson. Recent societal developments have created an understanding of mental health and how this affects the average person in their day-to-day life, creating a sense of psychological safety around a person. Or at least a humanistic instinct to be aware of what a person may be going through, giving someone a "second thought". However, with elite athletes, they are seen as unreachable, a non-human character who simply is a professional sportsperson with very little consideration for them as a human. It is only when a high-profile story such as Dele's interview gains exposure to the public that we are reminded that they are human, sportspeople are the same as us, they have the exact same struggles and problems that average Joe has. With this only being amplified by added pressure of performing sport in a hyper-critical environment. I am in no way suggesting that athletes should be immune to criticism, because that is a part of professional sport. What I am suggesting is that when criticising an athlete consider them as a human, away from sport, is a comment necessary, is it something you would want to read in one hundred paraphrased ways. In an ideal world, mental health in sport follows a similar path to mental health in general. With more and more people developing an understanding and an appreciation for how an athlete may be feeling away from the pitch or court and what might be affecting them mentally. Sportspeople are only human.
The head of the snake for this problem lies with the media. The clickbaiting, preying on the vulnerable nature of the majority of national media creates a negative narrative around sports people, making them continuously worried of being the media's next target for putting a foot out of line. Dele expresses during the interview that him being in a rehabilitation centre had been subject to media attention who were threatening to broadcast it, exposing his "secret". At such a vulnerable moment, why should his privacy not be respected, how would this make a positive impact in any way.
Elite level athletes in this country are conditioned to be emotionless and personality-less. Take the last interview you can picture with an elite athlete in this country, had you heard everything they uttered before, was it overused cliché after overused cliché? I bet it seemed more like a question-answering robot answering the question rather than someone exerting personality. As previously mentioned, the huge amount of scrutiny that elite athletes are under from national media means that there is minimal reason to take any risk and show their personality. Elite athletes partake in numerous bouts of media training to avoid their answers causing any criticism and a media pile-on. This should not have to be the case. Athlete's should be able to express themselves and show off their personality which I'm sure would make them even more endearing to their beloved fans. Whilst still having it's critical problems, the US media allows their athletes to express oneself to a much greater degree than the English media. This creates a more fulfilling image of the athlete and gives and insight into them as a person, a delight for a fan of that athlete or their team.
For example, 4-time NBA Champion and current Forward for the Golden State Warriors, Draymond Green hosts his own podcast during the NBA season. He is commended for this, providing a professional insight into the day-to-day of an NBA all-star whilst commenting on contemporary topics. If a premier league footballer did this, they would be scrutinised and no doubt if they had on-pitch struggles this would be cited as a distraction as shown with the scrutiny of Marcus Rashford's form during his philanthropist campaigns. Why not allow athletes to express them through whatever medium they may want to? In my eyes this can only improve the relationship between athlete and fan, whilst increasing the product of professional sport.
The bravery shown by Dele and all the aforementioned sporting pioneers in this blog is incredibly honourable and enviable. These trail blazers are forging a path of openness and acceptance of mental health in sport and the human side of all athletes. I hope that in due course, the requirement for stoicism is eradicated from elite sport and that athletes feel comfortable expressing themselves and showing off their personality in an environment that can only grow with this. While mental health means many things to many people in differing ways, it is always worth considering what makes a person who they are, what influences them and what they have been through.
Thank you Dele, I envy your courage, respect your bravery and more than anything support you as a human being.
Matt
@MESportPsychology
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