Olympic Athletes Biles, Osaka Shift the Conversation on Mental Health | WSJ

Simone Biles’s withdrawal from competitions at the Tokyo Olympics has put renewed focus on mental health in sports. WSJ looks at how the stigma and treatment for athletes’ state of mind has shifted. Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters

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[gabitrivi]

Athletes push their body and their mind to the limit to beat new records every day.

[elhistoriero]

Its ok that she quit because she wasnt feeling well. But she's not a hero for doing that, calling someone a hero because they quit is the ultimate devaluation of the word "hero".

[LetterSignedBySpiesWasA-Coup]

There’s something to be said for not quitting, especially when a team is depending on you to at least try.

[MrHarleyreinke]

Yup when stuff gets too difficult just quit. Great message.

[Kopano.Tlali]

They didn't talk about how she left her team hanging. Mental health is important but why is she called brave for literally being over come by her challenges

[fullcircleessentials]

Mental Health didn't just arrive yesterday. It's been here with us/amongst us. Why now!?

[PanteraRossa]

Fear of failure is the worst lesson you can teach others. And most learn by example.
You miss 100 percent of the shots you are too afraid to take.

[TomNook.]

Mental health is important. So why didn't she pull out BEFORE selection, if she felt she couldn't complete the Olympics? SImilarly, why didn't the coaches screen for this? I feel sorry for the girl who missed out on selection, who would have represented her country, as a result of someone who was unfit taking her place.

[matiasrodriguez]

“Sitting out a big competition shows how strong of a competitor and person you really are, rather than just battling through it” - Biles

What a ridiculous and backwards comment, we are living in weird times.

[itrthho]

This is what used to be called...quitting

[KENZOkm]

Dudes, it's fine to talk about mental health. It's okay not to be okay. There are times to be strong and times to be weak. Let's change the stats that 80% of suicides are from men because we all bottle it up until we can't take it anymore.

[cokezzz]

I want to quit too, but I do not. Never.

[blipblop]

USA: I quit on national team
ASIA: jail yes?

[kentwoodard]

Quitting on your teammates is disrespectful to their hard work and ambitions and shows a lack of character.

[natsuki.salvato]

I think it would be great for the athletes' mental health, to award all of them with the "At least you tried" medal.

[aldomeow]

Maybe we should eliminate crowds, and even one day hopefully… competition for the sake of athletes mental health.

[JC-Finance]

If you wanna be the best and compete at the highest level you need to overcome your anxieties and fears. If you don’t you’ll just be mediocre at best.

[millionsofmarks]

Next students will start using mental health as an excuse to skip test

[aaron___]

somebodies overtrained or getting bad results.

[Starry_Night_Sky]

What she meant is that rest phases must be in the training schedule. If it is ignored, burnout can surface, wrecking their competition performance.

Sports psych is not new.

More interesting is all of the behind the scenes physio stuff that allows these athletes to recover from the stress they inflict on and on.