MENDED #10 | Olympic Edition
Olympic Edition | Mental health is taking a top role at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. We've found 10 of the best articles on the topic and most of them available without a subscription.
😓 “Olympians are crying out about their mental health challenges. We should listen.”
In June, before Simone Biles withdrew from the Olympics, the Washington Post published a story on Olympic athletes and mental health.
🔥 OK Not To Be OK: Mental Health Takes Top Role At Olympics
For decades, they were told to shake it off or toughen up -- to set aside the doubt, or the demons, and the focus on the task at hand: winning. Dominating. Getting it done...
Continue reading this story from the National Associated Press.
🦠 Pandemic takes toll on athlete mental health at Tokyo Games
Isolation and the absence of family and friends have taken a toll on athletes' mental health at the Tokyo Olympics, with some struggling to cope with the challenges posed by the pandemic while carrying their country's hopes on the global sports stage.
Continue reading this story from Reuters.
🎾 A game-changer for mental health: Sports icons open up
Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and others could accelerate growing acceptance and decreasing stigma for mental health.
Continue reading this story from Michigan Health.
🤸🏿 The Radical Courage of Simone Biles’s Exit from the Team USA Olympic Finals
Biles’s decision not to compete on Tuesday is, to many spectators, a heartbreak. It is also a welcome example of an athlete setting her own limits.
Continue reading this story from The New Yorker.
😤 Piers Claims Celebrities Are Faking Mental Illness
"They do those with genuine mental illness a great disservice."
🏊🏼 Overcoming Tragedy, Olympic Journey of Erica Sullivan Brings Her Home to Tokyo
“…She’s experienced profound loss and tremendous personal discovery in the last four years. She’s overcome adversity on a path that has changed trajectory, all while blazing a unique trail for an American swimmer.”
Continue reading this story from Swimming World.
🧨 What A Sports Psychologist Has To Say About The Olympics
NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with sports psychologist Dr. Mark Aoyagi about the way athletes deal with psychological pressure at the Olympics.
Continue reading this story on NPR.
🧠 How Olympians Are Fighting to Put Athletes' Mental Health First
“…One morning in January 2018, those thoughts hijacked her brain completely. ‘It was just too much,’ she says of the building pressure and depression…Instead of driving where she needed to go and checking things off her to-do list, she drove to those places and kept going…‘I felt it was like a goodbye and I was going to see everything one last time.’”
Continue reading on Time Magazine.
🏋️♀️ Raven Saunders Prioritizes Mental Health In Her Second Olympics
Underneath her strong exterior, the one that earned her the nickname “the Hulk” before she was even an Olympian in shot put, Raven Saunders was depressed.
Continue reading this story on Forbes.
BONUS LINKS
Green Country Behavioral Health Celebrates “Topping Off” New Medical Building
This is a great win for mental health in Oklahoma. Congratulations to Green Country Behavioral Health Services, Muskogee. They recently celebrated the topping off of their new medical building. Green Country Behavioral Services is a founding member of the Alliance of Mental Health Providers of Oklahoma. GCBHS CEO Joy Sloan is our board secretary.
🔎 INFOGRAPHIC: Millennials and Gen Z are mostly anxious
See a larger version on The Star.