Retiring from skilled sport may be anguishing for some athletes.
In Australia, high-profile athletes comparable to Brendan Cannon, Nathan Bracken, Stephanie Rice and Lauren Jackson have spoken in regards to the lack of identity, purpose and goals for the long run, in addition to depression and thoughts of suicide after retirement.
More recently, the death of former Australian Football League (AFL) player Cam McCarthy – who battled mental health issues during his profession – brought on calls for more support for athletes during retirement, including from Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir.
Meanwhile, the sentencing of former St Kilda footballer Sam Fisher for drug offences has driven similar conversations about “life after footy”, as has develop into the go-to phrase for headline writers.
These discussions in regards to the mental health challenges at the top of an athletic profession are essential – but there’s a missing piece of the puzzle.
The danger of the athlete identity
Reaching and maintaining peak performance as an athlete requires immense dedication and discipline.
As a result, athletes’ identities often develop into closely linked to their status as sportspeople. This means when something disrupts their ability to play sport, like injury or retirement, serious mental health problems can follow.
The excellent news is, sporting organisations are increasingly investing in retirement transition programs that support mental health during and after the top of athletes’ careers.
Programs typically aim to encourage athletes to develop more well-rounded identities, consider future careers and encourage help-seeking when needed.
Such programs are currently being delivered by the AFL, Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and National Rugby Leagueamongst others.
This investment is encouraging. These programs can play essential roles in stopping and responding to serious mental health problems amongst retiring athletes.
But more must be done to support athletes’ mental health at the beginning of their careers.
The importance of early intervention
As with all illnesses, early intervention is vital. Taking preventative approaches to mental health is important to construct resilience and forestall symptoms from becoming severe.
There is a necessity for greater concentrate on prevention and early intervention for mental health issues in elite sport.
Elite athletes often need to navigate significant pressures and responsibilities from an early age. For example, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics showcased athletes comparable to Sky Brown, who competed in skateboarding and won bronze on the age of only 13.
Importantly, athletes are at essentially the most vulnerable age for mental health problems after they enter elite sport settings, given 75% of those issues develop by age 24.
Coupled with this, the pressures young athletes face – performance pressure, high training loads, strict lifestyle demands and public and media scrutiny – exist alongside the traditional challenges of adolescence: academic pursuits, increasing independence from caregivers, developing a way of identity and navigating peer relationships and early romantic relationships.
This is clearly so much for young people to be managing.
And yet up to now, little emphasis has been given to promoting athlete mental health during this transition.
Importantly, these efforts need to begin from entry into the high-performance system, fairly than late in athletes’ careers.
What more may be done?
Our research team at The Orygen – a youth mental health organisation – recently developed a framework for promoting mental health throughout the transition into elite sport. This highlights ways people in sport settings (comparable to coaches, teammates and staff) can support athlete mental health and wellbeing.
One advisable strategy is ensuring athletes understand the important thing challenges they’re prone to face throughout their careers. This may be complemented by helping them develop healthy strategies for overcoming these challenges.
Across the whole-of-sport system, there’s a necessity to make sure all athletes are valued as people – not only sportspeople. This requires constructing meaningful relationships in sport and preparing athletes for all times beyond the athletic profession.
Importantly, opportunities for mental health support must be provided commonly. Athletes must know in search of help is an element of maintaining optimal health and may even support performance.
Sports organisations are beginning to make strides on this area. For example, the AFL delivers a curriculum to all Talent Pathways players on mental health literacy, resilience, stress management and coping, and skills to contribute to a protected and inclusive team culture.
Similarly, the AIS’s Start Strong program offers online learning that gives athletes and their parents with essential information in regards to the Australian high-performance sport system and topics comparable to personal values and overcoming obstacles.
Others, comparable to the Australian Cricketers’ Associationhave begun to supply support for alternative education and profession pathways earlier in a player’s profession, to make sure they’ve options after retirement.
Next steps for everybody
These investments are the way in which forward but we want to push on with stopping mental health problems from the outset, ensuring athletes are best prepared to perform their roles and live healthy lives – physically and mentally – during their lifetimes.
And perhaps the remaining of us – including sports fans and media – can use recent events and this Olympic and Paralympic 12 months to do not forget that sportspeople are sometimes in a developmentally critical period of life.