Where is the Line?
When Mental Health and Sports Cross Paths, it’s Hard to Know Where the Line of Criticism Should Begin
Anyone following the general sports world at all has been bombarded the last few days. Simone Biles withdraws from Olympic Gymnastics competition with mental health issue. Biles exits Olympics with apparent injury. In some circles it became far more inflammatory, especially once it became a mental health issue… Biles is a quitter, Defend Biles but… and on it went.
So what is the appropriate line? For one thing, if continuing could involve risk of major injury and the athlete believes he or she can’t continue for any reason, then that should be it. And while you don’t see it often, gymnastics is a sport where serious and potentially fatal injuries can occur. Once again, it has been awhile, but look back to 1988 and Julissa Gomez. For those who don’t know, Gomez was a hopeful for the 1988 Summer Games. She injured herself in warmups for a meet in Tokyo performing a Yurchenko style vault (for those where that rings a bell, Biles is the first and only to perform a Yurchenko double). Gomez was paralyzed immediately and died from her injuries three years later, at age 18.
So, looking at Biles, there is nothing in sport that is worth that kind of risk, especially when mental issues are in the way making it more possible. And in many other sports, if mental issues are detracting, I wouldn’t want someone out there. If someone driving a race car said they needed out for mental health/focus issues, we wouldn’t crush them for it would we? No. Same for someone in all manner of dangerous sports. I wouldn’t want a boxer or MMA fighter out there, nor would I want a pole vaulter out there to bring up a more Olympic example.
For those saying she is part of a team and get over it, they come from a different background in team sports, or are being disingenuous. Yes, the gymnastics is a team, but everything is performed individually. Also, there is no ability to sub out once started. Look at basketball. If this were basketball I’d say give it a try. You aren’t going to be maimed, you can be subbed out and the length of the game is so much longer that sometimes you can play your way into it (same with soccer, hockey, baseball and many other more popular non-football sports).
Now, let’s step away from Biles for just a minute. I know, she is the big story right now, but focusing exclusively on her would forgo other recent stories of mental health and sports intersecting. Look at Naomi Osaka. Look at Tom Dumoulin. Look at Kyrie Irving. And if you don’t know who those people are, just know that they come from three different sports and three different racial backgrounds. And all got different levels of support…
…now of course it is impossible to go deeper on Osaka, Dumoulin and Irving without mentioning the elephant in the room. Of course I am talking about race. In the next section I am going to take a look at all three cases. Just keep in mind that Osaka is of mixed race, Irving is black and Dumoulin is white.
Osaka — Back at the French Open in May, she said she would not do media because of mental health issues. This led to her being fined and eventually withdrawing from the tournament. She also then skipped Wimbledon before resurfacing to light the Olympic flame in Tokyo. Her status for the US Open (a tournament she has won twice) is still unknown because of the media policy.
When she withdrew there was a ton of criticism leveled at her, mostly from media types mad about the changes being made to their jobs and craft. To her credit, Osaka has mostly been open in releasing statements about her mental health and then disappearing to allow others in her sport to step into the limelight. Still, the criticism was particularly over the top from some segments of the sports watching population…
Dumoulin — Took a break from his Jumbo-Visma cycling team in January saying he had lost his passion and love for the bike and needed to take time away to get well mentally. Surprisingly, given the history of cycling teams, Jumbo-Visma stuck with him and told him to take all the time he needed and his story seems to have inspired others to in cycling to speak about mental health issues.
He remade a brief appearance watching on the side of the road at Amstel Gold race in his home Netherlands in April before returning to competition at the Tour de Suisse in June and winning the silver medal in the men’s time trial for the second consecutive Olympics just this week.
Irving — Likely the most complicated before Biles as Irving’s mental health issues have long been explained away as “He’s just a different kind of dude.” And yes, Irving is much more interested in some other parts of life than basketball. But saying he is a different kind of dude when he admits to taking a day off because he “didn’t want to play that day” in the context of many known mental health issues is a bit of a cop out. Especially since the fans in Boston (if you know you know on race) have been trashing him for screwing up their championship opportunity basically since the day he got there and right up through now even though he has been in Brooklyn for two seasons now.
So who was treated the best? Obviously Dumoulin. And many will say it is because he is white. And I can’t refute that. But I will also say that Dumoulin seems to have opened some real doors. 2012 Tour de France Champion Bradley Wiggins opened up this spring about the mental pressures of competing and training at that level. He said that his rockstar persona of that era was a mask to get him through all the hard days.
Additionally in cycling, we have the story of Theo Nonnez. He is a young French now former rider with Groupama-FDJ. He retired from the sport at 21. His team was very understanding. They told him to take a few weeks to think about it and potentially reconsider. Then we he said he couldn’t continue, they paid for training courses in communication for Nonnez. He has since said while he does not want to ride, he might like to work in the sport in an off-bike capacity.
With all of these examples, where do we go from here? For one thing, whether it be race, sport or country; we need to treat mental health issues in sports much better. While I brought up the race issue in reference to how Dumoulin (and Nonnez for that matter) was treated better than the others, there is one other defining factor beyond their respective sports: all mentioned outside of cycling are primarily based in the United States. Even Osaka who plays for Japan. Is there something happening in Europe that allowed for cyclists to manage this easier? If so, how do we import that here?
I fear of course that this is going to become a much bigger issue. Though that might be a good thing. It is entirely possible that there have been many, many cases in American pro sports that have been swept under the rug. It is good for mental health advocacy in this country if more of the buried cases come out.
And before I finish, I should note that Europe isn’t off the hook here. While cycling is big there, true progress won’t be made until players from soccer can speak about mental health issues there. Hopefully the time comes soon as this is an area where athletes truly can light the way forward for acceptance and progress, much moreso than many other issues on which they are asked to or forced to take stands (another reason for many of these issues, especially in Irving’s case).