Latest news with #athletewellbeing
ABC News
2 days ago
- Sport
- ABC News
Cate Campbell says lack of pay contributes to swimmers' mental health struggles after Mollie O'Callaghan's teary admission
Australian swimming legend Cate Campbell says a lack of funding is partly to blame for many of the sport's stars struggling with mental health issues. Campbell's comments come after five-time Olympic gold medallist Mollie O'Callaghan broke down at the Australian swimming trials when discussing the weight of expectation she faces coming into meets. O'Callaghan is one of several swimmers who have found it tough to back up after starring at the Paris Olympics last year. Unlike athletes in most sports, swimmers make almost all their income from sponsorships. While the sport's top stars can make significant amounts through endorsements, others struggle to make ends meet and therefore are required to compete more often, leading to burnout. "We do not pay these athletes enough," Campbell told ABC Sport Daily. "We do not pay them enough for them to be able to sit back and relax in between their training sessions. "We have athletes who are working and studying, trying to make ends meet. That grind is relentless, so, when you come to the end of a four-year cycle and you're facing the prospect of another one, it's no wonder you're exhausted, it's no wonder you're burnt out. "Then you know you have to go and compete and be the best in the world if you want to be able to afford your mortgage, if you want to be able to afford your rent. "These athletes are being paid tens of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands, not millions, to be the best in the world. It is exhausting and what you are seeing is the toll that it's taking on them." Campbell, who notched eight medals across four separate Olympic campaigns, said the sport had always been rife with athletes who struggled mentally. "It's always been this bad. I think people are just feeling safe and empowered enough to talk about it," she said. "It has always been a challenge. It has always been exhausting, but it was something that wasn't spoken about and wasn't acknowledged, and that is why we saw people retire (prematurely)." Campbell used the retirement of legendary swimmer Ian Thorpe at just 24 as a prime example of a swimmer retiring early due to the stresses surrounding the sport. Campbell suggested she would like to see backing of swimmers come from "corporate Australia". "Once every four years these athletes make everyone proud to be Australian, and yet in the years in between, the years where we're competing at a World Championships or a Commonwealth Games, that support and that focus drops off," she said. "I would love to see corporate Australia step up and be able to pay these athletes what they're worth through personal sponsorships, but even that goes to your top two per cent of your athletes. "I would love to see some more support for the sport more broadly so we can have grassroots programs coming through. "It is difficult. It is challenging. We're not on TV every week like the NRL or AFL. We're on TV once every four years where everyone is switched on, but we do have competitions in between now and then. "We want to bring swimming back to being one of the premier sports. "When I was a little kid, I can remember watching the World Championships every year because it was on a free-to-air broadcast, so we need that to continue." The Australian swimming trials will conclude in Adelaide on Saturday.
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Footy heartthrob Bailey Smith reveals why his famous sixpack hurt his mental health as he opens up about turning to alcohol and needing professional help after break-up
Bailey Smith has revealed that the pressure to keep his Instagram-famous sixpack was one factor in an avalanche of stress that hit him so hard he ended up spending six weeks getting professional help in a mental health facility. The 24-year-old has had a torrid 12 months as he battled through a serious knee injury, endured a relationship break-up and dealt with the fallout from his switch to Geelong after spending the first five years of his career with the Western Bulldogs. Smith confessed he turned to alcohol while he 'fell into a bad spiral' after doing his knee and breaking up with his girlfriend of two years, Gemma Dawkins, last August. His high-profile split with the Dogs added fuel to the fire as fans turned on him and drove a wedge between him and his old teammates while the injury made it impossible for him to use footy as a 'mask'. 'When you have to sit with yourself and be your own source of entertainment, fulfillment, stimulation, that's when I had to look inward and realise, "S**t, I am pretty f***ed up and I need to sort my s**t out,' he told the Real Stuff podcast. 'I got into some bad ways going flat-out after my knee [injury] and getting on the p**s and being an idiot, which we all do, but that's my coping mechanism. 'I really had to look inward ... that's when I found out that f***, there's nothing much to look inward here, other than a bit of a s**t storm.' Adding that he 'lost a lot of relationships' over his move to Geelong, the Cats star revealed he spent the six weeks at the facility seeing psychologists every day and meditating. 'There were multiple times where I thought [this is] rock bottom but then you find out rock bottom keeps going for a bit.' Footy fans who follow Smith on Instagram are used to seeing him flaunt his enviable physique - but if they reckon it's a source of pride and joy for him, they're wrong. 'It's hard, because I get this recognition for how you look and Instagram following for how I look, not football initially,' he said. 'It's hard not to attach your identity to that and self-worth and worry about how many abs you've got and all that sort of bulls**t. 'It got a bit poisoned by feeling like I was doing it to live up to the expectations of others and not because I loved fitness and exercise.' Smith explained he's 'never been more content and at peace than I am now' after relocating to a 15-acre property near Geelong, where he can 'sit and be zen'. His Bulldogs split was the talk of the AFL in the lead-up to last Thursday's clash with the Cats, which Geelong won. Smith stirred the pot ahead of the match by taking a shot at the Dogs for playing in front of just 5000 spectators when they took on Port Adelaide in Ballarat last month. He apologised to Ballarat locals by arranging for more than 2000 cans of grog to be handed out for free in one of the town's bottle shops. Smith was in hot water after the Cats' win when he talked about the possibility of celebrating a win with a few 'nose beers' - slang for cocaine - in a comment on Instagram. One follower asked the midfielder if he'd had 'nose beers after the game mate?'. Smith responded by writing 'na bro, after the flag maybe tho', with the comment coming after he admitted he was holding a bag containing a white powered drug in a photo that went viral after the 2021 season. That saw him get slammed by AFL CEO Andrew Dillon. 'We are talking with Geelong and talking with Bailey and we wouldn't want to see it again,' Dillon said. 'He delivered the comments, he put up an apology and I absolutely don't condone it. Drug use is a serious thing and shouldn't be joked about. 'If he has time again, I'm not sure he'd do it.' However, AFL Players Association boss Paul Marsh cautioned the league against overreacting. 'I took it as something that was tongue-in-cheek,' Marsh said. 'Maybe [given his] time again he wouldn't do it but at the same time we don't want to take down a guy for actually showing personality.' Smith's split with Gemma Dawkins came after he first confirmed their romance in May 2022. The couple made their public debut at 2023 Derby Day in Melbourne.
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Tyrese Haliburton's moment of reflection sheds light on stars' secret struggles
You see it all the time these days. Players with their hands over their mouths at the end of matches, masking even the most banal of pleasantries from prying eyes. Not wanting to say anything that could be reported. Not wanting to let anyone in. A generation or two ago, writers such as Gay Talese would hang out with global stars such as Floyd Patterson and hear the former heavyweight champion call himself a coward, describe how it felt to be knocked out, and even accompany him to his daughter's school to see him confront the bullies who kept lifting up her skirt. And that all happened on the same day. In the modern era, though, few dare risk saying anything, let alone to bare their souls. You can understand their thinking: in a world where abuse on social media has become normalised, why open yourself up further? Even so, it felt refreshing recently to see one of the NBA's biggest stars, Tyrese Haliburton, lift the lid on how it feels when your form deserts you and life turns angsty and dark. 'I was struggling to look at myself in the mirror,' Haliburton told the Athletic. 'I'm struggling to show up to work and get to the gym. I'm trying to avoid coming to work.' It wasn't just that Haliburton had been one of the 12 NBA stars picked for the US Olympic team in Paris last summer, only to barely play after aggravating a hamstring injury. He then also started the NBA season averaging fewer than 15 points in his first nine games. 'I was really trying to run away from what was going on and I think that point was for me to be like: 'Yo, I don't feel like myself. I don't feel all right,'' he said. ''This shit, it's bad.' ' Reading abusive messages on social media, which in the past had fired Haliburton up, only made his anxiety levels worse. 'I think that I just got consumed with the negativity of people talking shit,' he revealed. Haliburton is not everyone's favourite player. But his confessional not only made him more relatable, it also shone a rare light on what may lie behind the ups and downs players go through over a season. Further insights also came this month with a study that investigated 'the frequencies, trajectories and stability of depressive and anxiety symptoms over the course of a competitive season' at the Bundesliga club Hoffenheim. That involved researchers speaking to 204 players, ranging from men's and women's first-team players to the boy's under-12 squad, multiple times during the 2022-23 season to get deeper insights into how symptoms can change over time. The first finding? During the 10 months of the season, several players reported experiencing depressive (12.7%) and anxiety symptoms (15.6%), exceeding clinical thresholds at least once. That, in other words, could be two or three players on average in a squad. The research team, led by the former player Lina Burger, who is now a psychologist at the club, also found that levels of depression – characterised by a persistently low mood and the loss of pleasure and interest for a period of at least 14 days – were lowest in preseason 'after which symptoms increased and remained relatively stable at a higher level throughout the season. Overall, the linear increase in depressive symptoms suggests a draining effect of a soccer season on the psychological health of players.' Again, that is not a huge surprise. But, as the researchers point out, it is something that clubs can do better to understand and prepare for. What about anxiety levels among players? Well, they tended to be stable until the winter break but then went up. That, researchers speculated, was probably due to matches mattering more towards the end of the season as well as players fearing they might be transferred out or let go. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Another interesting finding? Female players reported higher depression scores than male participants. Part of that might be because female football in Germany generally has lower levels of professionalism, with many players also having to work during the week to make ends meet while getting less psychological support. However, the researchers also note other studies have found that women in elite sport do suffer more from depression and anxiety. One large study among high-level French athletes in 2011, for instance, found 20.2% of women had at least one psychopathology, against 15.1% in men. Ultimately, the study found that footballers experience mental health disorders at rates comparable with the rest of the population. However, the researchers also note: 'The common external observation that they appear 'mentally strong', for example, when calmly scoring a penalty-kick goal, should not be equated with psychological health.' The researchers noted, too, that playing in team sports seems to have a preventive effect. Intriguingly, professional athletes in team ball sports have a significantly lower prevalence (8.1%) of depressive disorders compared with those in aesthetic and target sports (16% of athletes). Yet the lowest levels, intriguingly, are among athletes doing high-risk sports (about 3%). As for Haliburton? Well since struggling earlier in the season, he has turned things around. And on Thursday his Indiana Pacers team open their Eastern Conference final against the New York Knicks with a legitimate shot of making the NBA finals. Perhaps there is a message in there somewhere. Opening up is not necessarily a bad thing.
