COVID-19 stoppage affecting athletes' mental health
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00:00 For many elite athletes, their sport is their identity.
00:06 In a time of social distancing amidst the global coronavirus pandemic,
00:10 athletes at all levels are finding themselves unable to maintain
00:13 the training schedule and routine they are so accustomed to.
00:16 So in today's SI Daily cover,
00:18 Julie Kligman examines the role and importance of
00:21 mental health in a challenging time for sports and the world.
00:24 Julie, as you note, athletes are used to a regimented schedule.
00:28 So how challenging of a mental hurdle is it for those you spoke to?
00:33 Yeah, it's definitely a big shift going from spending seven or eight hours
00:37 in the gym every day to suddenly, you know,
00:40 only breaking up time with grocery store trips like the rest of us.
00:43 It's a little unsettling for them.
00:47 Now, Michael Phelps, he's been open about his own relationship with his mental health,
00:51 and he noted that he'd be flipping out if the Olympic Games
00:54 that he was scheduled to participate in were pushed back a year.
00:57 So why is that such an adjustment?
00:59 And how have athletes been coping with this change in schedule?
01:03 Well, it's not only a challenge physically,
01:05 because obviously you have to readjust your whole training schedule
01:09 to compete a year out, but it's a whole mentality as well.
01:12 And if you look at someone like Simone Biles,
01:15 she has to weigh competing an extra year when she's already kind of
01:19 at the peak of her sport now.
01:21 And you look at it mentally, and it's just,
01:24 you have to be in this mindset to take on a whole extra year of training.
01:28 It's not easy.
01:31 And we've seen different sports adjusting in different ways.
01:34 The NBA and the NHL have had to suspend mid-season.
01:37 Major League Baseball has its start date up in the air,
01:40 and the NFL is doing its best to maintain the schedule as planned.
01:43 But in the story, you discuss the masculine nature of some sports like football,
01:47 for example.
01:48 Are there certain sports that make it more challenging to have these open
01:52 discussions about this mental health struggle in these times?
01:56 Yeah, I think for men's sports, men are always a little less encouraged
02:03 to speak out than women are about their struggles.
02:06 So something like football is certainly a big challenge,
02:10 but it really affects everyone.
02:13 Obviously, though, the conversation has become so much less taboo in recent years.
02:18 How beneficial is it to have such an open conversation about mental health?
02:22 Oh, I mean, it makes all the difference to people.
02:24 It encourages them to speak out and get help.
02:28 And to see athletes like Michael Phelps doing that,
02:33 that doesn't only help other athletes.
02:34 It helps all of us.
02:36 SI's Julie Kliegman, thanks so much for taking the time.
02:40 Thank you.
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