“Weight of Gold” Reveals The Mental Health Epidemic Amongst Olympic Athletes
Trigger warning: depression
This summer, HBO released the hour-long documentary Weight of Gold, directed by Brett Rapkin and narrated by Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time. Weight of Gold not only offers a piercing commentary about the United States Olympic Committee’s treatment of Olympians, it also offers a warning about the unhealthy ways in which our society perceives these athletes, who are only human. Athletes step forward to break the silence on the widespread mental health issues that Olympians face around the world, though this film is only the very beginning of a broader conversation about reform.
The documentary features U.S. Olympians Sasha Cohen, Apolo Ohno, Jeremy Bloom, Gracie Gold, Shaun White, Katie Uhlaender, Lolo Jones, David Boudia, Bode Miller, and Phelps. Though each of their Olympic stories is unique, they all share the same common theme: being an Olympian is not nearly as glamorous as the media makes it seem. For one thing, Olympians receive next to no money for their efforts, especially those who do not win gold. Uhlaender describes receiving stipends as small as 750 dollars per month while training full-time, and Jones recounts working at a gym making seven dollars an hour while watching her past Olympic race replaying on the television. The corporate sponsorships available are reserved almost exclusively for gold medalists, which makes the pressure to perform well even more intense for competing athletes whose livelihoods may depend upon it.
What is even more troubling than the nonexistent financial support from the Olympics is the lack of guidance athletes receive upon retirement. There are no programs or support systems in place once Olympians stop competing, even though training for the Games has been these athletes’ singular focus for all their lives. Understandably, many of them undergo identity crises and struggle to find their place in the world beyond their sport. Phelps asks, “Who was I, outside of the swimming pool?” Cohen echoes his thoughts: “We’re Olympic athletes, and we’re not really sure if we’re anything else.” Once the glory of the Olympic Games fades, athletes are left to seek higher education or job opportunities on their own, and many suffer from post-Olympic depression.
But the most pressing issue that the film presents is the fact that when athletes do step forward to ask Olympic staff for mental health resources, their stories are often ignored. Even though there are dozens of sports psychologists and physicians on hand to treat performance-related maladies, when Gold informed a federation member about her severe depression, they simply told her to find a local therapist. Despite the fact that Olympic athletes are an extremely vulnerable population for mental illness, Phelps sums it up best: “As long as we were performing, I don’t think anything else really mattered [to them].”
This film serves as a long overdue wake-up call for the Olympics, staff, coaches, the media, and viewers around the world that we must raise awareness about Olympic athletes’ universal struggles with mental health. We must strive to reform the circumstances which exacerbate their struggles. As viewers who gladly tune in to the Olympic Games every two years, we must start acknowledging the consequences of athletes falling short of their goals on international television only to have the media and others critique them for doing so. We must understand the ways in which we as a society can worsen the insurmountable pressure and negativity athletes face. Perhaps most urgently, we must realize that many struggle silently without the help they need.
Weight of Gold illustrates the dark side of the Olympic Games and the toll the lifestyle takes on its competitors. Our society undeniably profits from the entertainment Olympic athletes provide, often without offering any support or value in return. Gracie Gold says it all in her interview: “Being an Olympian is advertised as this amazing thing, and they leave out all the side effects.”
