Okay, let’s be honest: The Olympics used to be all about the gold medals, the world records, and the perfectly timed Instagram thirst traps. But this year, there’s something different in the air — and no, it’s not just the lack of a crowd. Our fave athletes are finally talking about mental health, and it’s about damn time.
And we can’t forget that this whole conversation wouldn’t even be happening without the queen herself, Simone Biles. She practically rewrote the Olympic playbook when she said, “Nope, not today” to competing last time around, and instead put her mental health first. TBH, we stan a legend who knows when to prioritize self-care over sticking the landing.
But this time around there are even more players in the game when it comes to promoting more positive and honest conversations around the role mental health plays into the Olympics and the everyday lives of Olympians.
Role Of Mental Health At The 2024 Olympics
Noah Lyles
When Noah Lyles isn’t busy being the fastest man alive — or winning the 100m — he’s out here dropping truth bombs on Twitter. The athlete made history this week as the first American man to win gold in the 100M since 2004. In addition to blessing us with his undeniable aura, Noah also took to Twitter with a refreshingly open statement about his mental health struggles, something that’s not always normalized in the sports world.
“I have Asthma, allergies, dyslexia, ADD, anxiety, and Depression. But I will tell you that what you have does not define what you can become. Why Not You!” Like, preach, Noah.
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Ilona Maher
Ilona Maher, the Rugby player who stole our hearts after deeming the Olympic Village the “Olympic Villa,” has been a huge catalyst when it comes to conversations about body positivity.
In a recent Good Bodies podcast episode, hosts Emily Lubin and Lauren Hope Krass talked about how Ilona has been speaking up about how Olympians are changing the way people talk about women’s bodies.
“I fucking love Ilona Mar,” Lauren said on the show. “I love that she’s like this complicated onion where she has the thirst traps and she has the TikTok dances, but she’s also doing like really important body positive content where she’s like… ‘This is what an athlete’s body looks like’ and ‘Pay attention to the Olympics this year, you’re going to see lots of different body types’ and ‘Health is not a size’.”
Ilona has also been super vocal about how athletic bodies are, in fact, feminine despite not usually being considered so. Oh, and she’s been documenting the food she’s been eating in the Olympic Village (spoiler alert: it’s a lot of croissants). It’s refreshing for a woman — sorry, not just any woman, but a woman who can do incredible things with her body — to showcase that eating carbs is okay!
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Simone Biles
We can’t talk about mental health without talking about the GOAT on and off the mat, Simone Biles. In case you missed the recent Netflix docu-series Simone Biles Rising is not just your usual hippy-dippy-feel-good low stakes convo about mental health. The doc gets super real about what Simone was going through when she decided to drop out of a lot of the games during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. I’m not going to give away any spoilers because you all should watch it, but I will say this: It’s great to finally see people look at the humanity of athletes rather than just how many gold medals they can win.
It’s also the best way for all of us to relate to each other. You might not think you have anything in common with one of the greatest athletes of all time, but at the end of the day we’re all human and learning how to navigate our mental healths the best way we know how — just one day at a time.
