Some sports legends turned on the spotlight on mental health challenges and breaking stigma, during an online event hosted by the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), Qatar Foundation’s global health initiative, on Wednesday. The panel on ‘Mental health & sport: The challenge of balancing risk with reward’ featured double Olympic gold medal-winning athlete, Dame Kelly Holmes; former Liverpool FC and England footballer, Robbie Fowler; exPakistan cricket captain, Wasim Akram; shared about their struggles with mental illness and how they overcame the challenges. Dame Kelly Holmes has inspired millions to reach for the stars, but behind closed doors, she spent in the grip of anxiety, depression and self-harm. Now, she is using her experience to reach and help others.
The double Olympic athletics champion shared about her experience with mental health problems and explained how since the devastating loss of her mum, she is learning to more effectively manage her mental health. “I self-harmed once for every day I had been injured, and I hid it because I had never known of anyone in my network dealing with the problem I had. Half of me was dying, and half of me was living for my dream, because I had a World Championship to go to, and that kept me going. I won a silver medal, but nobody knew what was happening to me. I just had to stay focused on my dream and hope that would keep me going,” said Kelly.
“Opening up to people has helped me deal with my life and realise that none of us can be anything more than we are. Having the mental issues I have had, and learning to deal with them and talk about them, is perhaps one of the greatest successes I have had,” she added. The cricket legend turned commentator and coach Wasim Akram, regarded as one of the best bowlers of all time told the webinar that at the time of his captaincy, his teammates – and friends – rebelled against him, and he and his team were accused of deliberately losing a World Cup. “When my team said they would not play under me, that was a dark time.
Imagine playing in a team and not speaking to anyone in it for a month and a half. The culture in Pakistan was that we are mentally very tough and we didn’t talk about mental health. It took me two years to come back from it,” he said. And Akram was only 29 years old when he was first told that he had Type 1 diabetes, he got quite depressed. “I thought that won’t be able to play cricket anymore,” he said. But his late wife who was a psychologist had played a major role in his recovery from depression. Akram also shed light on stigma against mental health problems. “Mental health remains a taboo in our culture and community. This phenomenon prevents people from having the awareness and access for help,” he said. Fowler with a 19-year football career shared about the challenges that fame and culture pose for young footballers, and of the need for sports stars to be more open about discussing their mental health.
“When times are tough having self-belief and thinking positively is so important. Struggling is not failure” he said. The panel was joined by Professor Claudia Reardon, a psychiatrist specialising in sports at the University of Wisconsin and co-chair of the International Olympic Committee’s working group on mental health and elite athletes. “There has been less stigma in recent years, but the sport is still one of the final frontiers when it comes to mental health,” she said. “Mental illness is real and treatable like any physical health condition.” The panel discussion was moderated by BBC sport and news presenter Dan Walker. The event was a fitting kickoff for the upcoming WISH 2020 summit, which will take place virtually from November 15 to 19.