Leaps and boundaries

The verdict isn’t yet out on whether athletes become so because of what they’ve been through or they become so despite what they’ve been through. Either way, they’ve become something more than most others can be. That’s probably why we live vicariously through them, expecting them to always be in the right. That’s the thing, we don’t expect them to win, we also expect them to win right, and look good doing it, be model citizens, align with the right ideologies, show high levels of altruism, be devoid of vices…

The list is endless because we expect endlessly, and when they fail to deliver, we denigrate them all the same, we lift them up just so we can — sadistically — watch them fall.

Yes, they’re athletes, meaning, they are physically and mentally capable of more than most of us. But to conveniently ignore that they’re mostly like the rest of us is exactly why over 40 per cent of athletes worldwide suffer from traumas related to mental health. This involves eating disorders, depression, anxiety, depersonalisation, derealisation and the like. Several studies over the years have established this rather astonishing statistic quite strongly.

Essentially, a smorgasbord of what could go wrong inside someone’s head does go wrong in the minds of athletes as well.

Perhaps we have made some progress as a race of people when it comes to being empathetic towards the mental struggles of people. However, we’re still egregiously primitive when it comes to offering lenience towards athletes suffering from it.

The fact that the likes of Naomi Osaka, Michael Phelps, Virat Kohli and Thierry Henry have come out and spoken openly about their battles is refreshing because they took up the space to voice themselves. They were not given it. (see box)

Superman on demand

Fans and the suits who run the show don’t care (mostly) about what the athletes’ mental struggles are as long as they’re able to put on that cape and become ‘Superman’ on demand. Worse yet, they can’t take off their capes even when they’re done because we elevated them to don the role of a ‘role model’. Meaning, they don’t even get their Clark Kent downtime!

Take KL Rahul for example. The small-town Mangaluru boy, who is at the peak of his powers in the world of Indian cricket, gets trolled so regularly that it makes sense why that innocent smile of preceding years is no more.

When asked about it recently, he said: “It’s difficult, obviously. When you play international cricket, you are challenged as a cricketer, as a person and as an individual each day, each moment. There is the pressure of social media. When you score a hundred, people go ‘wow, wow’. But 3-4 months ago, they were abusing me. It’s part and parcel of the game. It does affect you, I won’t say it doesn’t affect me, But soon, you realise that your mindset and your game will be better if you stay away from it (negativity on social media). You can perform and be in a better mindset if you know where to draw the line. Nobody is that great that they can completely avoid what is being said, and the criticism that they face, it does affect each person. Anyone who says it doesn’t affect them at all is lying, I am sure. Each person has to find a way (to deal with it).”

Here’s the kicker: Rahul — or any other famous personality for that matter — cannot hit back at these criticisms because if they do, that reaction becomes their personality. Suddenly, they’re the villains, not those who instigated him/her to become so.

“What will happen by expressing yourself? Nothing will change. People who say things will keep on saying things. I have realised that whatever sport you play if you are in the public eye, your performance is the only way you can stay away from negative comments. As long as you keep performing, you can keep these things away. You will be happy if you try and stay away from all these things,” he said.

It is sad that a 31-year-old man has to sound this despondent while trying to do the one thing he loves to do!

The same can be said about Ishan Kishan. He exited the closet about battles with his mental health, and as it turned out, he was ostracised by those whom he deemed his own. The truth is, athletes can’t just come out with their traumas or their troubles with mental health until they are established. Those who are young and on the rise can’t because their spots are up for grabs and those who are better at coping/hiding their traumas are most likely to get the gig. It’s a shame, but it’s true.

So, when athletes speak up about what their just-like-us-brains have to endure every day, it’s important that we give them the platform and not enter the room with a ‘…but they get paid to do it’ mindset. It’s not easy but it’s imperative. It comes down to human decency at this point.

The gender factor

Now, throw sexuality into the mix and watch the room go silent! Imagine having to navigate the minefield of identity as a sexual being while being an athlete. It’s not a thought that occurs to the collective conscience enough because athletes don’t come out and talk about it as often. Then again, why would they?!

They get persecuted for their performance(s) on and off the field, so why would anyone feel emboldened enough to broach the topic in the public eye? And so, they suffer in silence, and there are a lot of them.

There are only a handful of athletes the world over who have come out and spoken about their sexuality and/or sexual preferences. Even though these announcements, have typically come post-retirement, they still mean something to those who sit in changing rooms battling their minds in an effort to conform.

American basketball player Brittney Griner, American football player Megan Rapinoe and Dutee Chand in India are among them. “Just being the only spokesperson and making sure I’m setting the right example, saying the right things,” she said of the time when she was one of a handful of openly gay athletes.

Whether it comes to gay marriage or difficult and nuanced topics like trans inclusion in sports, those are the challenges of just continuing to stay educated. The world is slowly moving toward giving the LGBTQIA+ community their space, or at least a show is made of it, but athletes from that community will most likely be the last ones to reap the rewards of this ‘benevolence’.

Athletes will never be spared the wicked tongue, and that, as Rahul says, is part of the gig. He isn’t wrong. It’s wrong that he has to say that. We, as a people, need to shoulder some of this burden. It’s about time we saw ourselves in them, and saw them in us. That might reduce the awe factor fractionally, but that’s a small price to pay for letting another human live just beyond the shadows of mental health concerns.