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Are post-Olympic blues real?
Attending an Olympic games is the peak of any sporting career.
But after every mountain, there’s a valley and athletes are often unprepared to navigate their transition back to “ordinary life,” says Christine Arthur, a former Olympian and the head of performance life at High Performance Sports New Zealand (HPSNZ) a body that works with New Zealand’s best athletes.
For years, the mental challenges of athletes after the world moves on from the Olympic games have been overlooked, but more research on the impact of the”post-Olympic blues” has meant more proactive support.
“There’s a big emptiness,” Arthur, who competed on the New Zealand women’s hockey teams 1984 and 1992 Olympics, said. “You’ve had goals and a drive that’s been going on for four years and then suddenly it’s finished.”
There were almost 11,000 athletes competing in Paris and most left the games with no medal.
“The funny thing about the Olympics is that everybody goes in thinking they’re going to win a gold medal. I certainly did and most people come home disappointed,” Arthur said. It took her three or four years to overcome a sense of failure for her hockey team not winning a medal.
But the feelings of disappointment and deflation can strike medal winners and non-medal winners equally, said Arthur. Rather, the key to overcoming the post-Olympics blues is preparation.
Dame Lisa Carrington at an event after her massive success at this year’s Games. Photo: Raghavan Venugopal / www.photosport.nz
US Gymnast Simone Biles, who has won seven Olympic gold medals and competed at three Olympics, talked about her post-Olympics blues in the Netflix documentary Simone Biles Rising. Biles famously withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics citing mental health as a key reason.
The Olympic dream can quickly turn into a nightmare full of “internal conflict, media intrusion, the perception of the Games as an anti-climax, feelings of isolation, and failure to meet their own and others’ expectation,” according to a 2021 research article on the post-Olympic Blues.
Research shows that athletes are more likely to have a positive transition if they are prepared and if they have the strong support of family, other athletes and governing bodies.
HPSNZ works with athletes on a short-term transition plan for two to three weeks following the event as well as a six-month plan. Depending on where an athlete is in their sporting career, that plan could include retirement or how to go back into another four-year cycle of Olympic preparation.
“We do a lot of work on purpose and identity, making sure that athletes understand they are more than their sport,” Arthur said of the focus on balancing multiple identities like that of a parent or career person, with their sporting identity.
That plan also looks at each athlete’s strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities.
“You’ve been pursuing a dream that to be honest is pretty selfish so who’s helped you and what do you want to give back to them?” Arthur said. This could mean carving out time for supportive spouses and children, or going back to an athlete’s high school and talking to kids about sport.
Often athletes in individual sports, like athletics, can feel more lost and less supported than athletes who are in a team. “Although I can certainly say as a hockey player, I still really felt it,” Arthur said.
HPSNZ post-Olympic conference helps with the transition either into sporting retirement or into another four-year Olympic preparation cycle. Kiwi athletes from Paris have already signed up, including kayak gold medalist and Closing Ceremony flag bearer Finn Butcher.
Trampolinist Dylan Schmidt – who won bronze in Tokyo – attended in 2021 as did hockey player Leon Hayward.
The conference in November looks at tools to deal with the emotional highs and lows of the Olympics, and practical skills, like repackaging what athletes have learnt in sport into a new, financially viable career. It is the third Olympics that HPSNZ is running the conference with 60 athletes set to attend this year.
“It definitely is a very personal journey that athletes go on,” Arthur said.
VIA RNZ
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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