BEIJING (NewsNation Now) — To help Olympic athletes deal with the pressure they’re facing as the world watches them compete, Team USA has number of mental health services in place.
Six months ago, at the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles came down with a case of the twisties, or a sudden inability for a gymnast to make the required spins for a particular maneuver. She decided to opt-out of five of the six final competitions because of a mental block, starting a discussion about athletes’ mental health.
But Dr. Jessica Bartley, who was hired by the United States’ Olympic and Paralympic Committee as its director of mental health services in 2020, said it’s not any particular athlete who influences or changes the way people think about these kinds of things.
“Sports psychologists have been managing mental health crises for decades at the games,” she said.
And they have a plan in place for the Beijing games as well. This includes having licensed mental health providers on the ground in China.
“Those are going to be providers who are not assigned to any team,” Bartley told NewsNation. “This is accessible to any athlete who is on team USA, any staff member. We are there to really support the delegation for Team USA.”
Sean McCann, a senior sports psychologist with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said Tokyo posed some unique challenges he’s never seen before, and he anticipates it will be the same in Beijing.
Something athletes tend to get nervous about is making sure they’re in good shape before they compete, or they worry about getting an injury.
“One of the things that we really try to focus on with the athletes is keeping things simple as possible,” McCann said. “Given what I do, I’m really happy that this current generation is so comfortable talking about stuff. “