How Team USA Is Prioritizing Mental Health at the 2024 Olympics
Team GB gets sleep pods. What do our athletes get? Turns out, a lot.
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When Simone Biles pulled out of the individual All-Around competition during the 202o Tokyo Olympics, she expected the worst. “Leading up to Tokyo, I was so nervous about getting injured physically that I kind of neglected my mental health,” Simone said this week. “I put that on the back burner and then I was injured, except it was a mental injury.” The star gymnast said she felt “the world was going to hate” her post-Games.
Not only is she loved more than ever, but her brave move to talk publicly about her mental well-being ignited an entire movement and forever changed the way we talk about mental health in sports (um, hi, because we’re finally talking about it). And this year, when Team USA touched down in Paris, they did so alongside an entire support system of mental health pros.
“There had been a tremendous stigma around mental health in sports because it’s been perceived as a weakness,” Jessica Bartley, PsyD, LCSW, CMPC, senior director of psychological services for the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) tells Cosmopolitan. “But it’s slowly become perceived as a strength to get the support needed. Key athletes speaking out is shifting the stigma, but it’s definitely still there.”
Bartley was brought on by the USOPC in September 2020 to grow the new mental health program to Olympic proportions. Her team includes 15 full-time employees (plus 1 part-time employee) and nearly 300 providers on a USOPC Mental Health and Mental Performance Registries. Along with a 24/7 phone line for coaches, athletes, and staff (also available through a QR code posted at the training centers), Bartley’s team provides individual and group/team services for mental performance and mental health. They also regularly screen athletes for mental health concerns through an IOC Sport Mental Health Assessment Tool that asks questions on general sport-related stressors, depression, anxiety, disordered eating, drugs, alcohol, sleep, and trauma.
“We provide lots of education and training to athletes and those who support the athletes,” she adds. “We have crisis services and a mental health emergency action plan, so we’re prepared for suicidality and psychosis—the really serious mental health emergencies. But we’re also prepared for the death of a loved one or significant losses. In the past, we’ve had a miscarriage and other medical issues or even injuries that have come up.”
Athletes deal with so much more than what we see on the screen, and it’s part of Bartley’s job to help alleviate as many of those pressures and stressors that come along with elite competitions as possible. That’s why the team is giving this year’s athletes free memberships to Headspace, a mental health app with guided meditations and stress management tools, and also posting videos and info on the delegation’s app to help with quality sleep.
“Sleep is the biggest concern, and a close second is disordered eating and body image… especially with female athletes,” she says. For the latter, they have personal consultants dedicated to any athletes struggling. When it comes to sleep, Bartley’s team created customized sleep plans for each athlete attending Paris 2024. Team USA athletes also receive individual cooling units in their rooms at the Olympic Village and will have access to mattress toppers and other sleep supports if they want/need them. They get a little sleep hygiene kit too, courtesy of Bartley and her team, that includes tips for sleeping and napping (like why you should keep naps to 20 to 90 minutes and before 4 p.m.), as well as an eye mask, ear plugs, lip balm, and a peppermint.
“We take our mission seriously,” adds Bartley, “We all have mental health, and our Olympic and Paralympic athletes are human too. We’re just looking to support them as individuals while they’re working toward competitive excellence and well-being.”