Katherine Grainger: Mental wellbeing of athletes during lockdown is a big concern... but they are not alone

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Games giant: Katherine Grainger
Getty Images

When velodromes, athletics tracks and swimming pools were shut, the immediate reaction among sporting governing bodies across the UK was to ensure their potential Olympians and Paralympians had the necessary equipment to train from home.

With those respective Games having been postponed for a year, the immediate pressure has eased marginally with regards to training sessions, replaced in part by issues concerning mental wellbeing.

UK Sport chair Dame Katherine Grainger, a former rower with the experience of competing at five

Olympic Games, warned that athletes would be “feeling alone in a different way to ever before”, while drumming home the message “you’re not battling on your own”.

The five-time Olympic medallist said: “The first reaction for a lot [of athletes] is uncertainty and then it becomes like a grieving process in a sense for some. Some thought this year’s Games was their end point and the systems are shutting down in the sense they can’t train in gyms, so there’s a lot of confusion. But the mental health advice has not shut down, it’s still very much in place.”

At the start of this Olympic cycle, a quarter of elite athletes surveyed said not enough was being done by governing bodies in the UK to address their mental health issues.

Dr Craig Ranson leads athlete support at the English Institute of Sport and pointed out another survey of 400 athletes across 30 sports, which highlighted that “whenever there was uncertainty was a crunch time for mental health — the impact of the coronavirus right now is obviously a big moment of uncertainty”.

Since the end of 2018, a mental health steering group has been in place between UK Sport and the EIS, although Ranson makes the point it is an area the EIS have worked on for two decades.

The number of cases of mental health issues within the elite sporting system is in line with national statistics, with 100 individual cases over the last 18 months to two years across about 2,000 athletes and up to 5,000 staff. And that number could conceivably rise both among elite athletes and the wider general public, with no sign currently of the lockdown easing.

Ranson and his team of 50 psychologists and performance lifestyle advisors have been preparing the past few weeks for such an eventuality.

“We’ve been working hard to work out what demand will be and the contingency plans to meet it,” he said. “We can reset and re-plan — we’re in a good position.”

Great Britain's Katherine Grainger (right) and Victoria Thornley with their silver medals following the women's doubles sculls at the Rio Olympics in 2016 Photo: Martin Rickett/PA 
Martin Rickett/PA

Grainger readily admits she worries about the current crop of athletes, perhaps the primary concern being that people will feel even more alone if they find themselves struggling with mental health.

“I do worry,” she added. “This close to the Games, there’s a real build-up of team support and camaraderie.

“That creates a lovely united group and suddenly there’s no Games and that day-to-day immediate support has gone as well. So, you can feel in mental as well as physical isolation. It’s a bit like when you have that first moment of retiring and you feel alone in a different way to ever before. In addition, I worry about everyone in the system — the coaches and support staff, too, who are all impacted by this. But the message is you’re not alone. There’s so much help and support [available].”

Great Britain's Katherine Grainger (right) and Victoria Thornley with their silver medals following the women's doubles sculls at the Rio Olympics in 2016 Photo: Luca Bruno/AP
Luca Bruno/AP

With athletes and support staff unable to have support with face-to-face interaction, the back-up from UK Sport and EIS comes from a distance.

Ranson readily admits: “Face-to-face is always better, as the more time you spend with someone, the more you trust them and the better that relationship becomes. But we’re lucky in this day and age with video conferencing and calling. Tech makes a big difference in all of this.”

Olympic gold medal winning rower Katherine Grainger poses during the reception for Team GB after London 2012 Photo: Tom Dulat/Getty Images
Tom Dulat/Getty Images

There is still, he says, an ongoing battle to break down the stigma around mental health and reaching out for help.

“What’s really helped is that high-profile sports people have started telling their mental health stories,” he said. “The stigma gets broken down pretty quickly. We’re not completely there, as sports people are still expected to be these tough and resilient individuals. Thankfully, though, people are more open and the message is that the door is open.”

As a former athlete who joined UK Sport in 2017 as they faced various bullying rows across the Olympic and Paralympic disciplines, Grainger has pushed the wider issue of athlete welfare, including mental health.

And whether in lockdown or not, her message is the same. “The more supported people feel, the more they can push themselves to the limit,” she said. “Surely that’s a win-win situation.”

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