(Spanish CNN) - Simone Biles, one of the greatest athletes of recent times and figure of the United States gymnastics team, retired at least partially from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the middle of a competition to be able to concentrate onYour mental health."I feel the world's weight on my shoulders," he said.

Shortly before the start of the Olympics, Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka published a first -person essay on his fight against depression, which led her to retire from the France Open in May.

Colleen Quigley, American racing runner 3.000 meters, said in FeBruary having discovered the benefits of having good mental health a year and a half ago.

And former swimmer Michael Phelps, the most successful in the history of the Olympic Games, said in 2020 that he was worried about the mental health of the athletes after the contest in Tokyo was postponed by the pandemic."This postponement is unknown waters.We have never seen this before.It was the right decision, but I Break my heart thinking about athletes, "he told NBC.

Mental health problems have affected high -performance athletes for a long time, but in these Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games the issue seems to have taken another visibility.

What is this about?

Tokyo Olympics and Mental Health

"To know if these Olympic Games have had a greater effect on the mental health of athletes, you have to wait for them to end," Juan Manuel Brindisi, a clinical psychologist of national teams in the Argentine Soccer Association (AFA), told CNN."If an important thing must.This decomposed everyday life, families, couples, and obviously decomposes sport, "he added.

Phelps, retired in 2016 a record of 28 medals (23 of them gold), had previously talked about his struggles against depression, saying that he had considered taking his life and that he hoped to help others fight against the disease.

In the interview with NBC Sports, the former number assured that he had not surprised him the decision to postpone the appointment in Tokyo, but believes they were delayed to do so.

"I didn't see how everything will work.We have had problems in the past, the quality of the air in Beijing and the Zika virus in Rio, but this is bigger.It didn't seem something that could be administered or controlled.I just didn't see the points connected, "he said.

"I really hope we don't see an increase in athlete suicide rates because of this.Because mental health is the most important here, "he added.

Biological and psychological impact

For toasts, the confinement caused by the pandemic had two effects."Biology feels it, especially someone accustomed to years of training, according to each country and sport.There were people who lost muscle mass ".

"And within the psychological there are a lot of anguish that at a social and general level we still do not know the effects.We must see the degree of resilience of each athlete, the degree of loss of each athlete, some of whom lost relatives or were in intensive therapy ".

"After such a long stop, you have to be the owner of your body again," he said.

In April 2020, when the Covid-19 Pandemia was still in its beginnings, FIFPRO-the only organization that represents professional footballers globally-published the results of a survey between 1.600 athletes that showed that the percentage of players who reported symptoms of depression had doubled.

The study showed that 22% of women and 13% of men had reported symptoms consistent with a depression diagnosis, while 18% of women and 16% of men had symptoms consisting of an anxiety diagnosisgeneralized.

"Mental health in this is becoming evident," Dra's mental performance consultant told CNN.Tiffany Jones."Athletes get a natural feeling when practicing sports.It is the equivalent of injecting heroin for the first time, so not having the physiological and psychological elements of sport is creating mental health problems ".

"It's not the same, but I tell you that competing is a muscle.If it is not used, it will atrophy.I tell you that if you don't want to compete, that's a problem, "he said.

Greater visibility

But beyond the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, mental health problems were already afflicting high performance athletes.

"On the one hand, high -performance sport is being complexed, which starts earlier, is increasingly uncomfortable and always demands more.In the last 10 years it has changed practically in all sports, everything is much more competitive and there are more obligations, more sponsors.Being there is complicated, "said toast.

For the psychologist specializing in athletes, there is also much more visibility for the problem."When there are athlets of so much renown that they say 'I could not endure it', there are more and more voices show the need to incorporate psychologists and psychologists to improve performance and treat subjectivity, especially in terms of failure, something inherent in sport,that gets worse and worse ".

Remembering Biles's phrase regarding "feeling the weight of the world," Brindisi recalled that it is a figure of Greek mythology: "Atlas has the weight of the world and is always hunched over, it is a curse.Very few athletes can perform with the weight of the world on their shoulders ".

With information from Germán Padinger, Jill Martin, Don Riddell, César López, David Close and Aleks Klosok

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