The Olympics 2024: how to use it as a global conversation starter on Health & Wellbeing

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There are many opportunities to learn from, and start a global conversation in the workplace, around Health & Wellbeing on the back of the Olympics, currently taking place in France. We’ll explore a few in this feature.

The Olympic Games are a good global gauge for trends in health and wellbeing, and the latest thinking on how to nurture talent to perform at their best. It’s significant, then, that this year’s games in Paris, which kicked off on Friday, are prioritising wellbeing, following concerns that have been raised about athlete mental health.

American gymnast Simone Biles famously withdrew from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics saying she had to focus on her mental health, and the media is already hailing this a wise move now given her crowd-stopping performance of an extremely challenging vault over the weekend.

New openness about mental health

Similarly, British gymnast Bryony Page has talked openly about anxiety/depression, as has pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw, Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka and Brazlian surfer Filipe Toledo.

This openness clearly reflects the progress made talking about previously taboo topics like mental health. However, we often hear from Wellbeing Leads that their biggest global challenge is the fact that different countries are at very different stages when it comes to attitudes towards mental health and wellbeing. 

For them, the Olympics in Paris, with its emphasis on mental health, provides a unique opportunity to leverage the sporting event as a conversation starter globally and normalise preventative action. 

Wellbeing initiatives added to this year’s Games

For instance, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has launched a mindfulness programme providing 2,000 subscriptions to athletes for the meditation app Calm, in a bid to support their mental health. Mindfulness is something increasingly recognised as useful in a business context, too, but often widely misunderstood or seen as ‘woo woo’ when there’s actually a strong scientific base behind its efficacy (see this case study of HSBC). 

Additionally, psychologists are being introduced to the Olympic Village this year, who will be on site in a special ‘mental fitness zone’ for the duration of the Games and accessible to athletes as well as staff members. 

There is also a ‘safeguarding officer’ to guard against bullying of athletes online, with the Games also using AI to identify and deal with any digital abuse. 

Psychological safety

As in the business world, “psychological safety” is being recognised as fundamental to achieving high performance levels. But perhaps one of the most powerful learnings those interested in Wellbeing can learn from the Olympics is the need to be aware of, and know how to deal with, perfectionism, which could likely be at the root of many Olympian mental health struggles.

As Amy Williams (left), Gold Medal winner for the women’s skeleton in 2010, says “to be the very best you have to be so detailed, you have to seek perfection in everything whether that’s your warm up or your routines…. You have to be of that mindset”.

While perfectionism can certainly function as a positive, it can also have a darkside and unhealthy perfectionism is actually strongly linked to poor mental health.

It’s important to be mindful of the common costs and pitfalls of perfectionism to our mental health and wellbeing, says Business Wellbeing Consultant and Psychologist Dr Elaine Smith, who has witnessed the damage it can do in a workplace setting. Often the highest achievers in the business world, like in the sports world, can be perfectionists and they can be particularly at risk of burnout.

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Identifying the ‘cycle of perfectionism’

To help identify perfectionism when it becomes a problem, she explains that the “cycle of perfectionism” can look like:

  • Setting high standards
  • Procrastinating due to fear of failure
  • Feeling like a failure for not meeting standards
  • Low mood
  • Low motivation

“The good news, though, is there are ways to stop the perfectionism cycle in its tracks,” she says. 

How to stop the perfectionism cycle

  • Building awareness, and recognising thoughts, feelings and behaviours associated with perfectionism. When we notice, we can pay attention, and make small incremental changes
  • Setting realistic goals
  • Recognising progress over perfection – that a task does not need to be ‘finished or perfect’ to be worthy of acknowledgment or praise
  • Self-compassion is absolutely key. Imagine asking yourself: What would I say to a friend in this situation?
  • Challenging the link between self-worth and achievements. Thinking about self-worth more holistically, and recognising that our ‘achievements’ do not define us, as humans are complex. There is so much more to us than our last award, ‘A’ grade, or promotion at work. Other important aspects of our lives include relationships, life experiences, beliefs and values.

Not everyone can win

One of the inescapable inevitables about the Games is that the athletes are going to be in a hugely competitive environment where they are laser-focused on winning and, for most, this is an individual rather than team motivation. The problem with this from a perfectionistic lens is that – clearly – not everyone can win.

“Similarly in the business world, some people will never ‘win’ or be the top sales agent for example. We must be mindful of the impact of ‘not winning’/losing on individual wellbeing,” says Dr Smith.

Gold medal syndrome

Indeed, stories of athletes returning home and experiencing anxiety and depression after the Olympics are rife. And this is not just athletes that have lost, it’s also the winners, so much so that there’s even a name for it, ‘Gold Medal Syndrome’.

Williams, who won the only Gold medal in the 2010 Olympic Games, remembers the confusing and conflicting emotions well:

“I felt like I was a piece of meat getting pushed and pulled in all these directions to do all these interviews. Obviously I wanted to do them as I was so excited to win and have these opportunities. But I also remember sitting on my parents’ stairs and just crying and feeling absolutely exhausted. I also read reports that I would have made ‘over a million pounds’ meanwhile I was actually skint and in debt! The reality was different to what others thought.”

The lessons for business here?

One of the biggest lessons for business here is that it’s essential to look after your talent and ensure you don’t push them too hard and over the edge of what they can handle.

Similarly in business there will be roles that face more public scrutiny than others, making these people more vulnerable, and employers should be aware of these roles and the pressures involved.

Support network

Luckily Williams had a very strong network of friends and family around her, which she credits for supporting her mental health at this difficult time. For her, she says the main learning is that there will always be “highs and lows” and times when you’re “winning at life” and times when you’re not. 

“In a career, it might be that you didn’t get that promotion you wanted,” she says. “I think athletes perhaps cope with setbacks well because we have the mentality of: if plan A didn’t work, what is plan B, or C? It comes back to simple goal setting.”

Building trust

Providing training and opportunities for personal development are increasingly being recognised as a contributor to positive workplace wellbeing. To take Williams advice, if coupled with career coaching to set goals, this strategy could be even more powerful and aid resilience in the lows when, for example, an individual didn’t get a promotion they wanted. 

But above all else, Williams cites the most important factor to feel psychologically safe and, therefore, in the best position to perform at your best, is trust:

“If there’s trust between you and the others in your team – whether that be your coach or family- then that’s how you perform better as an Olympian. It’s the same with high performing employees and their line manager. It’s about building that trust and good communication.”

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