Handle with care: Finding equilibrium in mind and body

As we embark on the journey that will be 2014, there are so many topics I want to discuss but one keeps coming into my consciousness: the area of mental wellbeing for elite athletes.

Everyone is unique and mental health is a complex and extremely personal premise for everyone, but I believe discussing it constructively may be the most important conversation sport should be having.

Before Christmas, I packaged up a gift I was sending to America and all over the box, I wrote in large letters “FRAGILE: HANDLE WITH CARE”. It occurred to me, this is a warning that should come with all elite sports people. The statistics say one in four people will suffer mental health issues at some stage in their life and no group is immune from mental illness. Whether or not elite sports people suffer more or less than the general population is difficult to know, and in the years to come, further research may shed more light on this.