You are not alone! Playing it forward – from a desert island to talk publicly about mental health

Britt-Marie Ringfjord
Dept. of Media & Journalism, Linnæus University

Mental health has received attention in various ways after the Covid pandemic. The changes in society’s view of human well-being now – not surprisingly – acknowledge that mental health goes hand in hand with physical health. This book highlights how this important theme is handled in a current sports media landscape by sports media, sports organizations, elite athletes and fans.  Through case studies on media reporting of the well-being of elite athletes and interviews with elite athletes as well as key persons within sports media and sports organizations, the book gives an insight into personal experiences of mental illness and how failures portrayed through the stereotypical gaze of the sports media can lead to a spiral of mental problems. The key persons in sports media and sports organisations also give their views on how mental health has been managed in stereotypical ways. The new understandings thus developed could be used in the future to help and support individuals.

This is a book in the Communication, Sport and Society series that carries a large catalogue of important titles by well-known sports media scholars. In this volume, Professor Andrew C Billings, known for his many articles and book projects on various aspects of media studies, is joined by Associate Professor Scott Parrott, researcher in media and mental health. Both are affiliated with the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at the University of Alabama.

The book’s fifteen chapters cover different areas within the sports media complex about mental health in sports.  The first chapter, “Head Game: An introduction”, presents an overview of how to address different areas divided in four main sections: Key media moments: Storyteller and Organizational Synergy; Case Studies; and Disclosing Mental Illness.

In sports media, stories often follow a given structure with a focus on fame and success. Elite athletes do great deeds on the sports arena, they are admired role models for their fans. But they are also people who live the everyday life we all do.

The first section presents four key media moments from the media coverage opening with Michael Phelps, the outstanding Olympic swimmer, followed by NBA player Kevin Love, tennis player Naomi Osaka and ending with the famous Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. In addition to the analyses being based on different types of media content, they are also contrasted with relevant research that studied the various cases. The media moments set the scene for how to address the discussions around mental health in sports media and how they are linked to one another. The various cases also provide examples of strategies for how to open up and disclose mental health problems publicly, in the media and in social media. In sports media, stories often follow a given structure with a focus on fame and success. Elite athletes do great deeds on the sports arena, they are admired role models for their fans. But they are also people who live the everyday life we all do. These four cases paint a complex picture of how mental health is linked to events in society as well as in a person’s own life cycle. The effect of the pandemic was also the starting point for increasing awareness of mental health in society, which became evident in various ways in the media, in organizations and in people’s everyday lives.

In Phelps’ case, his struggle with drugs and diagnosed ADHD found that swimming gave him an identity as an athlete, but disconnected him from his true self. The way to becoming an advocate for mental health is also well covered in this piece. Kevin Love, suffering from panic attacks, reveals another aspect of sports culture. He learned to compartmentalize, to not talk about how he felt that something was wrong, and to not show weakness. The media, the fans and not least the teammates asked questions and demanded answers about what they perceived as fabrication of illness. Finally, realizing that this way was the wrong way to deal with his problems, he sought help. Through therapy and writing an essay for The Player’s Tribune, combined with other disclosures about mental health in the basketball world, Love’s case sparked the mental health movement in professional sports.

In the case of Osaka, the female dimension reveals that there is more than the professional demands to perform in sports and at press conferences that may create stressors for mental illness. Being a Black and Asian young woman, she lived under the pressure to be a role model for her gender and nationality. Female elite athletes also perform in a feminine role, meeting demands of being nice and polite, especially in interactions with mass media and fans.  In this context she was accused of breaking the tournament’s rulebook to attend post-match news conferences. Her mental health was in some corners labelled as acting like a diva. But there was strong support from others, in tennis as well as other athletes. Tennis player Martina Navratilova praised her in a tweet, saying that elite athletes are trained to take care of their bodies, leaving the mental and emotional aspects to themselves. And she concluded “[t]his is about more than giving or not giving a press conference” (p 44).

Biles’ withdrawal from the Tokyo Olympics presented the media with a new dimension of mental health issues: the twisties. Based on the previous discussions about mental health (Phelps, Love, Osaka), the sports media were not completely ignorant, and she was generally treated more positively in media reports. Her need to hold mentally focus was not present, and the risk of injuries was high. In a densely mediated world, the debate on whether her illness was real or not continued. She was accused of abandoning her team. At the same time her teammates and various celebrities rallied to her defence. The media narrative also contained layers of other stories that further legitimized her exit (the Nassar trial, the pandemic, and being one of the world’s top gymnasts).

The second section covers the sports media industry and how the leagues and teams together with sports media have used the media moment to talk about and take action for mental health initiatives. In chapter 5 “The Storytellers”, the focus is sports media journalists’/personalities’ views on how the sport narratives have shifted and changed. Giving voice to the sports media perspective are journalist Karen Course (New York Times), television broadcaster Bob Costas, sports correspondent Sean Gregory (Time Magazine) and reporter Christine Brennan (USA Today/CNN/ABCNews). The four interviewees describe the responsibility of professional sports media to recognize the nuances required to balance this type of sporting issues outside of a traditional narrative framework. Chapter 6 “Organizational Synergy” follows up through examples how media organizations and sports organizations have handled mental health within each organization. The examples used are ESPN (Walt Disney-owned sports channels) representing the sports media, the National Basketball Association (NBA) representing the leagues, and the National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts representing the teams. Here there is a common understanding of an organization’s responsibility to work with policies for a better backup within the organization. Each organization works in different ways to address mental health issues. The media organizations use different ways to inform about mental wellness by incorporating additional content. One example is the Mental Health Awareness Month in ESPN. Another is that journalists, that are covering social justice stories and themselves meet prejudice, are supported by the mental health program within the Walt Disney company.

In section three, the core focus the “Case Study” is advanced with first-person testimonies through eight interviews. Content from media reports and sports media research is woven into the interviewees’ stories, which together place the cases in a solid scientific context. The elite athletes’ mental health stories come from different kinds of sports within the American context: Michael Phelps, Olympic Swimmer; Kearnan Myall, Premiership Rugby Union; Brandon Bostick, National Football League; Gracie Gold, Olympic Figure Skater; Trey Moses, College and Professional Basketball; Amanda Beard, Olympic Swimmer; Corey Hirsch, NHL Goaltender; and Katie Uhlaender, Olympic Skeleton. While each story is unique and each sports culture has its own mental health narrative, the common denominator is that each chose to share their mental health status not only with their family and friends, but also in media. These elite athletes talk about how they use multiple types of media to share their experiences of depression, anxiety and other disorders.

While each story is unique and each sports culture has its own mental health narrative, the common denominator is that each chose to share their mental health status not only with their family and friends, but also in media.

In the final chapter, 15 “Disclosing Mental Illness: Strategies & Considerations”, the authors conclude the main message of this book with recommendations on how to support and maintain mental health within sports for each part of the sport media landscape. The head game must be played and managed through information and communication at all levels within sports communities, in sports media and in society at large.  The straightforward ending also shows why this book is worth reading for anyone with an interest in sports and sports media.

Talk when you want, to whom you want, sharing what you want. But be sure to talk to someone – even a licenced professional if you wish to maintain privacy – because keeping strong emotions bottled up or following the stale advice of ‘sucking it up’ rarely works /…/ mental health has no beginning or end. Mental health courses throughout life, featuring ups and downs highs and lows. (p. 191)

The authors ground their arguments in the current and highly important mental health issue and the discussions surrounding it. Building on extracts from media frames and descriptive first-persons stories, the book offers a fruitful understanding of mental health in sports cultures. The chapters are held together by the topic of mental health placed in the American sports context covering relevant areas within the sport media complex. The episodes from each case illustrate how the advocacy movement evolved during the pandemic. But it wasn’t just the US that was experiencing the pandemic “mental health moment”; the spotlight on mental health support in sports became obvious around the world.

The American sports media focus on the mental health of elite athletes makes an important contribution which, when in comparison with European contexts, raises important questions. How are today’s public health crises reflected in youth sports and elite sports? In a European context, there are many examples of how sports media and sports organizations jointly use stereotypical expectations of elite athletes that might press individuals to achieve results without regard to health risks of various kinds. This volume is also a timely documentation of the sports advocacy movement fighting against the silence, stigma, stereotypes and prejudices that have been part of sports media discussions of mental health.

Through the lens of Nordic/Swedish sports media research, I see the book’s great potential in discussions with students about sports and mental health cases based in European and Scandinavian contexts. Here are stimulating inputs for studies and bachelor theses on mental health related to media content, sports organizations and/or fans.

Copyright © Britt-Marie Ringfjord 2024