2015
A documentary that serves as an overview and examination of the lives and careers of aspiring and professional gay and lesbian athletes from all over the world.
99 min
CLEAR ALL
Around the world, fans love to share the triumphs and heartbreaks of elite athletes on the football field, the cricket pitch or in the swimming pool.
A former collegiate softball player talks about her struggles with mental health and the Yips during her career.
Out in the chalk circle, my vision became tunneled, my stomach tied in knots, and I felt like I couldn’t hear anything but my own racing thoughts.
Athletes represent the peak of human potential, but they are still people. Mental illness affects 35% of elite athletes, manifesting as stress, eating disorders, burnout, or depression and anxiety.
The issue of mental health in college students, specifically college student-athletes, is stigmatized and neglected. According to a 2011 study by the National College Athletic Association, 30% of about 200,000 student-athletes reported feeling depressed.
Martin Hagger is Professor of Psychology at Curtin University. His areas of expertise are social, health, sport and exercise psychology. He is involved in numerous research projects nationally and internationally with a focus on motivation and behavior change.
In making herself vulnerable, Naomi Osaka joined other noteworthy athletes in pushing a once-taboo subject into the open.
Elite athletes play out their lives in the most public of arenas. Everything they do is analysed in real time and then picked apart in the pub and in the press afterwards. 'Why did they miss that penalty?', 'What made them fall at the first jump?', 'That press conference was a bit weird.
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“We need to do a better job of addressing mental as well as physical aspects of athletic injuries,” sports psychologist Matthew Sacco, PhD, says.
Struggles with anxiety and depression can affect anyone—even the greatest performers in sports