Olympic Doping Bans Are a Mental Health Crisis

.....Level playing fields aren’t a naturally occurring phenomena. Different players have different bodies and brains, which is why most races don’t end in ties. Athletes are justifiably nervous when competing, but what is a healthy level of nervousness? What needs to be treated? What is a treatment and what is a PED?.....

....“I have a female fighter right now, very high-level,” Lardon says. “She has no testosterone. The reflex is, ‘God, you can’t give her testosterone,’ but in her case we don’t have a level playing field. She has none. She has to see a special endocrinologist, we have to [petition the United States Anti-Doping Agency] to see if it’s okay. Then, with psychiatric drugs, you have to go through the same thing.”......

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Bethany`s Notes
Notes: A very interesting article. How do we deal with elite athlete`s mental health if they need medication? There is a way to petition the anti-doping agency. Is it cumbersome and time consuming? Certainly but perhaps this is the only way to know if both the athletes and the coaches are pursing a clean sport. As a former athlete who raced against those caught doping it is tough to stand on the line not always knowing who is clean and who might be cheating the system. That being said those dealing with mental health issues have ways to get cleared to take the necessary psychiatric drugs if necessary.