Opinion I Athletes aren’t products, they’re human

.....Athletes and suicides are sadly not unusual and the reasons are varied. Sometimes injury plays a role, for when the body fails, self-worth leaks away and purpose erodes. As if an entire existence is draining away. We play a role in this, for athletes become conditioned to see themselves as nothing else but athletes. As if they have no other identity, as if the place they finish in a race, or the time they record, is how they will be forever seen. It makes for a life absent of balance......

.....The Weight Of Gold is riveting, scary, sad, thoughtful. When they tell you about the Olympics and how amazing it is, says figure skater Gracie Gold, they “leave out all of the side effects". The self-image issues and bulimia. The depression and panic attacks. The loneliness and irrelevance. And there are not a lot of people to help you through it all......