'Powerful' when athletes open up on mental health - Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix
The women's diving bronze medallist from Team GB revealed that she 'didn't want to be alive three years ago'
Transcript
00:00I don't think athletes have to be more open. I really do feel like it is up to them whether
00:06they feel comfortable enough to talk about their own mental health because it's something
00:09that is very delicate. And us as athletes, we have that kind of platform and that reach.
00:19And so I do think it is very powerful when an athlete talks about their mental health
00:24because a lot of the time you think that athletes are superhuman and they can do everything
00:28and they don't struggle when in reality I really feel like we struggle silently because
00:33we don't want people to think that we're weak or that we don't want them to worry about
00:40us. And I really do think that shining a light on the struggles that we go through humanises
00:46us and it draws onto a topic that is really, really necessary. And it's like mental health
00:53really does matter and it can make or break a human being. And it's just bringing that
00:59human aspect to athletes in general.