“Daily Battle”: Struggling With Fear of Disappointment, US Ski Icon Mikaela Shiffrin Opens Up on Dealing With Anxiety

The mental health conversation in sports is still not a widely debated topic. Thousands of athletes across sports carry a heavy burden on their shoulders in the form of fan expectations. When things go wrong, these athletes are exposed to the wrath of fan abuse. Mental health and anxiety in sports are still a stigma that discourages athletes from opening up about their struggles.

While mental well-being continues to be overlooked in sports, a champion is breaking the silence and paying the way for mental health conversations in sports. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin is a legend in her own right. Over the course of an exceptional career, she has become a household name for her remarkable achievements on the slopes. But now looking back at her journey, the 3x Olympic winner opened up about her personal struggles and devastating losses to Self Magazine in their recent Instagram video.

Mikaela Shiffrin talks about her mental health challenges

The current world record holder for most World Cup Alpine series victories opened up about going through performance anxieties during her career. Shiffrin said that “it could be anything from just nervous feeling like butterflies in your stomach to at some points in my career actually having to vomit before the start of a race.” According to the American skier, mental health in sports is extremely important in today’s day and age, since everybody on the planet is going through challenges in their own way.

Shiffrin further said, “for me, it’s a daily battle to separate what’s important to me from the anxiety or the fear of disappointment or the anxiety of performing.” A struggle that she can sometimes conquer and, other times, lose entirely. She admits that on days when she is extremely nervous, her skiing gets affected as her body tends to lock up. These are the sort of days that make her question her entire career because of her underwhelming performances on such days.

Mikaela is extremely thankful for how she performed this season, with her record-breaking achievements. However, the 3x Olympic winner realizes that it won’t always be smooth sailing, and if that ever changes, she’ll just go out again and catch the next wave to ride on. Recently more and more athletes are coming come out to support the need for a dialogue on mental health in sports, but things have yet to change, especially when it comes to fan expectations.

Unfair fan expectations on athletes

Fans are the real pillars of any sport. There are always positive stories coming out of fans getting behind and supporting their favorite team and players. But more often than not, supporters are so invested in a particular event that they fail to realize that the players participating are human too. In the case of underperforming, these players often face racism, online abuse, and even death threats.

Read more – “People Just Didn’t Consider it a Possibility”: Mikaela Shiffrin Opens Up on Watching Simone Biles Take a Stand for her Mental Health

Sport runs on passion, but fans need to keep themselves in check too. It is time for the whole sporting community to acknowledge the invisible struggle and become the best supporters by being more compassionate towards our sporting heroes.

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