‘The Weight of Gold’ brings Olympians’ mental health to light, kickstarts larger conversation

Before Simone Biles sat out most of the 2020 Summer Olympics due to her mental health issues, or Mikaela Shiffrin was candid about what was going on internally at the 2022 Winter Olympics, it was It was common for athletes to keep all their mental problems to themselves.

One of the reasons athletes would keep their emotions and fights to themselves is because the stigma within sport is that athletes must act stoic and unflinching.

“The Weight of Gold” has worked to break this stigma and raise awareness of the mental health epidemic present at the Olympic level.

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Tuesday, August 9 podium photos, The Breck Film Society and Centura Health brought the 2020 film to the Eclipse Theater in Breckenridge for a one-night screening.

In its first screening in the state of Colorado, the film worked to benefit the ongoing missions of Podium Pictures and Building Hope Summit County.

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During the film’s 60-minute run, viewers witnessed several Olympians, including Breckenridge’s Katie Uhlaender and Olympic snowboarder Shaun White, talk about the depression they’ve faced while fighting for Olympic glory.

The most decorated Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps, serves as the main subject and narrates sections of the film. Phelps opens the film with a monologue explaining that every athlete’s journey to the Olympics begins the same way as everyone else’s: with a dream of getting there.

These athletes become so hyper-focused in this dream that their sports often become their entire identity with little social life outside of their sport and most of their time training.

The result is that when these Olympians fail to medal or receive support from sponsors, their entire world often comes crashing down around them, leading to a downward spiral of mental health issues.

Even successful athletes like Phelps with his 28 Olympic medals can be subject to mental health issues.

Phelps and White explain in the film that after the post-Olympic celebration is over, athletes often fall into a post-Olympic blues because what they have been tirelessly investing their lives in for the past four years is now over.

The film ends with the many athletes featured in the film speaking about the lack of support they receive to address their mental health. Olympic athletes have coaches for their sport, nutrition, and strength training, but for many years they didn’t have a single mental health professional on staff.

The result is that there have been many Olympic athlete suicides in recent years, including American bobsledder Steven Holcomb, who appeared early in the film before his death in 2017.

The film’s conclusion is a call to action for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee to address the mental health epidemic that is affecting the well-being of some of its most prized athletes.

A panel discussing the film and its importance followed the screening. The panel included filmmaker Brett Rapkin, former professional snowboarder and Breckenridge local Steve Fisher, mental health consultant at Flexible[Mental] Sports Ashley Hughes and the head of athlete education for US Ski and Snowboard Mackenzie St. Onge.

Rapkin opened the panel by explaining the inspiration behind the film. He stated that the film would focus on the physiological journey of competing in the Olympics, but after Phelps discussed his experiences in an interview with Rapkin, the film took on a whole new focus.

“He told me the resources weren’t enough,” Rapkin said. “With Michael’s help, we have more and more athletes. They were looking for a way to tell this side of the story. This is not part of the story NBC tells before the Olympics.”

St. Onge then talked about the stigma that is brought up multiple times in the film and how mental health, for whatever reason, has often been a taboo subject in contemporary society.

Following St. Onge, Hughes spoke about how he overcame the stigma of mental health in his own life. One thing that helped her immensely was discovering that many other people and athletes are dealing with the same emotions and feelings that she thought she was dealing with alone.

Fisher added her own perspective to the conversation, drawing on her experience as a professional snowboarder.

“It’s not widely accepted for an 18- or 19-year-old to really say ‘I don’t want to do this today,'” Fisher said. “Until Simone Biles did it in these Olympics, he was very frowned upon. Coaches are incentivized. They are there for you, but they have work. When athletes perform, they get paid and that is something that is never talked about.”

The panel then focused on the impact of the film since 2020 and the hope for future Podium Picture films on mental health.

“I had no idea the resources that would be provided,” Rapkin said. “I am proud to say that this film was released in July 2020 and by September the US Olympic Committee had found a couple of million dollars to improve mental health resources. You can see why I want to do more of this kind of stuff. Creating institutional change is really inspiring, but it also applies to all of us.”

To wrap up the panel, the conversation turned to what can be done within Summit County and for people on a personal level to address the mental health epidemic among athletes and a large portion of the US population.

“I’m a big believer in the tools that are out there,” Rapkin said. “Many of these problems can be drastically improved if you work on them. But he was almost ignored in a way. You have this organ in your body called the brain that needs attention. He needs chemical attention and he needs to be calmed and cared for.”

Rapkin was quick to point out the great work Building Hope Summit County is doing locally to address mental illness. Firmly believing in the phrase “it’s okay, it’s not okay,” Rapkin, along with the rest of the panel, encouraged the audience to contact the organization if you or someone you know needs help.

Breck Film’s next event will be its annual film festival, taking place from September 15-18. tickets are available BreckFilm.com.

“The Weight of Gold” is available on HBO Max with a subscription.