The Mental Weight of Gold

HBO Sports has put out some incredible hour-long documentaries over the past couple of years. From the inside look at NCAA athletics Student Athlete to the sickening inside look into USA gymnastics with At the Heart of Gold, the storytelling and identification of a problem hits your harder than expected. That’s why their newest documentary The Weight of Gold could be the most important one yet as it talks about something that rarely gets brought up: Mental health.

We as a public only see Olympic athletes every four years when they compete for gold during the Olympics, and even those athletes change every two years between the Summer and Winter games. The hype surrounding these athletes always get amplified as the pressure mounts to expectations of gold aspirations. This is where The Weight of Gold begins, as Olympic athletes from Michael Phelps to Lolo Jones and Apollo Ono recount their years of training and sacrifice for those few seconds on the global stage. They perfectly capture the weight of a nation felt on their shoulders from opening ceremonies to the finals of their respective events. The pressure builds from each story towards the amount of stress these athletes compete under.

However, that’s only a small part of everything they go through. What follows is a heartbreaking truth that most people don’t want to admit, which is that most athletes suffer from the mental anguish following every Olympics. They train every day for years and it all ends abruptly; whether you won gold or didn't medal, it all ends and you’re left with no help. Several athletes go over how they felt lost and empty following Olympic games even resulting in Michael Phelps, the most decorated athlete of our time, checking himself into a rehab clinic following DUIs and having dark thoughts. The Weight of Gold also goes into the stipend athletes receive, some of which only amounts to $750 per month and $7,000 annually. Do note that these are gold medal winning athletes who are being paid this while out of season and training for the next Olympic games.

With the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games being delayed to next year, The Weight of Gold puts a spotlight on these athletes away from the spotlight. HBO shows the mental struggle these elite athletes go through on a daily basis from paycheck-induced anguish to debating the degree of physical pain they can endure. One of the more impacting quotes came from Michael Phelps, in that he hopes “that we can encourage other to open up, let them know they are not alone and that it’s OK to not be OK. For me, the opportunity to help break the stigma surrounding mental health and potentially save a life is way more meaningful than any Olympic medal.”