Post-Olympic blues are real and brutal, says this gay Olympian
Conor McDermott-Mostowy competed in his first Winter Olympics in Milan. Like so many others, he's now dealing with post-Olympic blues. The post Post-Olympic blues are real and brutal, says this gay Olympian appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
The Winter Olympics was that rare event in my life that had an almost insurmountable bar of expectations to clear.
It did so effortlessly.
For me it was a period when time got distorted, minutes felt like hours, and weeks passed without me even noticing. Suddenly it was all over, and nothing prepared me for what is dubbed “the post-Olympic blues.”
For athletes and coaches competing at the Winter Games, the post-Olympic blues are well documented and studied. It is a period of directionlessness and listlessness, caused by a massive dopamine crash, following one of the greatest highs of our lives.
If you’ve ever experienced a period of depressed mood following a huge life milestone — graduating from college or planning a wedding — you’ve experienced some version of this feeling. It’s a phenomenon that we first-time Olympians were warned about by our more seasoned teammates.
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The knowledge of what’s coming doesn’t help us avoid it.
For many of us, getting to the Olympic stage is the culmination of more than a decade of work. With all that hard work comes a decade or more of anticipation, hopes, dreams and expectation weighing you down, whether you’re conscious of it or not.
In less than three weeks it’s all over, and we’re left with a sense of emptiness.
Pursuing a monumental goal like the Olympics provides so much structure and motivation to our day-to-day lives. In achieving it, we’ve suddenly lost the goal that has motivated us for years.
Whether we win gold or finish last, everything we have worked for is over, and now we’re left wondering… What comes next?
Some people have established post-Olympic plans: get a job or finish school, try to catch up on everything they put on hold to pursue one of the hardest goals in the sports world to achieve.
Others immediately set their sights on the next Games, even if it feels like a lifetime away.
Then there is a third camp — one that I am a part of — that still loves their sport but also has to face the tough reality that four more years of training may be prohibitively expensive.
Unfortunately, for many of us the decision about what comes next is not one of passion or ability, it’s one of finance. Unless we win gold, our moment in the spotlight is already over, everyone has moved on, and with people’s attention goes monetization opportunities.
The reality of Olympic sport in the U.S. is that even one season of sickness or poor results can mean the loss of all funding and even health insurance.
Signing up for four more years often means financial instability and stress for us and our loved ones.
This financial stress only exacerbates the comedown from the Olympics.
Before being at the Games, the possibilities seem endless. You could win a medal and become the new poster child for Team USA, or hit it big on social media and fund your career by “influencing” others.
However, as the Games come to a close, the far more likely scenario sets in, that life is essentially the same as it was three weeks ago, except now we can answer “yes” to the question we get every time we meet someone new: “Are you an Olympian?”
Conor McDermott-Mostowy competed in his first Winter Olympics in Milan, in speed skating for Team USA. You can follow him on Instagram.
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The post Post-Olympic blues are real and brutal, says this gay Olympian appeared first on Outsports.
