Thorpe, Phelps and now Dressel or Peaty: Why do so many star swimmers fall into depression?
André Agassi argues in his Open biography that tennis is the loneliest sport because there is not even contact with the rival, as in boxing, for example. No reason. Underwater a swimmer is not only separated from his adversaries, he is also isolated from the public, he cannot shout and he hardly sees what is happening around him. Swimming is a desert. And on the road that crosses it, many, many have been lost. Two of the three best swimmers in history, Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe, went through a severe depression, like Grant Hackett, Missy Franklin and, among the Spanish, Rafa Muñoz.
«When you submerge your head you are very alone. When you're good, you're the best, you break the corduroy. But when you're bad… You don't stop thinking that everything is fucking shit, “Muñoz explained a few days ago to EL MUNDO with aquatic confinement as one of the reasons for the scourge. But surely there is more. In discovering and treating them are now two swimming references absent from the present Fukuoka World Cup: Caleb Dressel and Adam Peaty.
From Popov to Popovici
Stars only two years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, where Dressel won five gold medals and Peaty, two more, now both are undergoing treatment to overcome their problems. One, Dressel, has already competed again, although far from his level, of the elite. The other one, Peaty, is on it. In the diagnosis of both, with their differences, there is a common evolution marked by success: they fell when they reached the top.
«There came a time when I thought: Fuck swimming, fuck training! My life was the Olympic Games and everything had to be perfect. I won five golds in Tokyo, but I didn't get the times I wanted and I felt like garbage. I wasn't fair to myself. I fell into a well. I locked myself up,” Dressel recounted how he broke down after the best moment of his career. For several weeks he stayed in his room, without talking to anyone, without knowing what was wrong with him and, of course, without training.. Then he returned by inertia, he even competed in the last World Cup in Budapest 2022 and won two golds, but in the middle of the competition he relapsed: the sky darkened again, he caught the first plane to the United States and, then yes, he decided to stop. Not another stroke. The priority, his head. Tranquility and treatment. If you competed a few weeks ago in the Trials in your country, it was only to prove yourself. Whether he will be at the 2024 Paris Olympics is unknown.
Peaty's new life
As with Peaty. The Briton, who dominated the breaststroke between 2015 and 2020 – he managed to chain 18 consecutive races without losing – also broke after the Tokyo Games and disappeared from the water. In his case there was no confinement and therapy. In his case there was alcohol, a lot of alcohol, and religion. With two medals around his neck, Peaty suffered a rare injury training in the gym of his hotel in Tenerife, faced a divorce and his life fell apart. What was the point of trying to recover and win again if no one was waiting for him at home?
«As a swimmer you hope that a gold or a world record will solve all your problems, but when you achieve success like that you realize that nothing is fixed all at once.. After all, a medal is a very cold object for which you have sacrificed your life. There is a moment in which you realize that you really have to stop and put order in what surrounds you, “explained Peaty in the middle of the process.. In his case, he was no longer at the World Cup in Budapest due to that strange injury and it is not very well known at what level he is currently training.
In the last year he has been seen giving swimming lessons to children, running some charity races, starting a new relationship with Holly Ramsay -one of the daughters of television chef Gordon Ramsay- and at mass, where he has found some refuge.. There he now dodges the isolation, the silence, the loneliness of swimming.