Olympic Gold Medalist Damian Warner Wants to Be 'Open and Honest' About Mental Health



According to Warner, it's critical to encourage those around us so that everyone has an equal chance to pursue their aspirations and live a happy and healthy life.
Olympian Damian Warner acknowledges that he is under constant pressure to serve as a positive role model, but the world series medalist relishes the chance.
Warner, 32, tells PEOPLE, "I realize that the individuals in my life have given so much of their time and effort to allow me to accomplish what I love. "Since it would be nearly impossible to repay everyone, I strive to set an example for others and return the favour whenever I can. I want to set the finest example I can for them and demonstrate that their efforts were not in vain."

The decathlon gold medalist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has teamed up with Lululemon to promote awareness about mental illness through sport. She is a track and field athlete.

In order to "leverage the extreme power of sport to empower and inspire our societies as well as to help people reach their greatest potential," according to Warner and the brand.

A new generation of athletes is now being motivated to achieve their athletic goals by the decathlon star. Being an athlete's brand ambassador, he says, "means everything."

As I become older, I see how important it is to work for organisations I have faith in, says Warner. "A firm that cares about expanding the possibilities in sport, that supports equality and inclusion, and a corporation that brings about change both abroad and in our own communities."

Warner claims that he thinks "that nothing spectacular can be done alone," despite being an athlete who competes alone. He won a decathlon medal in 2016 and went on to earn a gold medal in 2020, becoming only the second Canadian athlete to do so in his career.

"None of my successes would have been possible without the community that has been there for me from day one," adds Warner. "I believe it's critical to raise others around us so we may all have equal chance to pursue our aspirations and objectives and eventually live a happy and healthy life," the speaker said.

Maintaining his mental health and being "open and honest" with those around him and his sports psychologist are essential for Warner as a role model and player. The Olympian says, "Being someone others can look up to is vital to me. The prospect of failing or letting them down may be difficult."

He continues, "I believe it's crucial that you have individuals in your life who you can talk to.
Warner will then take a break from competing. I'm excited to spend time with my family and perhaps go on the trip to Barbados that we have been discussing for a while, aside from athletics.

Warner is one of several sportsmen who have recently spoken out about mental health in sports. Chloe Kim, an Olympian who won the gold medal in the halfpipe at the 2018 Winter Olympics, spoke about her experience returning home and starting a media tour in a January 2021 interview with TIME. Kim said that after the Games, she threw the medal in a garbage can at her parents' house.

"I hated life," she said, explaining that she struggled with her new-found fame. Kim has since found resources to help her work through the challenges of life as an elite athlete, including therapy, and has found it freeing. "Just being able to let those things out that you just tuck in your little secret part of your heart helps a lot … I feel much more at peace now."

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks You

Popular posts from this blog

Maintain Your Perspective

Image
One day, according to an old story, a man with a serious illness was wheeled into a hospital room where another patient was resting on a bed next to the window. As the two became friends, the one next to the window would look out of it and then spend the next few hours delighting his bedridden companion with vivid descriptions of the world outside. Some days he would describe the beauty of the trees in the park across from the hospital and how the leaves danced in the wind. On other days, he would entertain his friend with step - by – step replays of the things people were doing as they walked by the hospital. However, as time went on, the bedridden man grew frustrated at his inability to observe the wonders his friend described. Eventually he grew to dislike him and then to hate him intensely.  One night, during a particularly bad coughing fit, the patient next to the window stopped breathing. Rather than pressing the button for help, the other man chose do nothing. The next morning t
Read more

What Are the Big 5 Personality Traits?

  Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism Many contemporary personality psychologists believe that there are five basic dimensions of personality, often referred to as the "Big 5" personality traits. The Big 5 personality traits are  extraversion  (also often spelled extroversion),  agreeableness ,  openness ,  conscientiousness , and  neuroticism . Extraversion is sociability, agreeableness is kindness, openness is creativity and intrigue, conscientiousness is thoughtfulness, and neuroticism often involves sadness or emotional instability. Understanding what each personality trait is and what it means to score high or low in that trait can give you insight into your own personality—without taking a  personality traits test . It can also help you better understand others, based on where they fall on the continuum for each of the personality traits listed. An Easy Way to Remember the Big 5 Some use the acronym OCEAN (openness, conscientiousnes
Read more