David Gillick: ‘In sport, we still think of faster, fitter, stronger, show no weakness’

When David Gillick read the news this week, two tales of recent Olympians, one ending in triumph, the other in tragedy, any aching sense of sadness was one of familiarity.

For Gillick, who opened up in recent years on the brutal reality of life with depression following his retirement in 2014, there was a sense too the conversation can’t afford to go quiet. Nor can any of the issues around it.

The first tale was of Emmet Brennan, the Dublin boxer who already laid bare his emotions after narrowly losing his opening light-heavyweight bout at the Tokyo Olympics; only this week did Brennan add that, following eight months of alcohol abuse to substitute the pain of his Olympic “failure”, he was now celebrating one year sober.

Death of Tori Bowie

The second tale was of Tori Bowie, the American sprinter who won three Olympic medals, plus the 100m at the 2017 World Championships in London; she was found dead at her home in Orlando after the local sheriff’s department was sent to check on her well-being. She was 32 years old, only recently know to be struggling with her mental health.

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The department said they were not treating the death as suspicious.

Two tales, one written off the back on unquestionable success, the other of perceived failure.

“The Tori Bowie story over in the States is so tragic,” says Gillick, the 2008 Olympian and still the Irish record holder over 400m. “You always wonder what happens to an athlete when they’re heading towards the end of their career, maybe only late 20s. But in terms of the sporting world you’re old. That’s difficult, and hard to take.

“When you’re invested to something that defines you, and you’re identity is so closely linked to that one area of your life, that’s when change can become really, really difficult. Retirement, and that transition away from sport.

“It is very individual. Some athletes actually have the luxury of saying, ‘I’m going to retire’, have an exit plan, and can transition nice and smoothly. But for a lot of people, it doesn’t happen that way. Injury, loss of form, and then there’s that impact it has on your financial situation, you might have bills to pay, and suddenly there’s no money coming through. And also the harsh reality of losing a contract overnight. You can get a phone call, and that’s it.”

‘Amazing feedback’

Brennan’s tale, which he’s since admitted drew “some amazing feedback”, reminded Gillick too that there is often no differentiating between how success or failure can affect the athlete. No matter what their sport.

“From the outside, you can look at athletes winning medals, and think life must be fantastic, but we just don’t know what’s going on in people’s lives, when they go home and close their front door.

“We’ve experienced it as a sporting nation, go back to Darren Sutherland, there still is that stigma around mental health. And in sport, we still think of faster, fitter, stronger, show no weakness. You have to portray that image, whereas in reality, there is a lot of insecurity around the end of a career. That’s still an issue.

“There are some positive things happening in terms of life skills around athletes. Yes, performance matters, but we still need to remember they’re human beings. It is being spoken about a lot more, I know there is the life skills at the Sports Institute, trying to get athletes who are funded to work on these areas, particularly after an Olympic year.

“A lot of athletes, particularly in individual sports, are also working alone, and that’s never a good thing when you’re by yourself an awful lot.

“But Tori Bowie was someone at the top of the sport, she won the 100m, that’s huge, relatively still young, and probably still very competitive in what she was doing. So when you see something like this, it will always stop you in your tracks, and think, ‘we don’t really know what’s going on’, or what might have caused this.

“That’s why these conversations are still very important. And I know World Athletics have done that, articles to try [to] bring that into the conversation, but there’s always more to do in that space.”

• If you are affected by any of these issues, please contact Pieta House on 1800-247247 or the Samaritans by telephoning 116123 (free) or Text HELP to 51444. David Gillick was speaking at the Sports Direct Ireland launch of Sports Slam, a primary school initiative equipping teachers and parents to promote physical activity among five- to 12-year-olds.