Posted on 08/10/2021 3:14:14 AM PDT by blueplum
The best friend of New Zealand Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore says there were no signs she was struggling with her mental health, as he fought back tears at an emotional media conference following her shock death.
Olympic rower Eric Murray fronted cameras on behalf of the 24-year-old's devastated family on Tuesday, describing how nothing appeared to be wrong when he spent time with her on the day she ended her own life.
Podmore, who competed in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, shared a grinning selfie at an airport along with a chilling Instagram message about the pressures of competing, just hours before her family confirmed her tragic death.
The New Zealand sporting landscape was rocked by the shock news with the incident raising concerns about mental health in elite sports....
...Sport NZ CEO Raelene Castle has since confirmed that the Kiwi cyclist had reached out for support.
'What I will say is that mental health is incredibly challenging,' Ms Castle said.
'I really wish that we could have a black and white and wrong and right answer for it but it's not like that, even when you put the best level of support around that athlete with an open door into psychological services, and offer all those opportunities.
'Sometimes they reach out. Olivia had been reaching out into those environments...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
More and more people today and especially the youth are ungrounded. This is not a mental health issue, it is a spiritual issue, and I’m not talking about being some pious type. Those who have a deep understanding and belief of what is in Psalms 23 and 91 will never go this route.
You’re correct that it is a spiritual issue. The thrust of liberalism is that, unless something is perfect from the time that the ameoba’s crawled from the ocean floor unto land, that thing must be destroyed.
The SJY movement is an outworking of the idea that perfection is the only acceptable option.
Just last night I watched a video interview of my all-time favorite basketball player, Pistol Pete Maravich. He had money and the adulation of many people. Still, he said there was a period in his life after basketball that for a year he seriously contemplated suicide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6PXUr3ttXs
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
Years ago in the lead up to either the Atlanta or LA Olympic games, there was a survey done of athletes that basically asked this question… “If there was a substance available that was guaranteed to be undetectable, guaranteed to give you a gold medal….. but would kill you within X years of the games, would you still take it?” I don’t recall what the percentage was that answered in the affirmative but it was so high, I decided that I never would watch Olympic events again.
They are willing to make the classic Faustian deal.
What you just described isn’t liberalism at all. Until we stop giving the left cover by using the term liberal, we are going to have a tough time. Today’s left are authoritarian collectivists.
Sad.
I’ve read similar things about some of the astronauts in the early NASA programs like Gemini, Apollo, etc. It’s probably a function of accomplishing great, noteworthy things earlier in your life that your mind knows you can’t replicate as you get older.
Exactly and by me watching, I would in a very very tiny way, be contributing to that willingness to take that deal.... no thanks.
Unfortunately there are very few athletes that have the perspective of Sydney McLaughlin... “What I have in Christ is far greater’ than anything else...”
Ever since I died and experienced Heaven, there is not one day that I do not think about returning to that beautiful place.
But I promised my wife that the only method I would use to commit suicide would be to stop eating, and I have enough in reserve to give quite a bit of time for me to change my mind.
Repeat for emphasis. You are exactly correct. In better days, before the culture was unhinged, elite athletes by and large still realized that their competitions were ultimately elaborate games. They recognized that they were privileged to be able to play at an elite level and perhaps even make a living at it, but faith, family and country remained more important. They all understood that the games would soon end and that they needed to be ready to make constructive lives in the real world.
Today's culture teaches young people to live for the moment, live for themselves, live for existential thrills, and validate themselves by the applause of others. Performative narcissism is profoundly isolating. It leads to nihilism and despair.
There are always signs. We are just too wrapped up in our own lives that most people don’t or refuse to see and accept them.
Unfortunately the term liberalism has been so thoroughly corrupted that it’s old meaning dies not exist any more.
It’s new meaning is progressivism. Classical liberals have moved into the libertarian camps
Blow up your TV
Throw away your paper
Go to the country
Build you a home
Plant a little garden
Eat a lot of peaches
Try an' find Jesus on your own
- John Prine, "Spanish Pipedream"
Ever since I died and experienced Heaven, there is not one day that I do not think about returning to that beautiful place.
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Sounds interesting. Have you posted your story somewhere?
No. It happened over 30 years ago. I’ve observed most people having similar experiences develop a big ego around feeling special, owning their experience as a possession and promoting it. Doing so causes a person to become full of themselves and leave no room for God. They lose the benefit of the experience.
I value the connection more than anything else and don’t want to lose it.
But they went along and let a dude participate in women’s weightlifting in Tokyo last week.
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