So wouldn't part of the real solution, the elephant in the room of any therapy be to...step away from the obsession to win and just focus on life and enjoyment from regular exercise/ training?


Yes and no.

If there are real mental health and addiction issues just saying "Don't do this" is not going to help. It does not help the drug addicted, the alcohol addicted. It's not a switch that they can just turn off!

Ditto with the training. Now - the lines do get a bit blurred here in that physical activity - up a certain level, we know is helpful and beneficial for optimal physical and mental health.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

So wouldn't part of the real solution, the elephant in the room of any therapy be to...step away from the obsession to win and just focus on life and enjoyment from regular exercise/ training?//

Easy to say, harder to do. Would you tell a nurse, lawyer, firefighter to just quit their job, stop earning a living to try and cope with this? Because I think you are laying your hobby over her "profession", and making a recommendation. Not sure how losing your paycheck is going to help with mental health, as we already know this was around long before triathlon. She does need to find a balance with all the new inputs, but that can be done by pushing off many of the decisions to someone else. She seem like a very involved person in all the day to day stuff, as well as the long term ones too, so perhaps whittle that down to just a few smallish choices each day and let the long term ones be run by an agent/manager/ husband.


Going way back, we had a similar situation with the worlds #1 woman triathlete, but she did not get any help. Finally snapped on a plane, beat up the flight attendant, and was committed to a psyche ward. IT was super sad to see, and this all before all the help that is out there today. No one knew or even suspected, so coming out and admitting the issue is a really big step to have taken. And as you can see, most are supportive of her position, and even the folks with no understanding of the deliberating nature of this are getting an education..

An interesting statement.
During my most obsessive years in triathlon I would say that I was trying to escape or at least calm my mental demons.

Strangely, all the ultra-runners I know are very driven people, but don't *seem* to have the mental health issues that triathletes do.

Being a proper (ie income well above expenditure) professional athlete is a full time 'job' and one you've chosen.
By then it's not a "hyper obsessive fixation", it's your daily work.
As Patrick Lange is said to have castigated Tim Don when the latter was wibbling: "It's your job: just do it."
You don't get to the upper echelons if you're the "oh I'll step away from it" when the going gets tough (mental or physical).
So I can't see that's a 'real solution'.
I don't see Chelsea as being obsessed with winning: at least not in the last three years. Just working hard to getting back to her previous high standard (NB #4 at Nice 70.3WC in 2019) and stepping up, with stellar result, to IM distance.
Some people are much more anxious than others: and some are top athletes. Kudos for Chelsea to be prepared to relate those challenges as a mother and as an athlete. And fortunate to have husband and wider family support seemingly at most stages at least pre- and post Skye's birth and short life.

Ya I don't strongly disagree with that take either. Plenty of anxiety outside of sport as well. Just the thought of how obsessive you need to be to compete at a high level, whether it's focused on winning or just being competitive at that level. Anyone "normal"* would say it's obsessive.
I get the it's your job counterpoint though.

*who may have anxiety at greater rates than unnormal triathletes for all I know

That being said some initial research pulls up:

Team sports have less anxiety and depression than individual sports:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC6683619/

Elite sport athletes much more likely to suffer mental health issues than general population:
https://www.utoronto.ca/...-disorders-u-t-study


So maybe the "it's my job" is part of the problem with the underlying framework that compels the behavior. Maybe Ironman is on to something with paying pros less and (sorta by proxy) discouraging professional competition. 🤔 partly sarcastic

in my time in ultras it was very common to meet others who were using the running to hold their other addictions/problems at bay..

good survey article,
Emergent Scientific Research on Mental Health in Ultra-Endurance Sports – iRunFar

What I read and got about Chelsea is that she felt pressure ...so if you suffer from OCD, you can get obsessed with not being capable of replicating the results, the fraud syndrome, or just enter a destructive dynamic due to the stress (which is the spark to start the fire).
Then, I have also found obsessive personality profiles (not OCD) in amateurs when I used to train in a regular basis... I do not know if obsessive profiles are attracted to triathlon or triathlon develops or encourages an obsessive behaviour (cause 3 sports is actually demanding, and you basically depend on yourself).
The social aspect in triathlon, cycling, long distance running is not as important as in team sports...maybe that's why it can drive into such behaviours. In the other hand, sport, well focused, can be really helpful to overcome anxiety and health issues. I guess all is about balance, and everyone has its own one.

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P