The weight of Gold documentary. | Golden Skate

The weight of Gold documentary.

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
It will be interesting to watch. I imagine it is really difficult to give up something that you're one of the world's best practitioners of and start completely over on a new endeavor (in which you're likely to never reach the same heights).
 

elbkup

Power without conscience is a savage weapon
Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2015
Country
United-States
Just now watched this... very powerful piece. Sasha Cohen and Gracie Gold were featured, their stories well told.. a hard piece to watch on many many levels, needing time to take it all in
 

Tahuu

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 3, 2014
It’s a good documentary, featuring, other than Gracie and Sasha, many former Olympians, Michael Phelps, Ono, Shaun White, Lolo Jones. Olympians, aspiring Olympians, and young athletes and their parents, or even regular people, may have a better perspective on life from watching it. They talked about how they were single minded from a kid to win, become an Olympian, and win Olympic gold; how they and their peers became anxious, depressed, and suicidal (some tragically killed themselves); how little they earned and how empty they felt to retire. Although not explicitly stated in the film, it’s clear the single mindedness in their sports for their whole life, lack of education and fallbacks, no other life goals and options contributed to their problems.
 

sillylionlove29

Rinkside
Joined
Sep 27, 2017
It was excellent. I would never have thought someone considered the greatest Olympian (Michael Phelps) would have struggled so much. And Shawn White too. Grace and Sasha were very honest. I enjoyed this a lot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

JassenB

Spectator
Joined
Oct 12, 2014
I’m shocked that there aren’t more replies to this.

This was an amazing documentary. It’s a punch in the gut. Gracie Gold and Sasha Cohen represented our sport in brutal honesty here. Especially Gracie, she didn’t pull any punches.

Suicide. It’s a real thing. Nobody wants to talk about it, but we all should. It’s happened recently within the ranks of our own athletes (circumstances be damned, it still happened).

What are we going to do about it?
 

Alex D

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 23, 2013
I’m shocked that there aren’t more replies to this.

This was an amazing documentary. It’s a punch in the gut. Gracie Gold and Sasha Cohen represented our sport in brutal honesty here. Especially Gracie, she didn’t pull any punches.

Suicide. It’s a real thing. Nobody wants to talk about it, but we all should. It’s happened recently within the ranks of our own athletes (circumstances be damned, it still happened).

What are we going to do about it?

Tough question, as so many things are coming together here.

Social media has opened up a world in which lets be honest, everyone is somehow competing with someone. One of the first things mentioned in every story about an athlete, musician ..., are follower numbers on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Followers seem to be everything that defines the career or accomplishments of someone these days and that puts a lot of pressure on people, also since sponsors care a lot about these numbers. Besides that, everyone can tell you something online and if you already struggle a simple rude word can mean so much more for you. Adelina Sotnikova had to go through hell after Sochi, fans can be so cruel at times if they dont get their own star to succeed.

Ask Selena Gomez about it or since we talk FS, Gracie Gold how she was having such a hard time after the Olympics with all that pressure and hate. In Tennis, some of my friends are even insulted for rain delays or postponed matches or if they are injured and cant play. Its just a very tough buisness, where everyone knows you and has an opinion about you too.

Because of that, most people of the public have an agency in charge already of their social media accounts, while they run a private account for friends. These private accounts are totally different, not just because of the low follower numbers, but also content. The public account might show you laughing in the sun, the private one all by yourself in the hotel room, sad.

For starters it would be very helpful, if those who truly "abuse" social media, would start to realize what consequences their words can have. But we might also need to stop supporting that industry which always wants more and more. A young athlete should be given time to develop in a safe environment without the fear of being dropped just because it doesnt work immediately. These days, junior athletes get more attention than adults 50 years ago, you may ask if that is a good thing?!

The amount of events also need a look at. Yes, fans want their sport 24/7, but as an athlete you dont sit on the couch watching, but you actually compete and you need to be given time to rest. Not all requests for pictures and autographs or interviews can be met, we need more acceptance for that.

In the end it all comes down to respect and that we treat others in the same way that we want to be treaten, while getting athletes more involved in the organisation and scheduling.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I’m shocked that there aren’t more replies to this.

This was an amazing documentary. It’s a punch in the gut.

I think that there are not many replies because no one knows what to say. This problem has been with us for decades. Children forced to put their entire future and lives at risk for some kind of ego trip on the part of their parents, or in order to provide entertainment for adults.

At least for professional team sports there is an actual benefit to sports. Yes, you get injured, might kill yourself, might suffer from depression, anorexia, lack of self-worth. you might die young from all the drugs you took, might miss out on your chance at an education, etc. -- but that is weighted against making a hundred million dollars as a star athlete.
 

readernick

Medalist
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
I think that there are not many replies because no one knows what to say. This problem has been with us for decades. Children forced to put their entire future and lives at risk for some kind of ego trip on the part of their parents, or in order to provide entertainment for adults.

At least for professional team sports there is an actual benefit to sports. Yes, you get injured, might kill yourself, might suffer from depression, anorexia, lack of self-worth. you might die young from all the drugs you took, might miss out on your chance at an education, etc. -- but that is weighted against making a hundred million dollars as a star athlete.

This is really the crux of the matter isn’t it, and I don’t know how you can prevent these side effects from occurring. Age limits, more strict governance, etc etc might mitigate the issues but no policy will solve all of these problems.... There is nothing to say. Do you get rid of all juvenile competitive sport?
 

Lechat

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 26, 2018
Country
France
It’s a good documentary, featuring, other than Gracie and Sasha, many former Olympians, Michael Phelps, Ono, Shaun White, Lolo Jones. Olympians, aspiring Olympians, and young athletes and their parents, or even regular people, may have a better perspective on life from watching it. They talked about how they were single minded from a kid to win, become an Olympian, and win Olympic gold; how they and their peers became anxious, depressed, and suicidal (some tragically killed themselves); how little they earned and how empty they felt to retire. Although not explicitly stated in the film, it’s clear the single mindedness in their sports for their whole life, lack of education and fallbacks, no other life goals and options contributed to their problems.

So true. I saw on youtube a former Chinese gymnast athlete, an olympian who is homeless today and has to ask charity to survive. It was so heartbreaking. There’s no life for them after their career. They are completely abandoned.
 

theharleyquinn

Medalist
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
I think that there are not many replies because no one knows what to say. This problem has been with us for decades. Children forced to put their entire future and lives at risk for some kind of ego trip on the part of their parents, or in order to provide entertainment for adults.

At least for professional team sports there is an actual benefit to sports. Yes, you get injured, might kill yourself, might suffer from depression, anorexia, lack of self-worth. you might die young from all the drugs you took, might miss out on your chance at an education, etc. -- but that is weighted against making a hundred million dollars as a star athlete.

The difficult thing is that these sports documentaries often are not completely honest about the network of pressure surrounding the athletes, especially the parents. Unless the athlete is willing to put their parents out to pasture, it can be hard to see the full picture.
 

yume

🍉
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 11, 2016
It’s a good documentary, featuring, other than Gracie and Sasha, many former Olympians, Michael Phelps, Ono, Shaun White, Lolo Jones. Olympians, aspiring Olympians, and young athletes and their parents, or even regular people, may have a better perspective on life from watching it. They talked about how they were single minded from a kid to win, become an Olympian, and win Olympic gold; how they and their peers became anxious, depressed, and suicidal (some tragically killed themselves); how little they earned and how empty they felt to retire. Although not explicitly stated in the film, it’s clear the single mindedness in their sports for their whole life, lack of education and fallbacks, no other life goals and options contributed to their problems.

I understand skaters in their 30s who struggle to retire.
I also understand the ones who quit early to get real studies and i prefer their move. There is a life after sport. It better be a decent life.
 

Alex D

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 23, 2013
This is really the crux of the matter isn’t it, and I don’t know how you can prevent these side effects from occurring. Age limits, more strict governance, etc etc might mitigate the issues but no policy will solve all of these problems.... There is nothing to say. Do you get rid of all juvenile competitive sport?

Those "side effects" occur, as humans are simply put, very vulnerable. You can sit in a 5 million dollars villa, have sold millions of records, won gold medals and are on each cover of sports illustrated and yet, be the loneliest person on earth. Those who are rich and famous very often dont have many friends, even if their glamour life tells different.

But why is that?

Lets go back to when we were children. Did we care about hair colours, education, looks, follower numbers or political views of our friends? I guess we all picked friends because we just connected right? Now as an adult, finding friends is a totally different story, isnt it? We have seen all the good and bad in life, we experienced break ups, betrayel and the like. Even if we dont notice it, our inner soul does avoid certain things as we have aquired a few scars.

This will automatically limit our abilities to connect and start from scratch, we are just not open minded anymore.

For most adults, this wont be such a big deal, friendships were build in childhood, education was aquired, a husband or wife found and we just preserve what we build in younger years. (also a reason why so many unhappy in a relationship cant let go)
Someone who spend all his or her life in an industry, be it movies or sports, often lacks the big foundation of true friends that last a lifetime. Besides that, it is insanely hard to find a true friend or mate, if you are popular and in general lack free time, as friends are often not to be found in hotel rooms or at airports. And if someone approaches you then they do it because of your public face, yet that often isnt who you are.

I believe for Gracie it must have been really hard to portrait that golden girl, always smiling when she met someone, as that was what they expected her to be. When I met her, she kind of let me see a different version of hers, maybe because we were in Germany or I dont know. Her honesty when we talked, the personal questions she answered and that she opened her heart for a few minutes not only impressed me that day, also another journalist was impressed as he never saw her like that before.

It was at a time when she openly addressed, how cruel and rude people on social media can be, while that place often is the only "way" to connenct for you, so that you do spend your time there, even if you get hurt. Just think about it for a second, why would you do an instagram live video where guys talk you down, if you could just sit with your friends at a camp fire and eat some sausages? Answer is simple, because those friends are not around, might not even exist.

Competitions did not cause this, its more the professionalism in youth sports these days, be it the preperation which eats all your time or the aftermath. Young athletes are often put into similar situations as the adults, be it time investments for training, interviews, sponsoring, trials that decide about your future / scholarships and so on.

Adults often work with sports psychologists and there are retirement fonds to help out when you can no longer compete. Juniors often dont have access to these things while the pressure of failure and missing out on financial aid or disappointing those who supported you, mounts up. So ya, that is where we can start, if you expect from juniors like from adults, then give them the same tools at least.

That being said, I dont think the system as a whole can be changed, most people at home want world records, quad sals and triple Axels - they dont see the sacrifices, many never were athletes except for throwing the beer bottle and simply put, wont understand these problems.

I think that those of us that work with children have to really take good care of our students and yes, be more vocal if the parents try to force things. Besides that, everyone must learn that words can have a major impact also on the internet and that we need to give children the chance to rest, even if they dont want to, which happens more often than you might think.

In the end, a nice word can mean a lot and we should use those much more.
 
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