As a clinical psychologist who also works with athletes, Karen Nimmo has helped some of the best cope with the unusual pressures they face. Her view on Maria Sharapova gives a fresh insight into what the Russian tennis superstar is going through.
OPINION: How do you feel when you are the most famous, glamorous, highest-paid female athlete in the world and you are no longer allowed near your sport because you are a drugs cheat? Answer: Relieved (possibly).
Maria Sharapova’s ban for using the performance-enhancing Meldonium means she can’t pick up a tennis racket for two years. She has appealed, but short of retirement, it is probably the only way a young woman, groomed for stardom since kindergarten could get away from it all for a while.
TAG Heuer cut ties with Maria Sharapova after she was given a two-year drug ban.
REUTERS
TAG Heuer cut ties with Maria Sharapova after she was given a two-year drug ban.
As a clinical psychologist working in elite sport, I see the painful side of performance. I see the depressions, anxieties, addictions, substance abuse, eating and body image issues which in sport, studies indicate, could be up to twice as high as in the 1 in 5 clocked in the general population. I see the fear of failure, the relentless expectations, the hurt of criticism, the quest for approval, the struggle to build an identity outside of sport.
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I’ve watched the Sharapova story unfold from afar. Her story is legend. The precociously-talented child who first swung a racket at age four, moulded for success by her father, swept away to the US from her Russian home (and her mother for two years) to pursue Tennis Greatness. First her family’s meal ticket – then their star-spangled passport to the Land of the Free. No pressure, darling.