The former German track and field athlete Louisa Grauvogel sees a need for optimization in dealing with mental illnesses in competitive sports. Especially in the federal squad and at Olympic bases, the sometimes lack of independence often represents too great a barrier to open communication, says the 26-year-old, who ended her career after mental problems.
“The problem is that the psychologists also talk to the coaches. Of course you don’t tell the whole truth,” said Grauvogel of the German Press Agency and added: “They are usually sports psychologists, who are first and foremost concerned with athletic performance goes.” She herself was only able to go public after her career had ended. “You just don’t know what you’re going to do with it. Especially when you’re dependent on coaches. I never dared to talk about it during my playing days,” explained Grauvogel.
At the end of October 2022, Grauvogel surprisingly announced the end of her career as a competitive athlete. After a sudden hearing loss, the Saarland native was diagnosed with burnout and depression. Grauvogel had his first mental problems back in 2018. At the home European Championships 2018 in Berlin, Grauvogel was about to qualify for the heptathlon for the Olympics in Tokyo. A car accident between two individual competitions ruined this dream.
It was not until the end of her career that Grauvogel made the reasons public – including in the ARD documentary “Real Life: Burnout of a competitive athlete”. “It was important for me to make all this public, to sensitize others to this topic – not just in terms of competitive sport,” said Grauvogel. Parallel to competitive sports, she did her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in Cologne. In May she is going to Harvard to do her master’s degree there.
