'I lived on thriving to succeed'. Dame Kelly Holmes opens up about her mental health struggles and admits she felt 'fearful about opening up'. Read her full interview with BethRigby 👉 📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube
4:18Dame Kelly Holmes has opened up about her mental health struggles and said we must recognise that physical and mental health go side by side.The middle-distance runner told Beth Rigby that during her career she struggled with her mental health, describing it as a"battle" in her head.
Dame Kelly, 52, took part in her final major championship, the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and won gold at 800m and 1500m, but said that the"pressure to succeed" led her to a breakdown when she was 33. She said:"I went through stress fractures, rupture calves, torn Archilles, glandular fever, tonsilitis, a damaged femoral nerve in my back and mental health problems seven years out of my 12 years as an international athlete.
"I got to the point when I was 33 years old which was the year before the Olympic games getting ready for a world championships where I had a huge breakdown because of the pressure and expectation on myself to be good. "One, because I was battling with other things in my life, but two because I really wanted to be an Olympic champion. And I got to a point where I didn't want to be here frankly, but I did."
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