Canadian goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe shares mental health struggles during Tokyo Olympics
Global News
'The pandemic, the change of coaching staff, the lack of clarity over my position in the team — getting to the Olympics wasn't just a magical cure for all of this.'
Stephanie Labbe, whose heroics in goal helped Canada win gold at the Tokyo Olympics, says she could not train for part of the Games because of “high levels of anxiety and multiple panic attacks.”
The 34-year-old from Stony Plain, Alta., who has shared her mental health struggles in the past, has opened up again to publicize FIFPRO’s “Are You Ready To Talk” — a mental health awareness program from the organization representing 65,000 pro footballers worldwide.
A rib injury forced Labbe out of Canada’s opening game against host Japan at the Olympics.
Ultimately the verdict was she could continue playing, albeit in pain. Labbe missed just one game, returning to lead Canada to penalty shootout wins over Brazil in the quarterfinal and Sweden in the final.
But it came with a cost, as Labbe explains in an essay, released by FIFPRO, titled “Winning the Olympics isn’t enough to cure mental health.”
“I had no idea that this injury would trigger an underlying vulnerability in my mental state,” Labbe wrote.
“It got to the point where I couldn’t train between the quarters (quarterfinals) and the final because I was so overstimulated.”
Labbe said she knew it was not performance anxiety.