Day in and day out, Denis Margalik worked to be competition-ready. With the World Figure Skating Championships quickly approaching, he was pushing himself mentally and physically to be prepared to compete for Argentina in 2016.

 

But it wasn’t an injury or the fact that he didn’t train enough that led him to a poor performance at the event, placing second last. Instead, his training took a massive toll on his mental health.

 

“There would be nights when I would fear falling asleep, knowing that I would have to wake up the next day to train and disappoint both my coaches and parents,” he says.

 

The 22-year-old says he suffered from anxiety, mild depression and several eating disorders because of his sport. 

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WATCH: Denis Margalik describes how his mental health affected

his training leading up to the 2016 World Championships.

(Video credit: Shannon Coulter, Christina Donati, Paige Martin, 

Michael Marti and Nick Sokic)

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After his competition, Margalik took a break from figure skating for a few months. 

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“I realized that I needed a change,” he says.

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That’s when he decided to stop pursuing his Olympic dreams. Instead, Margalik decided to become a student at Western University.

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University and college students represent a population that can be vulnerable to mental illness. A 2018 Canadian study published in the Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology found that about 27 per cent of 113 student athletes surveyed had a formal mental health diagnosis.

 

In comparison, a 2017 study argues that while nearly one-third of Canadian undergraduate university students report elevated levels of psychological distress, only 15.4 per cent of students say they have been treated by a professional for one or more mental health problems.

 

The most common diagnoses in student athletes are depression, anxiety, substance abuse and eating disorders because of the pressure to keep a low or high body weight for a particular sport, according to a 2018 American study called “Student Athletes and Mental Health Experiences”.

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Denis Margalik performing at the 2016 ISU World Championships in Boston. 

Margalik says he suffered from anxiety, mild depression and several eating disorders.

(Photo credit: Denis Margalik)

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Burnout, or a state of mental and physical exhaustion, is also common, according to PhD candidate Krista VanSlingerland, whose research focuses on mental health in athletes.

 

As a former student athlete, VanSlingerland says while there are protocols in place to deal with physical injuries, athletic departments are lacking policies to help those suffering with emotional or psychological distress.

 

“When dealing with a physical injury, we know how to do that. We understand return-to-play protocols,” says VanSlingerland, who co-founded the not-for-profit organization Canadian Centre for Mental Health and Sport that supports the mental health of athletes and coaches. “It’s more complex when you have an injury that’s a mental illness.”

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CONTINUE READING

Next section: Mental Toughness

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