the Olympic village will have its first space for the mental health of athletes

THE MORNING

June 13, 2024 at 09:10

THE Olympic village, located between St Denis And Saint-Ouen, will include a team in “a space allowing athletes and those around them to listen to their emotions and prepare themselves on the psychological level“, announces the IOC.

“No problem will be insignificant in the eyes” of this dedicated team, “whose members have been trained in the protection of athletes and first aid in Mental Health“, promises the organization, which will also offer “mindfulness activities” – breathing, visualization – to reduce theanxiety and improve the concentration.

Furthermore, the Olympic village of the Paris Olympics will integrate for the first time a crib. The future nursery “will not provide child care“, but one play area conducive to the creation of family ties“, bookable “for a private or shared time slot”, indicates the organization.

“Many athletes have to balance their sporting career and their family“, underlined the former Finnish hockey player Emma Terhopresident of the IOC Athletes’ Commission. “I know how it feels, because I participated in the 2014 Winter Olympics as a mother of a young child.

For her, “the pregnancy and the maternity should not mean the end of a career for female athletes“, a subject that sports authorities are increasingly taking up – including the Fifawhich recently extended the maternity leave adopted in 2011 and advocated “more contact” between players and their families during international tournaments.