Today, I am joined by Jack Green. Double Olympian who represented Great Britain at the last two Olympic Games, and more recently a passionate wellbeing consultant and mental health advocate.

In this episode, Jack discusses his successful professional sporting journey, his massive performance accomplishments from a very young age and the psychological consequences of becoming immersed within a highly elite training environment – one which which influenced huge expectations and phenomenally high-performance demands. 

Gradually, his identity, perception of his worth was consumed within the sport – only causing his mental health to deteriorate.

At 20 years of age, Jack stepped out in front of a crowd of 80,000 spectators in the London 2012 Olympics. His primary memory of this period was the overwhelming fear of failure and anxiety. This experience played as a significant trigger to his mental health struggles - subsequently receiving a diagnosis of anxiety, depression and bipolar tendencies.

Jack decided to take a break. But although, in hindsight, Jack wasn’t prepared, he returned to competing after 18 months, applying himself in yet another incredibly intense scenario... only triggering the old mindset to resurface. 

Despite self-coaching, he continued successfully within his sporting career – only highlighting how his obsessive characteristics, extraordinary work ethic and drive to succeed played both a facilitative and debilitative role – playing culprit to his performance achievements, but also a trigger to his psychological complications.

As time continued and his career progressed, he acknowledged the detrimental effects of his mental health. He balanced out the possible future consequences and made the courageous decision of retiring – focusing on his wellbeing, prioritizing his happiness, and finally allowing himself to be vulnerable.

Jack’s purpose has now inspirationally changed to wanting to support others and empowering individuals to thrive. He is incredibly passionate about wellbeing, mental health awareness – today working alongside Champion Health, a personalised wellbeing platform, as their head of performance – now utilising his previous experiences and vast knowledge in an extremely positive and uplifting manner.

We also discuss the outdated stigma of mental health within the sport culture. How it is deemed as a weakness and why psychological input and mindset coaching is paramount to ensure the health and overall wellbeing of competitors.