Jessie Barr is warning Ireland's Tokyo hopefuls that harsh comments can follow gushing praise on the Olympic stage.
Barr, who competed as a 400m hurdler in the London Games, will be in Japan as Team Ireland's psychologist and believes this is "a really challenging time" for Irish athletes.
While pleased to see the media profile of so many of the Tokyo-bound competitors raised due to excellent performances post-lockdown, Barr also knows from personal experience how quickly the narrative can change.
"I’ve been at the receiving end as an athlete when I made my first European final," she said, referring to Helsinki 2012.
"I was ranked 18th going into it so I exceeded expectations and there was this big deal, I qualified in eighth and I finished eighth, so I finished last.
"And then there was a headline the next day, ‘Barr disappoints in Helsinki’ and I thought, ‘Yesterday everyone thought I was great, I finished in the same position and everyone thinks I’m a failure'.
"So that can be a real challenge, you’re kind of put on a pedestal and you can be torn back down just as quickly.
"We think of athlete wellbeing - often an athlete may not have a huge support network to help them compete at an Olympics, never mind the disappointment of not competing well and then people say, 'they’re not good enough, why are they there, they’re just making up numbers, typical Irish'.
"It’s a frustration I have because I’ve seen it through the years."
Barr, whose brother Thomas is a medal hope in Tokyo, was a keen observer of the controversy surrounding Naomi Osaka and her withdrawal from the French Open after refusing to participate in press conferences.
"There’s a way of reporting on a performance without it being framed as a failure," she said.
"Even if it was a failure in the athlete’s eyes, does it have to be framed as ‘they failed' because they didn’t make a final or win a medal?
"You don’t have that many medals, people making finals.
"It’s something I’ll be talking to athletes a lot in the coming weeks, ‘How are you going to manage your social media, how are you going to present yourself during this time?’
"This is the time they’re putting themselves out there - they have to be willing to take on any potential negative comments.
"Is it a case of deleting all social media going to the Games, someone else take over their account like Annalise (Murphy)’s brother did?
"It’s a consideration to have for younger athletes, maybe, who haven’t been in that spotlight."
On Osaka, Barr commented: "My own research is in athlete mental health so I thought it really threw up an interesting discussion.
" It was really disappointing to see how much negative response and how it was being attributed to her being whiny, her being moany, ‘oh, it’s part of the sport’.
"Clearly this was a setting that made her very uncomfortable from her own mental health and wellbeing point of view, so it was disappointing to see the narrative being that she is just whining and that she’s making so much money so, get on with it and get over it.
"A journalist said, ‘why is all the ammunition being aimed at the athlete? Why shouldn’t it be that the media look at themselves?’
"I think the media are great and it gives athletes profiles, but she’s been able to create her own private profile on social media without the need to go through more traditional journalism.
2Should athletes have to do it? I think athletes have an obligation but is there a way of managing it? I think there are ways of protecting athletes if they are vulnerable in situations like that.
"Does it have to be something that, if they don’t do it, they’re out of a championship? I don’t think that’s right either.
"There are so many challenges to an athlete’s mental health that are presented by elite sport that are occupational hazards but it doesn’t mean they’re not allowed to complain about them. It definitely threw up an interesting debate.
"I am going to be biased in terms of protecting the athlete’s welfare because they’re the product, at the end of the day and if they’re not happy and pulling away, that’s the product that has left.
"It brought up some really interesting discussion around mental health especially because it’s such a normal discussion since Covid, athletes are speaking more about the challenges, so it was interesting towards the end of the pandemic that people were shutting down conversations around mental health."
Pictured is Team Ireland Sports Psychologist Jessie Barr, launching the FBD “Sound Support” campaign. FBD Insurance is a principal sponsor to Team Ireland since September 2018. FBD, in partnership with music producer Richie Egan and Team Ireland Sports Psychologist Jessie Barr, created bespoke tracks for FBD Ambassadors Kellie Harrington, Nhat Nguyen and Chloe Watkins to ensure that Team Ireland members feel and hear the support of their friends, family, and the Irish public even though they will be nearly 10,000 km away. The tracks are available on Spotify on “FBD Sound Support” playlist and a video capturing the athletes’ reactions is available on FBD social channels. It is this same spirit of support and protection that sees FBD as Ireland’s largest homegrown insurer support more than 500,000 policyholders for over 50 years.
