Puerto Rican tennis player Mónica Puig has confessed that she suffered depression after winning, against prognosis, the gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
"Clearly, I have had difficulties the past three years, dealing with all the pressure and expectation that came with winning the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics. It has probably been the three most difficult years I have faced in my entire life," Puig said. this Wednesday on your Instagram social network account.
The Puerto Rican tennis player said that "there is a trauma after winning something so big that it gives you a 'slap' and pushes you to the ground," in the Instagram statements given to the specialized portal in the world of the racket "behindtheracket.com".
"I had a whole country looking at me, which was great, but they didn't see the dark side. I saw that depression was inevitable when it was hard for me to get out of bed. At one point, you're at the top of the world and, suddenly, it ends and you don't know what happened. It was like a whiplash, "said the Olympic champion.
"It suddenly ends and you just don't know what just happened. I couldn't find ways to motivate me to play. I just didn't know what to do with myself," the tennis player said.
He confessed that there were many occasions when all he wanted to do was cry every day in bed.
"It has taken me so far, October 2019, to put my feet back on the ground and find myself on the right path again," he said of his situation.
Puig said social networks did not help, charged in some cases with the negativity of those who expected their defeats, which is why he had to trust his family and team.
The Puerto Rican said she once thought she was the only person who was going through a similar situation, but was surprised to learn that other Olympic athletes suffered the same.
"Many people are embarrassed to have anxiety, depression or anything else. Simply putting things a little more in perspective knowing that there are other people who are going through the same difficulties helps overcome it," he said.
"I started to enjoy tennis a little more in these last five weeks. I enjoyed working hard and it wasn't just clock hours, but I really want to be out there. The two and a half hour practices seemed like 15 minute sessions and I just wanted to being there and more and more, "he said of his renewed enthusiasm.
Puig, now under the supervision of his new coach, Belgian Philippe DeHaes , went down in this last season to 81st in the WTA standings.
In recent years, the tennis player has changed four times as a coach, for the last time when she stopped collaborating last August with Kamau Murray a week before the start of the US Open.
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