Michael Pis’ help is helping to highlight the intellectual fitness issues athletes face in the new HBO documentary, The Weight of Gold.
The documentary, which begins on Wednesday, features several Olympic athletes, Phelps, 35, who have battled the ups and downs of the festival on the national stage.
“A lot of us are fighting,” the gold medal-winning swimmer said Wednesday 23 times in a 23-time interview in Savannah Guthrie.
“It took me five Olympic Games to really watch it,” he added. “I think being in the intellectual state I was entering in 2016 gave me this opportunity to be open to having the interactions I had with other athletes, and it led me to that there are others who fight and fight very, very hard. “
RELATED: Olympic athletes communicate in ‘dramatic vacuum’ after weight games in golden documentary trailer
Phelps said it’s crazy to see that I’m not alone” when he learned from the other Olympic athletes featured in the documentary, such as Apollo Ohno, Lolo Jones and Gracie Gold, that they also had intellectual fitness issues.
“But it also made me feel smart because there were other people who might just perceive that “it doesn’t matter to be okay,” he said.
The retired swimmer also explained to Guthrie why he believes so many Olympic athletes suffer intellectual fitness problems despite their professional success.
“I think it’s just the adventure we’re in,” he said percentage. “Growing up, we see this thing as an Olympic athlete and winning a past medal, and we don’t see the potholes it goes through or you can just have it as an Olympic athlete. In the last five years, I have been able to open up and percentage of my experiences, and I am very grateful to have been able to have part of a dozen athletes, or more, status with us and talking about the same struggles.”
RELATED: Michael Phelps talks about fitness in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic: ”It’s been hard”
Phelps said that with The Weight of Gold, he expects his fellow athletes, as well as spectators, to have greater depression and anxiety, among others.
“You’ll see in the documentary, it’s very raw,” he said. “You’ll probably shed a tear. That’s what we’ve been through, and there are other people who are going through that too.
“It’s going to be difficult,” Phelps added, “but it’s something we want to communicate and address.”
The Weight of Gold, directed through Brett Rapkin, will be released on Wednesday, July 29 on HBO.
If you or know you are making plans to commit suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), send “STRENGTH” to the crisis line at 741-741 or move to suicidepreventionlifeline.org