Having won 23 gold medals in his career, swimmer Michael Phelps is the all-time award-winning Top Olympic Athlete of all time. However, it is possible that all the fame and good fortune of the world may not prevent you from suicidal thoughts. And while Phelps has already talked about his post-Olympic depression, he raises awareness in his new documentary, The Weight of Gold.
The HBO film looks at the demanding situations Olympic athletes face after placing their goal in a game that will inevitably be assumed faster and more powerful in the end. It also shows how this and other points lead elite athletes to depression, and that they have few resources to deal with it.
The opening of the documentary is somewhat disconnected from the rest of the story. Phelps, through a voiceover, reminds the audience that the 15,000 athletes who were scheduled to compete at the 2020 Olympics were forced to watch their dreams crumble after they hit COVID-19, and that the occasion was postponed for 2021. he has about an athlete’s intellectual aptitude and uses this series to communicate the intellectual aptitude problems faced by Olympic competitions.
The loose link to the fashion times suggests that The Weight of Gold would originally be published along with the 2020 Olympics. Because Phelps is following this angle, it would have been helpful if he had highlighted the hopefuls who were unable to compete in the Olympics this summer. Despite jumping on the emotions of hopeful athletes, the following content remains compelling and important.
The tale has a stable that accumulates naturally until its conclusion.
In addition to the opening express to 2020, the narrative has a uniform flow that is built naturally until its conclusion. It begins with archiving footage of athletes waiting for the Olympics as children. Step forward by showing that a game is the only thing in the life of an Olympian wannabe. He goes on to explain that Olympic athletes get little monetary aid and are heavily indebted. Finally, the documentary links this to the depression that occurs by focusing on a singular game for years, reaching the top and then being stripped of that identity, whether or not they earn gold.
The weight of gold ends with a poignant result: Olympic athletes are incredibly depressed, others who play elite outdoor sports are depressed, and the stigma surrounding intellectual disease will have to be avoided so that everyone can braidly get help and move on.
While this message itself is vital, it is also well communicated. Phelps is aware that the top audience is not Olympic athletes and makes sure to link the reports of Olympic athletes with others who do not excel in the sport. By making everyone’s intellectual aptitude vital, the documentary adopts an identifiable attitude that will inspire Americans to seek help, no matter who they are.
The film’s other notable strength is its careful presentation. Interviews with athletes, including Jeremy Bloom, Gracie Gold, Bode Miller, Shaun White, Sasha Cohen, David Boudia, Katie Uhlaender and Steven Holcomb in a posthumous appearance, blend harmoniously with thrilling competitive images, brilliant images and B theaters. Roll. It all sounds cinematic.
But The Weight of Gold does a lot of smart things, you may have just added a few elements to make it even better.
The longest missed opportunity of the documentary is that it may have been used to destigmatize the intellectual disease with respect to other people of color. The athletes presented are predominantly white, and presents interviews with the speed skater Apollo Ohno, who is partly Japanese, and the bobsleigh/bobsleigh Lolo Jones, which is birracial, nothing is said about how intellectual fitness in particular applies to non-white athletes. .
Because there is a lot of stigma around intellectual fitness in some communities of color, addressing this topic may have added a deeper layer to the already strong narrative. In fact, some black athletes, adding gymnast Simone Biles, have already talked about how the postponement of the 2020 Olympics can have a negative effect on an athlete’s intellectual fitness. Adding a point of view like yours would have allowed Phelps to complete his initial connection to the upcoming Olympics and elevate the joy of a black Olympic athlete.
In addition, the documentary is made for an American audience, so all the interviewees are American. That is understandable; however, voices from other cultures may have shown that depression is limited to a certain nationality. The incorporation of athletes from other countries can also have greater racial diversity and provide an exclusive view of the stigma of intellectual fitness around the world.
The most disconcerting feature of the documentary is how it manages the role played by the Olympic Committee in the intellectual fitness of athletes.
The most disconcerting feature of the documentary is how it manages the role played by the Olympic Committee in the intellectual fitness of athletes. Many retired Olympic competitions report the fact that Olympic athletes have few intellectual fitness resources after their career is over. They say that while there are many professionals willing to help existing Olympic athletes remain intellectually strong, there are none who need to help them deal with the outdoor disorders of their sports. This turns out to be a big problem, but the documentary never studies it and, more surprisingly, ends with a link to intellectual fitness resources for elite athletes on the U.S. Team’s online page. As if the futility of the organization had never been discussed. Uh? Is there a more vital story here that is not fully developed? It turns out that Team USA convened a new intellectual fitness broker organization in April, however, this was never discussed in the documentary. This context would have been beneficial.
Despite these flaws, what is discussed in The Weight of Gold is important, and if the documentary does anything, I hope it serves as a starting point for more athletes to get ahead and inspire others to get help.
I’m a smart history enthusiast of Olympic sports. I also appreciate the content that aims to end the remaining stigma around intellectual health. Especially since The Weight of Gold achieves the last of those two things, I can finish it again. However, it is vital to realize when watching the documentary, that there are many more stories that are not shown on the screen and that it is also worth listening to. The verbal exchange on intellectual health, adding their dates with Olympic athletes, will have to continue. That’s a smart start.
The Weight of Gold will be released july 2 at 9 a.m. ET on HBO.