PEOPLE PLEASING, PRESSURE AND BURNOUT / PERSPECTIVE
Life had changed, forever, and while there were countless positives Maddie then found herself wondering what was next and how to recreate that ‘buzz’, experiencing what many other athletes have alluded to as ‘post-Olympic blues’.
“As a squad we were probably the most prepared we could possibly be as we’d planned for every scenario during the Games,” she recalls.
“The only thing we hadn’t thought about would be ‘what if we win it? What if we become famous? How will that impact us as players and as people?
“Life was never the same and for months I was riding a wave but then we came back to prepare for the next World Cup and something had changed.”
For the first time in her career Maddie felt the weight of expectation and pressure to perform as her “bubble” increased with new sponsors, endorsements and the ‘Olympic champion’ title proudly top of her list of accomplishments.
“I was no longer this kid that just like stepped on the pitch and tried to stop a hockey ball, people knew my name, had opinions about me, expected things,” she tells the WSA.
“I felt I had to be this ‘superhero’ or ‘perfect athlete’ which never exists and I felt a huge weight of expectation to please people in my life.”
In 2018 Maddie announced she would take time away from the national team and in 2020 she revealed she had been diagnosed with depression.
“What I struggled with most was living up to an expectation to be some kind of superhero and by 2018 it had become something of an obsession,” she states.
“I hid under my helmet for too long and didn’t speak about the burnout for too long, but now several years on I look at it and think I’m actually really pleased I went through that period of my life because I actually learned a huge amount of power of vulnerability.
“I’m now aware of the triggers and I’m a lot kinder to myself now, which is probably why I’ve had a longer career than I expected to.”
POST-PANDEMIC OLYMPIC BRONZE AND FINALLY A COMMONWEALTH GOLD