NYT: Gracie Gold’s Battle for Olympic Glory Ended in a Fight to Save Herself

UGG

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I would really like to hear Gracie’s thoughts on how she felt when Ashley stepped in. It was mentioned in the article but really not elaborated on.
 

peibeck

Simply looking
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It really isn't anyone here's business how or why Gracie decided to wean herself off of Prozac. Indeed, for all we know, she may be taking a different medication.

Prozac was certainly no magical medicine for me, it made me more suicidal, gave me horribly, awful, vivid nightmares and left me feeling like a shell of a person.
 

kwanfan1818

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Gracie Gold was born in 1995. She reached majority in 2013. Even if parents of adults see the signs, there are aspects of weight loss and gain that defy treatment, even when the person has bought in, in addition to the legal aspects of involuntary treatment.

The article also says that Gold was estranged from her parents while her father had his license revoked, a period which likely started before the public announcement. She also had stopped training with her twin in California.

Parents aren't always aware of what their minor children are doing under their own noses, let alone adult children living away. Worse, they don't necessarily have control even when they have to watch, unless they are ready to trigger the nuclear option and have some moral influence and/or legal grounds to do so. Watching a child struggle with an addiction or eating disorder or compulsion is hell.
 

Japanfan

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Parents aren't always aware of what their minor children are doing under their own noses, let alone adult children living away.

And children - teens, more accurately - with eating disorders are very good at hiding it from parents.

Plus, dieting/disordered eating is common for (particularly female) figure skaters, especially when in their teens - which goes for girls in general, not only figure skaters. I was obsessed with dieting in high school

Parents would probably ignore signs of disordered eating/an eating disorder providing they perceived they child to be healthy.
 
Z

ZilphaK

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I'm just interjecting a tangential issue here (and no, I've never read of Gracie having a concussion) but just in general, we know figure skating doesn't have a great track record on addressing head injuries or developing concussion protocols for skaters in competition, let alone in during the thousands of hours of practice going on in rinks around the country every day.

More and more research points to even one mild concussion being reason to alert caregivers to mental health follow-up care. Patients who were in risk groups for depression exhibited greater likelihood of signs of depression three-six months after the injury, as compared to control groups.

There's a lot of ifs here. But in a high-pressure sport that intersects elite competitions and training with adolescence and favors athletes who are driven perfectionists, I'd say at least some of that puts many elite skater in depression and anxiety risk groups.

There's more work to be done here by USFSA in regard to educating coaches, skaters and parents as to the long-tail effects of one head smack (or even whiplash from jumps) and to develop strict protocols for removing athletes from the ice during any freestyle session -- all coaches should be trained as concussion spotters -- as well as establishing return to play protocols that include medical professional release to train.

ETA: There is a line in SafeSport which says "Encouraging or permitting an Athlete to return to play prematurely or without the clearance of a medical professional, after a serious injury (e.g., a concussion)" is a reportable physical misconduct offense. It's a start. But it's not widely-known by parents, skaters, etc.
 

RoseRed

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I believe Gabby Daleman had a concussion in September which triggered/exacerbated issues with anxiety and depression for her, which is why she took a break this fall.
 

Yazmeen

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I have a young skater friend who graduated with her PhD from one of the country's top physical therapy program. She was a skater with success at the solo dance and also University team level. She also had a history of 2 concussions through skating, and 1 through a car accident. And she still has some after effects from them. That said, we're incredibly proud of her - she took a PT job in Florida specifically working with concussion and head trauma patients.
 

Vagabond

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The possibility that Gracie Gold kept her eating disorder hidden is a bit of a red herring, inasmuch as her coach, Frank Carroll, had told Christine Brennan at 2017 U.S. Nationals
She [Gracie] has been in a deep, deep, deep depression
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...old-meltdown-caps-lackluster-season/96925948/

At least a little followup on the part of her parents and her subsequent coach was in order, regardless of the fact that she was legally an adult.

At the time, I thought Frank Carroll was out of line for publicizing something so personal about Gold. I am beginning to wonder whether he may have thought he had no other way of trying to help her.
 

missing

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People Magazine has a new article about Gracie.

Already the reaction since she went public with her recovery, first in a New York Times piece in late January, has been “incredible,” she says.

“I was blown away by the amount of support that I got,” she says.

Gracie’s first competition back, in Russia in November, was a disappointment, but spectators didn’t see a loss. Afterward, she says someone tweeted her, “I haven’t left my apartment in three weeks, and I watched Gracie Gold do that and I went out to the store today.”
 

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