Holly Bradshaw on beating the blues

Olympic pole vault medallist admits she struggled after the highs of Tokyo and explains why she wants to see athletes receiving help in dealing with the Games experience

For some athletes, 2022 offered the chance to follow up the Tokyo Olympics in spectacular style. For others, however, things have not been quite so straightforward. 

When Holly Bradshaw returned from Japan with a bronze medal, it was the culmination of years of hard work. It represented reaching the pinnacle of her sport. The strange thing was that, when she came home, the British pole vault record-holder found herself lacking in energy and motivation.

She recalls the autumn of 2021: “I achieved something that I wanted to achieve my whole life but, when I returned home, I had no energy and felt down for a good few months.

“I would just lie on the sofa and get upset for no reason, which is not like me at all.  My husband would say: ‘What’s wrong?’ And I couldn’t tell him because I didn’t know anything was wrong and I couldn’t explain it.”  

Bradshaw was recovering from glandular fever but also thinks she was suffering from “post-Olympic blues” and is determined to help others understand it and see safeguards put in place. 

Her interest in the subject resulted in the publication of an academic paper* which starts: “The post-Olympic period is complex and distressing for many Olympic athletes; preparing for the likely impacts of the Olympic Games amongst returning athletes is fundamental in managing the negative responses articulated as the post-Olympic blues.”

While an Olympic pole vault competition is, at face value, no different from a World Championships, the hype surrounding it takes things to a new level and creates way more pressure on the athlete. 

There is, what researchers have called, the “celebritisation” of Olympic athletes, in a way that does not happen with the World Championships. The Olympics is always in the news. Everything seems to be about the Olympics. Athletes are invited to a kitting-out ceremony to receive the full range of GB logoed clothing, while individual sponsors make a fuss of the athletes and at the Games they receive gifts.

 “Loads of things are thrown at you to make you feel special,” says Bradshaw, whose 2022 was blighted by injury. “You feel that you’re part of something really special and that is great. But then there is that stark comparison when you come home and you have…