Bronze Medal-Winning Gymnast Says He Drank Booze for 3 Months to Cope With Post-Olympics ‘Blues’

Nile Wilson, a British Olympics bronze medalist, shared about his struggles after returning from his win at the 2016 event.  (Photo: Alexey Filippov/Sputnik via AP)

Nile Wilson, a British gymnast who took home a bronze medal during the 2016 Olympics, says he drank alcohol for three months straight to cope with the comedown.

He shared his words of wisdom for the Olympians returning from their stint in Paris at this summer’s event, according to The Daily Star.

“They need to take their time, enjoy what they’ve achieved and not necessarily do what I did, which was to drink alcohol for three months!”

The gymnast shared just how brutal the return to normal can be after such a monumental achievement.

“It’s like you have the holiday blues after getting back from a trip you’d planned for four years,” Wilson explained. “I’m proud to show my own vulnerability with this topic of conversation. Eight years ago, we didn’t talk about athletes’ well-being. Now we do. That’s awesome, and incredibly important.”

The retired gymnast currently runs a gym and is an expert on Eurosport, but the road to his level of success and mental awareness wasn’t always smooth. Wilson explained that British gymnastics culture was “abusive,” but the athlete has found peace in his retirement.

“Where I was mentally, I needed the validation to perform again. The process was very important for my development and growth in retirement. When doing it, I was still this lost athlete. I got a buzz out of competing and winning. But when it finished I realized I didn’t need it anymore.”

It’s quite possible there’s a correlation between the immense pressure of the Olympics and athletes drinking to let off steam.

In July, Shoko Miyata, the captain of Japan’s women’s gymnastics team, had to withdraw from the Olympics after she was caught drinking and smoking — a violation of the team’s code of conduct.

Fortunately, more athletes are prioritizing their mental health and looking for constructive ways to let off steam, and perhaps we have none other to thank than Simone Biles to thank for that.

The American gymnast — often referred to as the GOAT — has won three gold medals and a silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Yet, some might argue the most important aspect of her legacy was shedding awareness on mental health.

Deirdre Fitzpatrick, a reporter for Women’s Health who covered the Olympics for 25 years, wrote a story published Monday about how Biles pushed the conversation into the spotlight.

“No one talked about the term mental health,” Fitzpatrick explained. “No one talked about being stressed. No one talked about having anxiety. This was a non-issue. Now, it’s everywhere.”

Biles removed herself from the Tokyo Olympics in order to focus on her mental wellbeing and physical safety in 2020. Though she faced some backlash, it’s clear the choice she made worked for her and she dominated at the Paris Olympics four years later.

“When Simone Biles said, ‘My mental health is so shattered right now, I’m not okay,’ she let other people say, ‘I’m not okay,'” Fitzpatrick shared. “In the last six months as I’ve been interviewing athletes, it’s the first thing they talk about now. They train their brain as much as they train their body.”

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