“We’re Human Too”: Media Coverage of Simone Biles's Mental Health Disclosure during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Abstract

When gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from several events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to concern for her mental health, media organizations discussed both her departure and return to competition. Utilizing framing theory, 192 domestic and international news sources published from July to August 2021 were thematically analyzed to examine how media covered Biles's exit and ultimate return to competition. Results show media covered Biles overwhelmingly positively while focusing on her mental health, productivity as an individual and team athlete, heroism, and gender. More specifically, themes of Biles's gender and race were commonly paired with the theme of heroism. Results also indicate domestic news sources were much more likely to mention Biles's race than international news sources. This work adds to growing scholarship about media coverage of high-profile athletes’ mental health disclosures.

Elite but Struggling: Mediated Narratives of Women Athletes and Mental Health Disclosures

“…Entman's discussion of framing involves valence such as positive or negative and includes the selection or emphasis of concepts in text (Entman, 1993). We drew upon the themes identified by Thompson et al's (2022) study of Simone Biles, which also followed Entman's tenants of framing but rely on Thompson's work because the frames identified were appropriate for the context of the present study and in a sport context. These themes included mental health disclosure, symptoms, implications for individuals and teams, heroism, courage, bravery, and self-care.…”

“…Parrott and colleagues (2021) identified a prevalent portrayal in traditional media of athletes as “invincible.” This might be attributed to societal ideals regarding masculinity, potentially rendering any counter-narrative more challenging for audiences to engage with. Thompson et al (2022) found that media coverage of Simone Biles during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was overwhelmingly positive and further noted that “hero” narratives were found in much of that coverage. According to Parrott et al (2021), media frames regarding NBA star Kevin Love’s struggles with mental health were typically positive.…”

No Longer a Sign of Weakness? Media Reporting on Mental Ill Health in Sport

“…We chose the article published first for consistency, and also due to it being the closest chronologically to the news breaking about the athlete's mental ill health. While we are aware that factors such as the athlete's gender and ethnicity may be influential in the framing of media reporting (Thompson et al, 2022), we did not include this layer of complexity in our study. We do acknowledge that an intersectional approach to this area of study may be beneficial, however, we felt it beyond the scope of the aims of the current study.…”

“…DeRozan have spoken about their mental health and these disclosures have given rise to a growing body of research on the media framing of mental illness (e.g., Cassilo, 2022;Cassilo, & Kluch, 2023;Lavelle, 2021;Parrott et al, 2020;Parrott et al, 2021;Thompson et al, 2022). Parrott et al (2021) found that news stories of Love and DeRozan framed the athletes as strong characters for disclosing mental health battles in a sport culture that frequently stigmatises any potential weaknesses.…”

“…Previously the Strong Black Woman stereotype had discouraged mental ill health disclosures and limited the support that the WNBA provided to athletes. Similarly, Thompson et al (2022) employed framing theory to analyse media coverage of American gymnast Simone Biles and identified that her gender and race featured prominently in the frames found. This study also identified differences in media reporting on the mental ill health of elite athletes based on whether the publications were domestic (from the same country as the athlete) or international.…”