'Any opportunity to open up about mental health should be welcomed in York'
Simone Biles' decision to quit Tokyo 2020 has sparked new discussions about mental health and wellbeing.
The four time gold medallist said the sport was no longer "fun" as she pulled out of the team final on Tuesday after one rotation.
She had been due to feature in today's all-round final.
Laura Timms is a Senior Clinician at The Retreat in York - a mental health and wellbeing provider: "I was struck by the news, not least because in the past few weeks we've had similar stories such as Naomi Osaka at the French Open and Emma Raducanu at Wimbledon, not to mention the England Euro 2020 squad.
"Some of these very high profile and quite young sporting figures have faced extreme pressures. I think the more we talk in a calm and constructive about our wellbeing then it's a good thing.
"There will be negativity about anything because of social media, but there can also be the beginnings about a much healthier conversation; it was very brave of the likes of Simone to contribute in the way they did, and their contributing to a healthier public conversation on mental health.
"A lot depends on where the negativity is coming from: sometimes it's online, so there might be some wise decisions to make about what we don't engage with. However, it can also come from people in our lives who are close to us; can we talk to them about how we're feeling and how we're affected by what they say?
"Sometimes negativity comes from within ourselves and it can be how we're imagining other people are feeling, and so we become more fearful than we need to be about how people might react to us.
"There's been different instances of people having moments like this in contexts beyond sport, such as Stephen Fry years ago when he left a stage performance. This isn't unique to sport or people in public-facing roles; it can happen in all walks of life to people.
"Perhaps we can have more compassion for each other and ourselves in understand that this can happen to anyone".