When it comes right down to it, her medals don’t matter. Life isn’t about tangible accomplishments, Clara Hughes told a Western audience today. What matters most is how we do, what we do, in our day-to-day lives, how we connect with others and share our struggles and our joys.
Hughes, an Olympian, motivational speaker and mental-health advocate, was on campus Tuesday to deliver a keynote presentation, Open Heart, Open Mind, as part of the Heidi Balsillie Fairmount Foundation Health and Wellness Lecture Series.
“I can stand here and tell you until I’m blue in the face what it’s like to win – it’s really fun, and I’ve won a lot – but there are moments that matter so much more than any medal. Nothing is more important than a human being,” she said to a packed Mustang Lounge.
The only Canadian to have won medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, Hughes openly and enthusiastically shared her story – one of success tinged with mental illness.
Initially, sport became an outlet for her, an escape from a home life in which addiction and mental illness prevailed, she explained. She trained hard – as a speed skater and cyclist – watching the accolades and successes roll in, year after year. She assumed trophies and medals would fill the void she felt, but after winning two medals in road cycling in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Hughes crashed emotionally.
"It ended up being bronze, but it was gold for me because everything I had gone through to get there" – @ClaraHughes_ #clarawesternu
— Student Experience (@westernuSE) February 9, 2016
She returned home to Hamilton, Ont., feeling empty and sank into depression, battled an eating disorder, drank and used drugs. In training, a team doctor recognized she was suffering and reached out to her, but it took her years and a support system – a compassionate coach and supportive environment – to recognize she needed help.
Realizing mental health was an injury, just like a broken bone is an injury, helped. Connecting with others is what helped the most, Hughes explained.
“We are in a world that is moving so incredibly fast. The pace in which we are tearing through our lives is only accelerating day by day. This is a fluid place that is always changing – you’re not walking into a mountain stream, you’re walking into a tsunami. It is so important to slow things down, to take the time, to realize that talking is one thing, but listening is of equal, or greater value,” she said.
“We don’t take the time much anymore to put down our phones, to look into people’s eyes, to connect as human beings, to realize the value of being a witness to somebody else’s struggle, somebody else’s difficulties. Medals actually don’t matter – it’s is how you do what you do, and how you connect with others and how you share struggle and joy.”
Accomplishment in sport was not about filling emotional voids or satisfying self-imposed pressure and expectations, Hughes added. Over the years, she came to realize the redemptive power of sport is in the connections it forges with others. It is about doing something others can relate to, and using that connection to foster hope and change.
“My winnings became so much more than sport. It was about working with people to get my mental health on track and to keep it on track,” she noted, adding she felt a great impetus to share her story following the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
“Never had I been so recognized in Canada. I realized all that people knew about me was this great outside – the success. Nobody knew why I didn’t race for two years, they just thought I was burnt out or took time off. They didn’t know I went through major depression or had eating disorder issues. They didn’t know that I was back to drinking, and doing drugs that time because it was the only way I knew how to cope. I realized it was time to share more as a human being, as a Canadian, and as a person who’s dealt with these things – it was my responsibility to share the struggle,” Hughes said.
“Six years ago, I thought I would tell this story once and no one would want to hear it again. But we connect at the deepest level when we connect through struggle.”
Hughes served as the Canadian flag bearer for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games’ opening ceremony, and represented Canada at the London Summer Olympic Games in 2012, before retiring as an Olympian. In 2014, she became the national spokesperson for Bell Let’s Talk, a campaign designed to end the stigma of mental health issues. She also works with Right To Play, an athlete-driven humanitarian organization that encourages development of youth through sports.
Clara Hughes: "Ultimately nothing was good enough because I wasn't good enough for myself" #clarawesternu
— Jana L Luker (@JanaLuker) February 9, 2016
“You are human, and if you need time off, and if you need a pause, if you need to reboot, that is OK. It is a different path for every person, and if you do not look after your mental health, if you do not know how to help someone else, and if you do not realize that you cannot be the person that fixes the person you see struggling – you are going to have a hard time. Nobody can do it alone; I couldn’t do it alone,” she said.
“You have the power to change things by your actions. We have a long way to go but it starts with every single one of us – realize that capacity is within us every single day. Be beautiful, be strong, be weak, be dark, be light and be human.”
The lecture ran in conjunction with a mental health resource fair in the University Community Centre featuring on-campus and local services focused on fostering positive mental health and treating mental illness.