Every time Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin walked through a doorway, she used to give herself an affirmation.
“Sometimes you have to think about what you can tell yourself that’s positive and will build confidence and self-love,” the five-time gold medal winner told Cheddar Thursday.
That was one of the ways she coped with the stresses of competitive swimming and its impact on her mental health. She picked up the technique from the greatest Olympic swimmer ever, Michael Phelps.
Franklin said the only reason she could open up about her battle with depression was because she had “such an incredible stage set before me by people like Michael and…[fellow Olympic swimmer] Allison Schmitt.”
“For me, once I felt like I was really ready to kind of come out and talk about it, it was actually fairly easy knowing I had the support of so many people,” she said. “This is something that so many of us experience, and yet it’s still taboo.”
Franklin said her bouts of depression stem from her successes. She was just 17 years old when she won four gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics. She snagged her fifth in Rio four years later.
“A lot of it came from placing my identity in my success in a pool.”
Having lived through it, she now wants to reach out to younger athletes to help them recognize that, “You are not a best time, you are not a medal...you are so much more than that.”
The Olympian is already in training mode for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, which entails swimming for up to four hours a day.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-advice-michael-phelps-gave-missy-franklin-on-keeping-her-head-in-the-game).
Dwyane Wade made headlines for his recent trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers back to the Miami Heat, but the NBA star is also busy with a film that hits close to home. Alyssa Julya Smith caught up with the basketball player at a screening of his new film "Shot in the Dark," which he acted as executive producer alongside fellow Chicago-born star Chance the Rapper.
Billionaire Tom Steyer is putting his personal fortune behind an effort to get President Trump out of office. Special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Coinbase users took to social media and Reddit to complain about glitches on the platform. Coinbase says the root of the problem is credit card processing managed by Visa. But, Visa says they didn't cause the problem.
The NBA star says, "Anytime I can give any word of advice, anytime I can be a role model to anybody, I try to be there because I know who I was, and I know what it took and how many people it took to help me get to the point of success."
Your Future Home: Housing trends and tips with Quicken Loans. On Between Bells: "Black Panther" finally hits theaters. plus, a night of near misses for Team USA at the Winter Olympics. We're joined by FHM, Citi, LiveScience, and more.
At this year's Winter Olympics, young stars are making big statements across a number of events. Mikaela Shiffrin, 22, took home gold in the giant slalom last night - setting up a big showdown between Shiffrin and skiing legend Lindsey Vonn in the downhill race later this week.
NBA All-Star Weekend is here. The League's best will go head to head in a number of contests, but with injuries plaguing many of the NBA's top players, will people still tune in?
Angela Ruggiero, Olympic gold medalist and CEO and co-founder of Sports Innovation Lab, joins Cheddar live from PyeongChang, South Korea to share her thoughts on the first week of the Olympics. She also discusses the technology she's been seeing at the games.
Amazon surpassed Microsoft in market cap. McDonald's is making its Happy Meals healthier. Washington D.C. reacts to the Florida high school massacre. Plus, we hear from an entrepreneur who started the first studio of its kind in the fitness industry.
The boxing trend is sweeping through the fitness industry. Box + Flow founder Liv Young joins Cheddar to discuss how she's breaking through the cluttered landscape by combining the sport with another popular workout: yoga.
The congressman responded to the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., expressing frustration that Democrats have introduced bills that could prevent mass shootings, but Republicans don't support them.
