Athlete Mental Health and the Collin Chartier Case
Yesterday the triathlon world was rocked by news that American pro Collin Chartier, last year's winner of IRONMAN Mont Tremblant and the PTO US Open, was suspended for 3 years after testing positive for EPO - arguably the biggest doping case in the sport's history. I do not know Collin personally. However, I looked to him as an example of a fellow pro who seemed to chip away year by year for multiple years and finally had his big breakthrough. Though he denies doping with EPO until November 2022, his admission that he has taken L-carnitine (a substance that disgraced track and field coach Alberto Salazar was rather enthusiastic about) for quite some time speaks to the fact that at best, he has been sitting in a grey area for a while, and his progression in the sport is not as it seems on the surface. What struck me most deeply about Collin's situation was his explanation that poor mental health as a result of going "all in, too much so" is ultimately what drove hi