Lewis HowesYour Personal 24/7 Greatness Coach

Why Olympic Gold Medalists Become Depressed

11 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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In this segment of his YouTube video, Lewis Howes explains that Olympic gold medalists often experience severe depression or even suicide after achieving their pinnacle because they were driven by deep emotional wounds that propelled them to succeed, leaving them unprepared for the emotional burden of triumph. He parallels this with the impact of financial success, sharing his own experience of being broke and later receiving requests for money, which triggered feelings of abandonment, resentment, and frustration. Howes argues that these underlying psychological wounds shape behavior and attitudes toward success and relationships.

Chapters

Olympic gold medalists go through extreme depression or even commit suicide after they win the gold medal because they were driven out of a wound to achieve and then weren't ready to handle the emotional weight of the success. That happens with money as well. When I was broke, no one called me and asked for money. No one said, louis, can you bum me 20 bucks? Because I knew I didn't have it, I started making money. People were calling me from 10, 15 years back in, like, middle school, saying, hey, can you invest in me? Can you do this? And when you have a wound of the abandonment, it feels like you're getting taken advantage of. You feel resentful, you feel frustrated. You feel like, no one's appreciating me. These beliefs can shape us into acting in a certain way.