National Olympic Committee of Zambia hosts Seminar for Mental Health in Sport

The National Olympic Committee of Zambia (NOCZ) recently held a two-day seminar focused on mental health in sport to examine methods to protect the mental health and well-being of athletes.

Organised by the NOCZ Gender Equity Sports Commission, the seminar attracted more than 100 participants from across the country, including NOCZ President Alfred Foloko and Beatrice Lungu Cains, who represented Zambia at the Olympic Games Munich 1972 and shared some of her personal experiences. Cains spoke on the challenges sport presents to athletes and gave guidance on how to deal with both negative and positive remarks from people. She concluded by saying that it is up to the individual athlete to find what works for them and learn how to remain focused.

Additionally, Dionne Rennie Bryan, a member of the NOCZ Gender Equity Sports Commission, and Alan Zulu from the A2Z Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to increase awareness of mental health issues affecting young people, led a session on self-awareness which examined athletes’ strengths and weaknesses.

On day two of the seminar, sessions on Mental Health in Sports led by Dr Alison Hawke, Nutrition’s Role in Mental Health led by Yasmina Dakik Ahmed, and a panel discussion on Personal Experiences of Mental Health moderated by the President of the Zambian Netball Federation, Martha Sichone, took place.

“This will definitely mark the beginning of earnestness in sports where mental health is involved as research has shown that 35 per cent of elite athletes suffer from mental health crises prior to the Games or post Games, which indicates that athletes face huge amounts of stress and pressure and have to manage lots of different expectations which can have a negative impact on their well-being,” said President Foloko.