By Sofia Altavilla on SwimSwam
IS ALL THAT GLITTERS REALLY GOLD?
Always having what we want may not be the best good fortune (Fragment 110)
Thus spoke the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, more than 2,500 years ago. At first look, this statement might seem absurd, but it carries an even more paradoxical truth: an Olympic swimmer would agree with him.
A 1998 study on Australian athletes who won gold between the 1984 and 1992 Olympics found that only four out of 18 described their experience as completely positive.
Once swimmers reach their goal—whether it’s qualifying, winning a medal, or taking home eight Olympic golds—they experience a range of negative emotions as well.
Two stand out, and we’ll call them:
The Tapeworm The BoredomThe first one is an insatiable hunger for new goals. Nothing dangerous, you might think. But this is exactly what Heraclitus was worried about.
Remember what Caeleb Dressel said about the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where he won five gold medals?
“I got to a point where if I didn’t set a world record, I felt like my entire career was a failure.”
Achieving a dream but craving for more. And more. And more. Until you break.
The philosopher of change got this all too well. He knew how desire could consume us, blinding us from seeing the complete picture. Success doesn’t end this cycle—it feeds it, fueling ambition and hubris until, like Dressel, you eventually crash into stagnation.
It is hard to fight against impulsive desire; whatever it wants it will buy at the cost of soul. (Fragment 85)
So why burn away the best part of ourselves for the sake of empty illusions?
Heraclitus would say that Dressel and all Olympians are sleepwalkers, unaware that behind their ambition lurks an irrational aspiration for immortality.
And despite the illusion of an Olympic champion’s immortality, the lived experiences of those who have reached the top only serve to prove Heraclitus right.
Everything flows, even an Olympic gold…
BOREDOM AND VOID POST-SUCCESS – Schopenhauer
All the spotlights on you. For a few weeks, Olympic swimmers touch the sky, enchanting all the attention they would never receive at any other time. For a few weeks. A few minutes, sometimes just seconds—then, they’re back into oblivion.
Every satisfaction is only transitory, creating new desires and new distresses – (Parerga and Paralipomena)
This sense of impermanence, this existential void, is at the core of post-Olympic depression. No one has captured this paradox more precisely than a certain German philosopher: Schopenhauer.
“I had the time of my life, and yet I felt lost,” said Adam Peaty after winning gold in Rio.
Reaching the top of Olympus and then being forced to climb down is a distressing feeling. Swimmers pass their entire lives suffering for that one moment—where they either win or lose. But in the end, is the difference really that big?
What’s left after victory?
“A dramatic emptiness. You work as hard to potentially win a gold medal … and then the next day you’re done. That’s it” – 23-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps.
What’s left is fear. The awareness that, now awake, they realize that success might belong only to the past. The fear of never finding another goal that will bring you the same joy. Is there anything greater than an Olympic gold medal?
Their satisfaction (of dreams) achieves nothing but a painless condition in which men are only given over to boredom. – (Parerga and Paralipomena)
The danger is answering no—nothing can compare. And there it is: the infamous pendulum swinging between the pain of failure and the boredom of success.
“I had no purpose. I kept thinking, now what?” – Siobahn O’Connor.
But what if the answer was not having a purpose at all?
THINKING BEYOND – Nietzsche
The proposal is anything but trivial. In fact, Nietzsche would say it’s worth embracing—at least for a while.
would rather will nothing than not will. – (On the Genealogy of Morality)
Thus spoke the philosopher, criticizing the self-deception of those who hide their existential void—like the one felt after an Olympics—behind artificial goals, desperately trying to give life meaning even when it seems to have none.
His invite is not to chase meaningless desires or distractions, but instead to embrace not desiring—to accept having no purpose. To welcome the void.
In other words, there’s no need to immediately dive back into the pool, to immediately compete again. If needed, one should stop, even if just for a moment, and observe that condition before rushing to cure it.
The second step, however, is ensuring this doesn’t lead to passive nihilism, to a loss of interest in life itself.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge, not an end. – (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
The feeling of uselessness is real. But it’s crucial to overcome the illusion that one has already reached the peak of their existence. To accept that maybe it’s true, there may never be another satisfaction quite like winning Olympic gold. Because there will be different ones.
Nietzsche would suggest that the “solution” lies in looking beyond. In searching for new goals, approaching them with a renewed sense of self.
A perfect example of this mindset? Gregorio Paltrinieri.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Italian swimmer seemingly reached the peak of his career, becoming Olympic champion in the men’s 1500 free. However Paltrinieri felt the weight of the win, that feeling that maybe, that’s it. So he reinvented himself. He looked for new challenges elsewhere: open water.
He transformed, no longer an end, not only the destination, but a bridge to reaching new levels of himself. The rest is history.
In conclusion, it’s important to emphasize that finding new goals and stimuli for athletes who suffered post-Olympic depression doesn’t always mean staying in competitive sports. Going beyond simply means stepping into a new era of life, not just of career. That could continue in the water, or it could take a different path entirely.
This perspective opens up broader discussions, from Heraclitus and his take on the insatiable hunger for results, to Schopenhauer’s acceptance of the void. In fact, there’s been a recent proposal to rethink Olympic cycles, planning for a five-year cycle instead of four, including a structured approach to managing the post-Olympic year.
It’s reassuring then to see more awareness and that we’re moving against the denial of these feelings, of which the overcoming, as Nietzsche suggested, is then up, when properly guided, to swimmers.
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