Olympic Champion Jenny Rissveds and Scott-SRAM Part Ways

 This guy gets it. Best wishes Jenny. Hope everything comes around for you sooner rather than later!

 Agree. Everyone who's had her kind of pressure and success before they turned 25 is welcome to judge her. Everyone else should just step back and nod.

 @Chingus-Dude: 'merica

 @Chingus-Dude:

Where did I mention trophies for all? You would talk to your friend about their physical health, you would ask if there were anything you could do to help. Why should mental health be any different?
It has nothing to do with "looking like sissies" whatsoever, it has everything to do with creating and environment where we can have honest, open discussion about serious health issues.

 @Chingus-Dude: Does it even cross your mind that that attitude is directly a huge part of the problem? People's mental health is worth more than your misguided sense of masculinity. It's the same as going to physio for a torn acl; people have health problems, and they need time to recover. If you need to feel tough, fine, go send a 35' gap and pat yourself on the back, but don't be a jackass to people.

 @N-60: well said

 @Mwmg15: No, not everyone here is 'mercia'. Not everyone is an a*shole like that. 300 million plus people here...good and bad

 I pressed the wrong arrow there! Doh

You are so true, life is about happiness and happiness is about enjoying life hope to see her back when she’s ready ✊????✊????✊????⬆️

 Concussions really suck - When you wake up in the middle of the night not knowing who you are or what you're doing is as scary as it gets. Massive depression and mood changes - It took me an entire year to recoup - Reality is if it's super serious you'll need ER right away or if it's minor like in my case and many others - you can still have massive repercussions that you have to deal with. You have to adapt and let your family and friends know that something might not be quite right - and get checked out if it's not getting better.

 @mattryder

Thanks Matt

 Thanks @mattryder

 I agree 100%. I do think the time is right to be open though. The discussion is alive and well in music (following a number of sad events last year) but BMX legend Dave Mirra isn't too distant from mountainbike sports either. I may not have expected athletes to be open about their challenges around the turn of the century but I think the times have changed. Athletes are willing to show their training efforts, struggles and failures. And the audience has come to accept and appreciate that. Because we can relate to it, learn from it and be inspired. That is still mostly the physical side (though already with a link to the mental side). It is only a small step to take now to be completely open about the mental challenges too. In competitive sports off course athletes will always hold their cards to some extend. Just like in nature an animal will often very effectively hide its sickness and weaknesses to not make them look like an easy prey. But sports is not supposed to be about life and death. If mental challenges are so common, it only makes sense to share and learn.

 It may be just the shitty me but I cannot help myself looking at general concern with mental health problem as a luxury reserved mostly for the great. I’ve seen it enough times when a popular, likeable person (in my surroundings) gets depressed, people show lots of empathy, but when some quiet, barely noticeable person gets mangled by the demons people don’t care as much and after some time when person is on third sick leave, gets meds, finally quits, people may even start to go ehhh that poor f*cker... my outtake from this is. Universe doesn’t give a sht about you as long as you don’t give it reasons to give a sht. Only the strong will survive. Your make up may be flaking, but inside in the dark you need to make yourself free. Show must go on. Show - must - go - on. It is as brutal as empowering. My thoughts go to Jenny but also to all those poor f*cks who need to reach out to others for help. Sometimes you can’t make it on your own. And if you are a poor f*ck, get your nutrition right and start exercising in the first place. Brick by brick. Then reach out to people. Find a shoulder to lie on. Write down the things you are proud of that you achieved, put it in your pocket and read when the darkness comes. Depression is a bubble, a cloud blocking view of reality. Your brain chemistry and proof must blow through it. Do something challenging, damn uncomfortable, take a cold shower for a minute, then 2, until you get to 5. Next day, a task comes up, thought chain leads you to feelings of worthlessness, think: I did cold shower or stretched for 5 minutes, if I can do thar, I can deL with the task at hand. That said. Stay the fk away from the pills.

 @WAKIdesigns: For those born with low serotonin levels (it can be genetic) pills are a crucial part of the solution for the rest of their life. For those with reactive depression, it can help in the short term to get back on track if all else fails. If you can rely on adrenaline and more natural solutions, then great
But it's not black and white. We need to stop thinking in terms of weakness. It's not the 1980s, we have evolved. The brain is an unfathomably complex system. It's not the same as a bicep. Let's grow up a bit.

 @BenPea: I mean pills in a way, you come to a doctor talk for 30 minutes and you walk away with Xanax. Whether you have TBI, serotonin deficit, whatever makes you feel crap, anxious and/or paranoid - Xanax 3 months and then we see. Like it happened to me. Take these for at least 3 months and then we can adjust the dosage and maybe change it to something else. Damn right, bloody fkrs, they don't even want to talk to you if you didn't go these 3 months. And I took it for a month and started feeling like shit. Even less motivation, even more slack, getting nervous from being a bum. Got off of it. Got into cold exposure and gym. After first month, coctail of all sorts of stress hormones released in the process got me out of the hole.

Recently, by pure chance, I found pseudoephedrine to work for me fantastically and there are places where you get it over the counter in small dosage. It's in nose clearing medicine. So i'm not pill free, but if I wake up, feel like sht, and on the way to work I know it will be a very bad day, and when I'll be coming back I'll depressed as sht, I pop it in, not more than two pills a month. Nothing worse than wake up on saturday morning irritated and feel like a scared, tired c*nt wanting to scream to wife and kids "just leave me alone buuuuu". Gets me into panic mode. I pop it in and the day is saved and by the end of the day I'm happy getting more done than on the regular day. I don't encourage anyone to take it, just like I don't with weed and mushrooms...

 @BenPea: however to a great degree brain is a bicep. Thought chains, behavior patterns, neuroplasticity etc. are a F.A.C.T.

 @WAKIdesigns: Setting own challenges and achievements is only going to help so much if there is another thing you're actually being judged by which you'll never really master. There are challenges you have total control over. Learning to ride a unicycle, taking cold showers. You try, you're going to succeed. The challenge with competitive athletes is that they're being judged in relation to others. Over that 75 minute race you finished sixth, 30 seconds behind the eventual winner. You're basically just as quick but you're the loser. If you've worked so hard towards the Olympics and some f*ck made money with a deal with a helmet brand that basically destroys your chance to defend your title, it makes it all seem worthless. I can get that. You've done all you can and then some stupid outside bullshit that should have nothing to do with it just makes it all seem pointless. As a kid I always thought the Olympics were really cool. So many top athletes together. Later I realized how much political bullshit is screwing over the locals and the athletes and I really started to hate it. But back to this particular case, I get she got burned out over this.

Personally I also went through some tough times though I quite simply refused to give in. I got fit and fast just from blowing off steam. Running in the morning, riding mountainbikes in the afternoon/evening. And to allow me to do so, healthy food, no drugs, no alcohol and a lot of discipline. Because even though I didn't carry the ADHD diagnosis yet (even though everyone said I had it) felt the only way to achieve something was to be very, very disciplined. The thing is, I still got stuck during my studies (aerospace engineering). Discipline and hard work only gets you so far. Staying concentrated during a three hour test just doesn't work, no matter how hard I was pounding myself to try. Same with those lectures where they dim the light and fire up the powerpoint. If there is no interaction, I couldn't keep my concentration no matter how well I instructed my buddies next to me to pound me when they see me doze. Really pumping myself between lectures, bouncing for fifteen minutes straight so that I entered completely fired up. I still left the lectures pissed that I didn't take anything from it and had to do everything myself from the book. Sure I cared how fast I could run or how high I could jump, but I also felt I was only being judged how well I progressed during my studies. And well, that didn't quite go that well. So yeah, that does get you sad at times. I refused to give up in any way though. I don't think extrinsic motivation has ever made me do anything other than try and prove people wrong. Some people thought I intended to hurt myself when trying silly stuff on bikes or unicycles. And some thought the music I enjoyed (mostly death metal) was negative too. But these were the things that I always considered positive. Yeah, metal too. At least the ones I listed too seemed to care about the stuff I cared too. The environment, social and economic injustice, animal welfare etc. So I only wanted to prove these people wrong and not do anything to me. But I realize it is only this combination of mindsets that made that I'm still here. And I also realize that there would have been a more sensible way to eventually get there. One thing that has helped me very early is a coach who taught me about what we now call mindfulness. Focus on one thing and only that. It helped me massively in a time when everything was about multitasking.

As for pills. I think I've tried everything to finish that study. I always take cold showers (initially out of laziness because I hated mixing the hot and cold tap so learned to live with the cold tap only). Always ate healthy, always been active and disciplined. But it was only when I met my current girlfriend who was surprised I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD yet ("All your friends are right, you know?"). Taught me a bit about it, I got in the process and indeed a pill of ritalin did help me to stay concentrated through those last few exams. Did my graduation between work and kids (actually had to rush right back to work after graduation). No I wouldn't rely on just that. But if you already have everything else in check, it may that one last thing you just need. Now of course this is mostly centered around another mental (what people call) "disorder" (I call it a merely mismatch with western society). But I can imagine pro athletes who already try to get everything about their body and mind right, if they still run into trouble then yes they will need guidance and that may involve medication (with close monitoring).

 @WAKIdesigns: It's not one size fits all though. It'd be easy if everyone was the same. Many people just can't wish or work themself into a better place without some good old chemicals.
I think I had ephidrine once. Like a mild mdma. Not sure if that's what you were talking about. Hang on, isn't it an ingredient in vicks inhalers? The ones that got the Scottish skier stripped of his medal?
You might not recommend it, but you might recommend trying it. Why the hell not? You still attach a stigma to it even though it helps you. Weakness is a social construct.
@vinay: nice analysis

You'll both like this: youtu.be/VaMjhwFE1Zw

 @BenPea: Haven't completely watched the video but Wim Hof is a well known man here in The Netherlands. I didn't know him (simply because I don't regularly watch tv) until people started comparing me to him because I usually ride in my T-shirt even when it is freezing. And then people are surprised to feel my arm and notice it isn't even cold. Parents at the school of my kids even jokingly offered to start a collection to buy me a jacket . But it is like my skin doesn't understand it to be covered. It doesn't seem to understand how to maintain a steady temperature when part is covered and then a tiny strip at the seam of zipper allows the cold to enter. Yes if I need to stand still for long I wear my jacket. But when riding my bike usually I don't.

That said, he's probably the king of this. I don't intentionally search for cold. I just experience what's around, more in a practical sense. If it is cold outside, I'm being exposed to cold. If my body is capable of dealing with that, why dumb it down?

 @vinay: Ha! I'd never heard of him til today. I had lunch with a friend who had started experimenting with exposure to cold and these very techniques. And now I'm hearing it from you chaps.
Not my thing, I got near-fatal bronchitis (exaggeration never hurt anyone) after swimming in the Med in October. I'm not going in anything under 26 degrees.

 @vinay: It was Wim Hof on Joe Rogan who got me into cold exposure. But I think there’s a bit too much mumbo jumbo going on. Ice baths, yeah, breathing... there is some serious criticism to it, mainly coming from no other but free divers who are using different methods since hyperventilation is so 50 years ago to them.

However what I get from this, just as from pushing over the edge on the gym or when sprinting over the edge on bike is the fight response of the body. Actually, the calming down of the body, controlling the initial stress reaction of the body and then letting go, waiting for the response of the reptilian brain. When in cold water or when pushing through a workout on almost max pulse, I can sense those phases. The moment when the hormonal coctail kicks in, when you can no longer control the situation, when body realizes, oooh f*ck, that is a no first world problem that is a genuine life threatening situation, the outer mind, that terrible anxious buzz just disappears. I have never ever before and after felt such focus, truly god sighted peripheral vision giving calmness. I realized that body took over and gave me all the tools to survive. Sure I can get out whenever I want but there is a very deep sense that part of your brain took over. Same with workout, I was doing 4 crossfity sets, after the second one I was almost done. After 2min brake was over I felt like I am about to put my hand into the oven, I did not want that pain. But I decided to shut inside my head and just push. To my awe in the middle of 3rd exercise, out of 4 I felt a surge of energy. I did the 4th set as if it was the first one. When I was walking up the hill to home, I was high as fuk. Sure, next three days I was wasted but I did experience the adrenalin response.

Some research proves that kicking in such adrenalin response (can be even in sauna, when it’s too hot, can be fasting) lowers the level of cortisol in your body. In a way it can be interpreted that when your body is given an opportunity to taste real world problems it realizes that first world problems are not worth caring about as much as it used to. It may be that your stupid inner brain feels under new sort of threat and simply tries to divide resources better. Remember that computing takes a lot of energy, those hormones are pricy for the body.

It’s been explained to me on Behavior management therapy that feeling stressed and anxious is like a glass filling up when we get enough stressors and emptying when they get away, but the problem is that there is a threshold Of alertness of the brain. The more often you get stressed the higher it gets, and it takes aaaa lot of relax to gwt the stress level below it. Once the glass is full you get a panic attack and fight or flight reaction. So if you get stressed all the time you move that threshold close to the edge of the glass. Now it’s been proven that actual life threatening situations lower this threshold. It is proven that body lowers the cortisol levels when stress reaction is followed by physical activity. Which makes sense since reptilian brain expects you to either run or fight after seeing the tiger. It has an issue though with “forgot to pay the bills” followed by snacks and beer on sofa. I read somewhere that they did tests on students where they told them to run or work out like stupid straight after the exam and it did work. They had better brain chemistry and felt better than those who didn’t.

Anyhoo, I’ talking about regular people, it’s not advice to Jenny. I have a full on pro roadie in my family and I could see first hand that he is not exactly living a dream. And he surely earns better than Jenny and very few heard of him... i doubt you did. I know what he is going through every now and then, I would not change with him.

I heard lots of good stuff about ridalin.
@Benpea - I take pseudoephedrine found in pills that shrink swollen tissue around nasal cavities. Dunno about side effects. I can’t feel any but at the same time I don’t dare to take it often. Considering that you are advised to take 2-3 pills per day when sick, I guess 2 per month are fine. The effect on me is focus and well being without anxiety. Like coffee but without the buzz.

 @BenPea: bronchitis from cold? I’m pretty sure that if you were riding for 4h in that period you’d get it too. Exercise temporarily lowers immune system ability to fight infections, as simple as that. You just had that shit sleeping in you and it bit you the first moment it could. Off course jumping into 2 degree water as the first thing after i’ll do cold exposure” may not be the best idea. You may for instance get a heart attack. The first time I went to freezing water I felt how heart is rushing to very high pulse. You need to know how to calm it down through breathing. And the best place to exercise is shower.

 ah and one little detail: when starting the cold thing, do not put your head under the water or shower, only the face momentarily. Or you’ll get a cold. That’s an advanced move

 @WAKIdesigns: so you're saying: don't put your head in the Med, nor the meds in your head, yes?

 @WAKIdesigns: Interestingly, it seems like you put more thought into it than I did . As I said, I started the cold showers because I was to lazy to mix the hot and cold tap. Only hot is too hot, so it would be only the cold tap then. Same when dressing up for going outside. I don't like to get my shirt all sweaty when riding to work so I though I just wear a T shirt on those cold days, my body will cope. It is harder to not sweat on a hot day of course, so I'll need to take a spare shirt anyway and the body adapts soon enough.

As for pills, I was a bit afraid of them initially. Not controlling my energy isn't efficient, but it also makes me who I am. So if medications regulate that for me, what will be left of me then? Especially as as a kid I liked Nirvana, but I felt for what happened with Kurt Cobain eventually. I thought he used to be a happy kid though they drugged him so bad to push him into the school system that it messed with his system. It was I think only a few months before his "successful" suicide that I read that he already overdosed on pills (I think it was in Italy). He later said it was an accident but I wasn't too sure. And then eventually he did commit suicide and it seems everyone forgot about what happened a few months earlier. Anyway, it turns out the pills nowadays aren't as extreme. It kind of puts you in the zone to be concentrated. Which at times you could do on your own but it was a bit unreliable. So having something to put you there when it really mattered (those three hour tests, for instance) was a great help. I also noticed that as a teacher I found that a little bit helps to hold my line and keep it understandable. But I feel too much makes my lectures boring. There needs to be the unpredictable element, the improvisation. And it also allows you to push yourself too far. In the time when my second daughter was born, I was of course working and still finishing my study the pills allow you to push on when you really shouldn't. So yeah, that's the thing I'm not too great at. Knowing my limits, to know where to stop and distribute my energy evenly.

In line with that, this is also the reason I got a heart rate monitor for sports. I thought this is going to help me find when to push and when to rest. I used a Polar S810i until 2014 or so and Polar had this chart which shows when to rest and when you're ready to have another go. It seems it doesn't quite understand what mountain unicycling is. One two hour ride in the dunes and it claims I should rest up for a full week! But I'm also wary when I see my heart rate drop too low. I think my resting heart rate usually hovers in the low 40s high 30s. When I was actually training hard my brother measured 28bpm but I don't think I'm there now. Anyway, there are times when after a warming up, when stretching, it drops down to the 40s while usually it just drops to 70 or 80. So that's when I abort my training. One physio once freaked out when she found out my heart rate was lower than what it should be. So I saw my doctor. She said yes it is low but it seems fine so no need to worry. So I'm getting conflicting recommendations here. But I've seen too many very fit people drop with cardiac arrest so I decided not to push myself in the upper heart rate regions when all alone. My focus is now more on skills, strength and agility. Some Ryan Leech, some James Wilson. More than enough to do there. Of course I'm spending time in Z5 but I'm not pushing to see how high I can go.

 That is one thing that I was thinking. Huge props to Scott for how they’ve handled it. Saying their door is always open to her, I don’t know I just feel refreshed that a company is treating someone so good.

 Hopefully she may race some Enduros in Sweden. It went well for her last year. And not so much for other girls... and even worse for many many dudes

 That was one shit move from Thomas and Pinkbike. No possibility for accused parties to defend themselves and once a twat gets Poc or TLD or Sram or SPecialized - baad baaaaad baaaad, you can't just get clients back just like that after a typically biased shit storm. Yes they are stupid, judgmental band of ahole clients, not worth pissing on when on fire, but you still get money from them so it hurts your brand.

 @Feideaux are you @Bartwayne or did you just copy a comment on cyclingtips word for word?
disq.us/p/1qdtr2a

 @mi-bike: lol, technically, yes. Same person, but different user names. Limited time to type my thoughts so just copied what I wrote earlier.

 too soon

 agreed with mi-bike, it's too soon to be talking about Jenny coming back to racing. But, the issue is a lot bigger than that too. why should we be even talking about her coming back at all, as if we EXPECT her to? We shouldn't be expecting her to come back. If she does race again- great, but we shouldn't view that decision as a given. If she doesn't, race again, that's great too if she's decided that's the right path in life for her- not the path that's right for cycling fans like us and everyone else like sponsors, teams, coaches....

 @MattRyder: I agree that she doesn't "have" to come back to ride if she doesn't choose to. There's no shame if someone chooses to leave a sport or any other profession if they so choose to do so.

I think my comment was taken out of context. I'm glad she is focusing on her recovery and by all means I am not implying she come back to the sport now or that she has to come back at all.

So yeah I agree but to be clear my comment wasn't in any way to take away from her recovery time nor was it something to imply that I expect her to come back.

But I'm going to be optimistic and hope she recovers 100% and she continues to do what she loves to do. Ride ????????