Olympic Gold Medalist Libby Trickett Opens Up About Postnatal Depression

Libby Trickett in 2008. Photo Courtesy: Swimming World Archive

Seven-time Olympic medalist Libby Trickett of Australia opened up about her postnatal depression in a TV interview for Channel 9’s A Current Affair.

Trickett won the Olympic gold medal in the 100 butterfly in 2008 and won a silver in the 100 free in 2008 and a bronze in the 50 in 2004. Trickett also won three gold medals and a bronze in relays for Team Australia at the Olympics.

Libby Trickett was one of the faces of Australian Swimming during the 2000s, but she admitted she had a low opinion of herself after the 2008 Games, particularly when she didn’t win the gold in the 100 free. She was run down by Germany’s Britta Steffen in the final 25 meters and settled for the silver despite coming in to the meet as the world record holder.

Trickett admitted she still has not seen the race.

Libby Trickett, who retired in 2013, has shared her pain after suffering post-natal depression with her first child Poppy, who was born in 2015.

“She’s such a beautiful little girl,” Trickett said. “I think when you go through post-natal depression and you do feel such guilt for missing that time, you feel like you’ve missed out on her somehow. But she does not make me feel like I’ve missed out on her at all and she tells me she loves me every day and that is incredibly healing.”

But 34-year-old swimming star didn’t hold back when discussing her history with depression after the birth of Poppy.

“Around four months, she decided that sleep was just not for her at all,” she said. “And the progression of the extreme sleep deprivation that she put everyone through just spiralled my mental health and my mental illness to a point that I became scared of me.

“I had very dark thoughts, we don’t often go into those dark thoughts but I thought of harming Poppy, I didn’t want to be here,” Trickett said.

Libby Trickett is set to release her memoir Beneath the Surface on October 1, which details her private battles with anxiety and depression.

In the book, she opens up about a failed drug test at the 2006 Commonwealth Games for her testosterone levels being too high.

“During the Commonwealth Games, I was drug tested every day,” she said. “I was notified that the testosterone levels in my sample were too high, which hit me so hard. Essentially they were accusing me of cheating, and that was something that hurt me to my core.

“Thankfully we were able to go back and prove that my testosterone has been at the same level since I very first got tested when I was 15.”

Libby Trickett was Australia’s golden girl but behind that trademark smile she has harbored a very private struggle. #9ACA pic.twitter.com/sP8xTz27M2

— A Current Affair (@ACurrentAffair9) September 26, 2019

Libby Trickett was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2018.

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Sue-Anne Sweet-Morand

4 years ago

Great story … I can really relate. Congratulations Libby for keeping it real and talking about it. No one is exempt, it doesn’t matter who your are. Your a beautiful women inside & out. Be proud of yourself for having the courage to talk openly. All the best on the birth of your 3rd child. Your a winner in my books. ???

Sara Stacy

4 years ago

Can’t wait to read the book. It would have been so hard for her to have gone from such a regimented life for so long, being in tip top shape, well rested and then go through the chaos of never sleeping, hardly eating and having no predictable routine.