{"id":395468,"date":"2019-09-26T15:56:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T22:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=395468"},"modified":"2019-09-26T15:56:50","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T22:56:50","slug":"olympic-gold-medalist-libby-trickett-opens-up-about-postnatal-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/olympic-gold-medalist-libby-trickett-opens-up-about-postnatal-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Gold Medalist Libby Trickett Opens Up About Postnatal Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven-time Olympic medalist Libby Trickett\u00a0<\/strong>of Australia opened up about her postnatal depression in a TV interview for Channel 9’s\u00a0A Current Affair<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trickett won the Olympic gold medal in the 100 butterfly<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Britta Steffen\u00a0<\/strong>in the final 25 meters and settled for the silver despite coming in to the meet as the world record holder.<\/p>\n

Trickett admitted she still has not seen the race.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s such a beautiful little girl,\u201d Trickett said. \u201cI think when you go through post-natal depression and you do feel such guilt for missing that time, you feel like you\u2019ve missed out on her somehow. But she does not make me feel like I\u2019ve missed out on her at all and she tells me she loves me every day and that is incredibly healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But 34-year-old swimming star didn\u2019t hold back when discussing her history with depression after the birth of Poppy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround four months, she decided that sleep was just not for her at all,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had very dark thoughts, we don\u2019t often go into those dark thoughts but I thought of harming Poppy, I didn\u2019t want to be here,\u201d Trickett said.<\/p>\n

Libby Trickett is set to release her memoir Beneath the Surface<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on October 1, which details her private battles with anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cDuring the Commonwealth Games, I was drug tested every day,\u201d she said. \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Libby Trickett was Australia\u2019s golden girl but behind that trademark smile she has harbored a very private struggle. #9ACA<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/sP8xTz27M2<\/a><\/p>\n

— A Current Affair (@ACurrentAffair9) September 26, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n