From New Scientist:
Kelly MacDonald dreams of Olympic glory. But when her Canadian diving teammates competed at the Beijing games, MacDonald was absent. Her entry on the Diving Plongeon Canada website states that she has been “sidelined with injuries”.
However, this week, MacDonald has spoken out for the first time about the real reason for her interrupted athletic career: obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD.
Elite athletes often adhere to rituals and superstitions, which may help them control anxiety (see our round-up of sports star superstitions). An obsessive nature may also keep an athlete training after others call it a day. But when do these traits veer into illness? That was the question raised on 18 May at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, in a session held to raise awareness of what may be an unrecognised epidemic.
