Commonwealth Gymnast Aims to Tackle Mental Health and Wellbeing
Former women’s artistic gymnast Isabella Tolometti is taking on a new role with Scottish Gymnastics to bring mental health and wellbeing to the forefront.
The women’s gymnastics team captain for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games will support the development of a mental health and wellbeing strategy for Scottish Gymnastics. This is linked to the UK-wide vision for gymnastics which aims to deliver an uplifting gymnastics experience, ensuring our sport is enjoyable, safe and open to everyone.
Wellbeing is a key focus in our leap without limits strategy, with a commitment to deliver a mental health programme to support all members. Izzy has a personal connection to the health and wellbeing of gymnasts, using her experience competing at international level to support research as part of her MSc in Psychology.
Izzy will contribute to the development of the mental health and wellbeing strategy by providing valuable direction on key initiatives as a former gymnast and coach. Her role as a mental health and wellbeing ambassador also links to the youth forum giving an opportunity to capture the voice of young people and hear what support they would like.
Izzy said:
I’m excited to be taking on this role with Scottish Gymnastics. I’m looking forward to encouraging and promoting a conversation, raising awareness and showing everyone how important it is to look after your mental health.
Mental health is really important to me because it shapes so much of your lifestyle. If you are mentally healthy then you can be physically and emotionally healthy too and that’s really important in gymnastics to help you perform your best.
We believe it is important to empower our members to open up and discuss mental health so everyone feels safe confident raising and sharing concerns.
As part of this, Scottish Gymnastics has shared a range of tools from expert partners to support a mental health conversation. This includes work being conducted with the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) as well as creating resources for clubs and gymnasts to support mental fitness.
You can access the Scottish Gymnastics Guide to Mental Fitness and listen to the Scottish Gymnastics podcast to hear about the experiences of Olympians and Commonwealth Games athletes: