Between mental health and winning medals, I will prioritize my health

Celio Dias assumes Paris 2024 target, but ‘never again’ mental health

Judoka Celio Dias assumes the goal of qualifying for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, in the under 100 kg category, but stressed that “never again” he would put his mental health at risk to reach his goals.

“I will never put my mental health into question again. Never again. Between mental health and winning medals, I will prioritize my health. And that’s the message I want to pass on to all of my younger athletes,” said the 29-year-old judoka, Who has already participated in the Olympic Games, in 2016.

The Serbian Bojan Dozen eliminated, in the third round of the Portuguese Grand Prix of Judo, in Almada, and the Sport athlete Alges and Davondo confirmed that “in this second walk” in the way he wants “above all” to develop “as a human being”, without “worrying about Medals.

After participating in Rio de Janeiro, Celio Dias was diagnosed with Sarya Syndrome in the Schizophrenia Family and suffered from depression that kept him away from his “tatami” for several years.

He came back in 2017 and finished 9th at the World Cup in Budapest, in the -90kg category, but again faced mental health issues and only competed again last year, now in the -100kg category, in which he became a national champion.

He admitted, however, that he did not tire “of telling this story, not of emphasizing it”, but rather “above all, asking athletes to be careful with their mental health”.

“This is the message I want to pass on to all young athletes. Because we are still in a culture where psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists are not given due value. We prefer physical training, but physical training is only one part. I believe and warn that we have to train the mind.” Basically until everything else is possible.”

In this sense, he admitted that he was “very satisfied” because he had “the honor of fighting with the best athletes on the circuit” at the Portuguese Grand Prix and that he is ready for “the challenges ahead”, without hiding the goal of qualifying for Paris 2024, where Jorge Fonseca will be a “hurdle”.

“I’m not afraid to deal with that pressure, to say I want to go to the Olympics, regardless of having two-time world champions in my category. Pedro Soares [treinador] and Jorge [Fonseca] You did a great job, raising the national judo level to the highest level, but I know I am, Miguel Santos [treinador] Algis and D’Avondo also managed to do the same. It is a matter of time and action. And, without a doubt, yes, I want to go to the Olympics, ”supposed Celio Dias.

Thus, the standard is high for the current 100kg national champion, who, however, shows no fear of returning to the mental recovery process should he fail to achieve this goal.

“I don’t have that fear, because the big change that I’ve been working on with my psychiatrist and my psychiatrist accepts exactly the possibility of losing. And that, in my opinion, I have the possibility of going to the Olympics, but also of not going. And from time to time I visit that room, ”he explained. .

But he prefers to “focus on the positive, but with the awareness of the possibility of not going” to Paris 2024, which if it happens will not prevent him from fighting for new goals.

“[Vou] I make mistakes, I will definitely learn. And if you don’t go to the Olympics [Paris’2024]the new challenge is to go to Los Angeles [2028]. And if he doesn’t go to L.A., then he’s another, and another, and another. As long as I have this fire, I will continue to fight for my dream,” he assumed.

Celio Dias, who won two gold and two bronze medals in the Grand Prix, in addition to the third place in the Grand Slam, returned today for the first time to international judo competitions, after participating in the World Championships in Budapest, in 2017.

The Portuguese judo player beat the British Harry Lovell Hewitt in the first half and the Uzbek Sher Muhammad Jandarev in the second half, both of them by double the “Al-Wasari” (Ippon), with a difference of 1.42 and 2.17 minutes from the end, respectively, but he fell in the third half. Round for “Wasari” against Serbian Bojan Dozen.