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If winning gold medals were the only standard, almost all Olympic athletes would be considered failures.A clinical psychologist with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Emily Clark’s job when the Winter Games open in Italy on Feb. 6 is to help athletes interpret what it means to be successful. Should gold medals be the only measure? Part of a 15-member staff providing psychological services, Clark nurtures athletes accustomed to triumph but who invariably risk failure.The staff deals with matters termed “mental health and mental performance.” They include topics such as motivation, anger management, anxiety, eating disorders, family issues, trauma, depression, sleep, handling pressure, travel and so forth.Clark’s area includes stress management, the importance of sleep and getting high achievers to perform at their best and avoid the temptation of looking only at results.“A lot of athletes these days are aware of the mental health component of, not just sport, but of life,” Clark said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is an area where athletes can develop skills that can extend a career, or make it more enjoyable.” Redefining success The United States is expected to take about 235 athletes to the Winter Olympics, and about 70 more to the Paralympics. But here’s the truth.“Most of the athletes who come through Team USA will not win a gold medal,” Clark said. “That’s the reality of elite sport.”Here are the numbers. The United States won gold medals in nine events in the last Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. According to Dr. Bill Mallon, an esteemed shoulder surgeon and Olympic historian, 70.8% of Winter and Summer Olympic athletes go to only one Olympics.Few are famous and successful like swimmer Michael Phelps, or skiers Mikaela Shiffrin or Lindsey Vonn.Clark said she often delivers the following message to Olympians and Paralympians: This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Focus on the process. Savor the moment.“Your job is not to win a gold medal, your job is to do the thing and the gold medal is what happens when you do your job,” she said.“Some of this might be realigning what success looks like,” she added. “And some of this is developing resilience in the face of setbacks and failure.”Clark preaches staying on task under pressure and improving through defeat.“We get stronger by pushing ourselves to a limit where we’re at our maximum capacity and then recovering,” she said. “When we get stressed, it impacts our attention. Staying on task or staying in line with what’s important is what we try to train for.” A few testimonials Kendall Gretsch has won four gold medals at the Summer and Winter Paralympics. She credits some of her success to the USOPC’s mental health services, and she described the value this way.“We have a sports psychologist who travels with us for most our season,” she said. “Just being able to touch base with them and getting that reminder of why are you here. What is that experience you’re looking for?”American figure skater Alysa Liu is the 2025 world champion and was sixth in the 2022 Olympics. She’s a big believer in sports psychology and should be among the favorites in Italy.“I work with a sport psychologist,” she said without giving a name. “She’s incredible like the MVP.”Of course, MVP stands not for Most Valuable Person or Most Valuable Player for “Most Valuable Psychologist.”“I mean, she’s very helpful,” Liu added. Vonn: “I just did it myself” American downhill skier Vonn will race in Italy in her sixth Olympics. At 41, she’s coming off nearly six years in retirement and will be racing on a knee made of titanium.Two-time Olympic champion Michaela Dorfmeister has suggested in jest that Vonn “should see a psychologist” for attempting such a thing in a very dangerous sport where downhill skiers reach speeds of 80 mph (130 kph).Vonn shrugged off the comments and joked a few months ago that she didn’t grow up using a sport psychologist. She said her counseling came from taping messages on the tips of her skis that read: “stay forward or hands up.”“I just did it myself,” she said. “I do a lot of self-talk in the starting gate.” On sleep “Sleep is an area where athletes tend to struggle for a number of reasons,” Clark said, listing issues such as travel schedules, late practices, injuries and life-related stress.“We have a lot of athletes who are parents, and lot of sleep is going to be disrupted in the early stages of parenting,” she said. “We approach sleep as a real part of performance. But it can be something that gets de-prioritized when days get busy.”Clark suggests the following for her athletes and the rest of us: no caffeine after 3 p.m., mitigate stress before bedtime, schedule sleep at about the same time daily, sleep in a dark room and get 7-9 hours.Dani Aravich is a two-time Paralympian she’s been in both the Summer and Winter Games will be skiing in the upcoming Paralympics. She said in a recent interview that she avails herself of many psychological services provided by the USOPC.“I’ve started tracking my sleep,” she said, naming Clark as a counselor. “Especially being an athlete who has multiple jobs, sleep is going to be your No. 1 savior at all times. It’s the thing that you know helps mental clarity.”Ditto Clark.“Sleep is the cornerstone of healthy performance,” she added. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on all aspects of wellness, at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well Stephen Wade, Associated Press
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Fitness brand Modern Warrior has voluntarily recalled all lots of its dietary supplement Modern Warrior Ready after testing revealed the presence of “undeclared ingredients,” one of which could be potentially life threatening. The product was sold over a period of three years as capsule-based dietary supplements. Consumers nationwide could buy them directly online. The voluntary recall was announced on Friday, January 9, the same day that a recall notice was published on the website of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Heres what you need to know. What does the recalled product look like? The recalled dietary supplement, Modern Warrior Ready, is sold in a black plastic supplement bottle with a black screw-top lid sealed with black and gold temper-evident shrink wrap. Each bottle contains 60 capsules. The bottles front label features the Modern Warrior (MW) logo in gold at the top. The name Body Repair Plan is centered on the front label, in gold lettering. Below that, the word Ready appears with a small sunrise icon followed by the phrase Mental Clarity. The recalled dietary supplement was distributed and sold online to customers nationwide from April 2022 until December 8, 2025. Some undeclared ingredients pose serious risks Some of the ingredients found during what was described as regulatory testing have a risk of causing serious side effects, including “life-threatening events.” The FDA recall notice explains the following potential health risks: Tianeptine: Tianeptine can cause “life-threatening events,” according to the FDA notice, including suicide ideation or behavior in children, adolescents, and adults aged 25 and younger. Additionally, overdose of this ingredient “carries serious and potentially life-threatening risks,” the FDA notice states, including confusion, seizure, drowsiness, dry mouth, and shortness of breath, which can be exacerbated by alcohol use. The notice further states that “Using tianeptine in combination with monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOl) antidepressants could lead to life-threatening complications including stroke and death.” 1,4-DMAA: 1,4-DMAA can cause stimulant effects. Using 1,4-DMAA can cause elevated blood pressure, which could lead to cardiovascular problems, like, heart attack, shortness of breath, and tightening of the chest. What should I do if I have this product? If you purchased the recalled dietary supplement, you should stop using it. The FDA recall notice states that Modern Warrior has immediately ceased distribution of the recalled product and has removed it from sale. A recall notice could not immediately be found on Modern Warrior’s website. The impacted product was listed as “sold out” as of Monday morning. Fast Company has reached out to Modern Warrior for comment and will update this post if we hear back. If you have any questions about the recall, call Modern Warrior at 314-713-1984 or email theviking@modernwarrior.life.
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President Donald Trump said Sunday that he is “inclined” to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One as he departed West Palm Beach, Florida. “They’re playing too cute.”During a meeting Friday with oil executives, Trump tried to assuage the concerns of the companies and said they would be dealing directly with the U.S., rather than the Venezuelan government.Some, however, weren’t convinced.“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable,” said Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company.An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.Also on Friday, Trump signed an executive order that seeks to ensure that Venezuelan oil revenue remains protected from being used in judicial proceedings.The executive order, made public on Saturday, says that if the funds were to be seized for such use, it could “undermine critical U.S. efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela.” Venezuela has a history of state asset seizures, ongoing U.S. sanctions and decades of political uncertainty.Getting U.S. oil companies to invest in Venezuela and help rebuild the country’s infrastructure is a top priority of the Trump administration after Maduro’s capture.The White House is framing the effort to “run” Venezuela in economic terms, and Trump has seized tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, has said the U.S. is taking over the sales of 30 million to 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan crude, and plans to control sales worldwide indefinitely. Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Seung Min Kim and Julia Nikhinson, Associated Press
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