Aidan Walsh

You lose your temper in a club.

The coach shouts at you.

You start crying.

Oh, he's afraid.

So you're expected to do all these things.

and yet the sport praises you to say oh we teach you these things and the sport teaches you it doesn't it expects it from you and if you're not hardened to it or you're not adapting to it quick enough you're turned weak or you know you're not disciplined or you're soft like i've heard it for years and years and years in clubs and yet it says oh the sport teaches you all these things the sport expects you to know how to do these things yeah and if you don't you're put to the side yeah

And I think that's a real challenge.

And again, it goes for that younger mate, 12 years of age.

I was expected to know how to deal with that.

You're not taught.

You're not shown.

You're not saying, right, that's normal, Aidan.

I wish back then that I'd have spoke to someone and they'd say, Aidan, that's normal.

That's normal, son.

But obviously, I didn't have the courage then to speak out or share it either, which again, at 12, but who would?

But I just think that there's so many more things that we can do within sports to help younger athletes stay in sport for longer.

And that's what I'm thriving towards now and that's what I want to achieve because I know sport's hard enough and if you have people there to support you, back you, you can go all the way.

No, but before the Olympics someone came to me within Sport Ireland and noticed that I was doing certain things that wasn't really healthy.

And they had asked me before the Olympics, did I want to go and maybe see a clinical psychologist?

And I'd said no, because if I did before the Olympics, I wouldn't have went to the Olympics.