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đŸ„‡ Team USA Gymnastics has a secret weapon

They got that dog in them...

Author

Chris Equale
August 08, 2024

Team USA’s therapy dog is earning his medals.

Mental health is a major focus for Team USA's Gymnastics team.

Case in point, meet the four-year-old golden retriever Beacon, who worked hard at the Paris 2024 Olympics as their therapy dog.

Fully accredited, Beacon traveled all the way to France with Team USA to help the gymnastics team (made up of stars like Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Suni Lee, and Jade Carey) to provide the athletes calm company during training sessions and competitions. His owner, Tracey Callahan Molnar, told USA Today that Beacon “senses people's stress and knows how to soothe them.” A very apt intuition when it comes to channeling the anxiety of athletes just before they take to the mat.

In recent years, it has been realized that performance no longer relies solely on a trained physique, but also on a prepared mind. To this end, pet therapy offers a plethora of benefits to soothe the minds of competing athletes. According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, “petting an animal for ten minutes can help reduce levels of cortisol, the body's stress hormone, as well as focus on the present moment.”

Beacon is just one of part of USA Gymnastics’ long-overdue mental health program. In addition to therapy pets, the initiative also includes mindfulness sessions and a team of therapists who are at the ready to work with athletes. In light of the sexual abuse scandal involving team doctor Larry Nassar that rocked American gymnastics, and Biles’s momentous decision to pull out of the US team at the Tokyo Olympics in order to focus on her mental health, Beacon’s emergence on the scene, however low to the ground and furry, feels far from frivolous. Elite gymnastics has a lot to make up for.

After a chaotic and drama-filled Olympic trials, during which three gymnasts widely expected to make the team all suffered major injuries – Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely and Kayla DiCello – Beacon spent about 40 minutes with the team following their routines, making himself available to those who wished to pet or merely lie with him.

Is this new?

No - at the 2016 Swimming Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb., tensions were high. With the stakes looming so large, organizers decided to do something a bit unorthodox: They invited about 30 pet therapy dogs to the trials in an effort to relieve the anxious swimmers.

“Therapy animals don’t know someone is in a ‘winner take all’ race, so in that moment they wouldn’t put the same amount of pressure on a competition that another person might,” says Lani Chin, Psy.D., who has been using canine-assisted therapy with her patients since she opened her Los Angeles-based psychology practice in 2012. “They have a way of being present that can benefit most people.” Especially athletes in the throes of pre-competition stress.

“Most people don’t really appreciate the level of intensity and the level of stress that athletes undergo pre-performance,” says San Luis Obispo-based mental performance specialist Jeff Troesch. “Anything that can help them break through that—as long as it doesn’t disrupt their routine in a negative sense—is good.” Troesch has worked with both MLB and NBA teams and is a huge proponent of making a routine and sticking to it—something he calls creating a consistent internal environment. Adding a pet to that environment is a good thing, he says; they provide unconditional support, regardless of the stakes involved. Just make sure they’re in your pre-performance plan.

The physiological benefits dogs offer to strung-out athletes are quantifiably real, Chin says. “Many people are able to relax, showing a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure, when an animal is present.” A 2005 American Heart Association study found that patients saw a 24 percent drop in anxiety scores after only 12 minutes with a volunteer-dog team.

Not a dog lover? No problem. “There has been ample research that therapy animals can range from dogs to birds, pigs or even llamas,” says Chin. “It just depends on which animal the person feels comfortable with.” Also, everyone’s experience with an animal may vary. “Some may benefit from petting or interacting with a therapy animal,” says Chin, “whereas someone else may enjoy just being close to an animal.”

Whether we’d like to credit Beacon with the team’s success or not (we’ll go with yes), Team USA secured a world-best 10 medals. That included three golds, tied with Japan for most in the Paris Games.

The first Queen Elizabeth II statue pays homage to her beloved dogs.

How does a country honor their longest-serving monarch? The first memorial statue to Queen Elizabeth II, unveiled in England, remembers the queen’s softer side with her favorite dogs.

In the quaint English town Oakham, the seven-foot tall bronze statue by Hywel Pratley shows the queen in elegant robes with three corgis at her feet.

“What most of us remember about Queen Elizabeth is her warmth,” local dignitary Sarah Furness told the New York Times. “By showing Queen Elizabeth’s love of dogs, we show her humanity,” she continued.

Britain is now beginning to memorialize its former monarch with municipalities and institutions mounting statues in her honor countrywide, now eighteen months after the queen’s death.

The sculpture encourages interaction and engagement, as many corgi owners showed up with their dogs to commemorate the unveiling.

After making a model, money was raised from the public to cover the statue’s £140,000 (approximately $177,000) price tag.

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