Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time, but what’s left to accomplish after you’ve proved you’re the best in the world? In the new documentary “The Weight of Gold,” Phelps takes a long look at life after the Olympics and how he was not alone in experiencing depression after winning it all.
“The Weight of Gold” is an HBO Sports documentary executive produced by Phelps and features interviews with Olympians who discuss going their entire lives without normal childhoods, without outside skills or interests beyond their sport, without any plans after the Olympics and whose entire lives have been defined by a rapid, 40-second race.
“We’re just so lost. A good 80 percent, maybe more, develop a post-Olympic depression,” Phelps says in the documentary trailer. “I thought of myself as just a swimmer, and not a human being, and that’s where I thought, why don’t I just end it all?”
Brett Rapkin directed “The Weight of Gold,” and Phelps is just one subject of the film that also includes interviews with Shaun White, Apolo Ohno, Katie Uhlaender, Steve Holcomb, Jeremy Bloom, Lolo Jones, Bode Miller, Gracie Gold, Jonathan Cheever, Sasha Cohen, David Boudia and Jeret Peterson.
HBO Sports will debut the film on HBO and to stream on HBO Max on Wednesday, July 29 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, timed for when the Olympics were meant to be taking place in Tokyo, Japan this year, only for the event to be postponed to summer 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Check out the first trailer for “The Weight of Gold” above.