You're right, there is a lot more going on. The point I was trying to make is that this happens even for athletes coming from a "healthy" environment, and that the way her story unfolded after her career is not all that surprising to me.
Personally I wish that there was more guidance and help available for retired athletes, but on the other hand I also realize most athletes on this level are too stubborn to get that help anyway..
I kind of agree with many others here that it sounds like a mental health issue. But I also think that the story is more complicated than that.
We shouldn't neglect the impact on the brain a professional sports career has. I've seen it many times. The amount of sacrifice and energy put into something like this leads to a very unbalanced lifestyle, which is usually encouraged from all sides (parents, coaches, friends). Most often, the only positive emotion athletes experience is that joy of achieving a goal, and this quickly starts becoming an addiction. Especially in sports where not a lot of money is involved, passion and perseverance play a huge role in personal motivation and these sports usually attract athletes that put everything on hold in their life for their minute in the spotlight.
Unfortunately, only a minor fraction of athletes ends their career by choice. Usually, lack of success or injuries tend to force people to retire with unfinished business. This hits the "addicted" athlete very hard, and in an environment where it is generally not advisable to show weakness, can lead to severe mental health issues quickly.
Speaking from personal experience, life is pretty dull after being forced to retire. I fell into a deep existential crisis, mostly because the thing that was responsible for most of the joy in my life wasn't even remotely fun anymore, even as a simple hobby. The fact that I knew I wasn't on top of my game anymore, and I am not investing 100% of my energy into improving made it a pretty dull experience. On top of that, most of my social environment was still connected to that sport, so I wasn't really able to walk away and focus entirely on something different. And even worse, everything else I tried felt meaningless, I felt like it wasn't worth it if I didn't invest 100% of my energy into something I was passionate about. For me, nothing compares to the joy of pursuing a passion and putting everything I have into it.
Source: myself and plenty of my friends and competitors. And yes, I got some help and things are much better now.
I'd start building microprocessors based on carbon nanotube transistors. Researches have already built prototypes, but the industry didn't pick it up yet. Time to get started!
Reviewing some of the papers was required as part of the homework assignments. That included about 15 of the most important papers. Additionally I read about 20 more to understand some of the ideas a bit better, but the list is very exhaustive and serves more as a pointer to supplemental material for those interested.
As far as I can recall lecture 27 was mostly exam logistics, course feedback and private discussions about what courses to take and what kind of projects are available within the group. So really no point in having it public..
I took the course this year. Prof Mutlu is a fantastic teacher, I learned a lot but the course was a lot of effort, especially the labs. Nevertheless, best course I took at ETH so far.
Personally I wish that there was more guidance and help available for retired athletes, but on the other hand I also realize most athletes on this level are too stubborn to get that help anyway..