It’s easy to be in awe of the physical condition most Olympians are in. These are the best athletes in the world, people who spend most of their time training and practicing — of course they’re in incredible shape. And it’s easy to assume that people in such amazing physical condition are essentially superhuman.

But the fact is, injuries and illnesses are very common, and they’re often debilitating. MedPage Today reports that about 10% of athletes in the 2010 winter Olympics sustained an injury during competition, with ice hockey and Alpine skiing and snowboarding causing the most injuries. The Institute for Arthroscopy & Sports Medicine in San Francisco puts the rate slightly higher, estimating that 14% of athletes are injured during the winter games and 13% during the summer games.

Olympians are also at a very high risk for sickness, especially respiratory diseases. Scientific American reports that many Olympic athletes suffer from asthma, which can be caused by extremely cold air and air pollution. NBC4 Washington reports that in the 1996 summer games, more than 20% of the participating athletes had asthma. And even events that don’t seem like contact sports carry risk of injury — Team USA reports that concussion is common for synchronized swimmers because teammates are close together in the water and often get kicked in the head while practicing those elaborate routines.

The fastest way to destroy your reputation as a world-class athlete is to get caught doping — something Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong can both attest to. While most of us would agree that Olympians who use performance-enhancing drugs deserve all the punishment they get, it’s depressingly easy to be falsely accused of doping.

It’s so easy, in fact, that when U.S. middle-distance runner Shelby Houlihan claimed she tested positive for a banned steroid called nandrolone because of a burrito she ate, the excuse wasn’t totally crazy, according to Slate. Nandrolone isn’t commonly abused these days, but it is a common contaminant in meat.

Accidental positives are a growing problem. The New York Times reports that it really is possible to ingest a banned substance entirely by accident, as happened when sprinter LaShawn Merritt bought a male-enhancement product called ExtenZe at a 7-11. He didn’t know the supplement contained two banned steroid derivatives. And, Slate notes, dietary supplements are increasingly blamed for trace amounts of banned substances, and the resulting disqualifications and career wreckage. The real issue is a 1994 change to the laws governing these supplements that makes it very difficult to police what’s in them or the claims they market to their customers.

Chances are the Olympians you remember are the ones that won gold medals. But sometimes the difference between gold and silver is incredibly small. For example, you probably know that Michael Phelps has won a boatload of gold medals (23 in all), but you probably don’t remember that, as Wired explains, in 2008 Phelps beat Serbia’s Milorad Cavic by 4.7 millimeters in the 100-meter butterfly event. Milorad had actually set an Olympic record earlier in the event, but most people only remember Phelps’ phenomenal finish.

These kinds of extremely close finishes are fairly common. Buzzfeed reports that in 2016, the winner of the sculling competition had to be determined by photo because it was so close. Thousands of athletes compete at the Olympics every four years. According to NPR, there were nearly 3,000 athletes involved in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018. The vast majority of Olympic athletes don’t get much media attention, or sponsorship deals, even if they come incredibly close to medaling.

Today reports that whereas bronze medalists are typically more content, silver medalists often experience depression and stress because they came so close to winning.

It’s natural to see someone at the absolute top of their chosen sport and see only the skill, medals, and adulation. But, as BBC Sport explains, elite athletes often have no one to turn to when injuries or mistakes cost them a medal, leaving them feeling isolated. There are very few people who understand what it’s like to be an Olympian, after all.

According to the Varsity, depression and loneliness afflict Olympians competing in individual sports most acutely. But even in team sports, athletes often feel isolated and unable to express themselves, especially if they worry that admitting depression or fear will be seen as weak and change their teammates’ perception of them.

Even those who do take home the gold aren’t immune from struggles with mental health. The Guardian reports that even Michael Phelps felt the crushing loneliness of being an Olympian, struggling with alcohol and entering rehab, and gold medalist Ian Thorpe wrote candidly about his struggles with loneliness and depression in his autobiography.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact theCrisis Text Lineby texting HOME to 741741, call theNational Alliance on Mental Illnesshelpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit theNational Institute of Mental Health website.

Olympians find themselves on the biggest stage in the world and the focus of the international media. But the Olympics have long been marketed as an opportunity for the world to set aside its problems and differences, and a place to come together in celebration of what binds us. As such, remarkably few athletes use the their time in the spotlight to speak out on issues important to them. There’s a very good reason for this — Forbes explains that Rule 50 of the Olympic charter expressly forbids participating athletes from any form of protest or politically motivated demonstration. In other words, if you want to compete in the Olympics, you must agree to keep your mouth shut.

Play the Game reports that Olympians are starting to mount a resistance to this gag rule. In 2020, a group of athletes sent an open letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asking for the rule to be changed or eliminated. Reuters reports that these efforts are supported by Germany’s athletic association, Athleten Deutschland, which noted that the wave of protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020 makes it clear that Rule 50 is an outdated and even dangerous concept. The association issued that statement that said, “Athletes should be free to peacefully declare their support for the values of our free and democratic society at any time.”

The outcry didn’t work. According to USA Today, the IOC decided in April 2021 that Rule 50 still stands, and punishment for breaking it will be determined collectively by the IOC, the specific sport’s international federation, and the athletes’ home country Olympic committee.