Freddie Woodward, a former Team GB diver who competed at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, is speaking publicly about his long-term struggle with compulsive porn use. Woodward, who finished 19th in the springboard event during his Olympic appearance, hopes that by sharing his personal journey, he can provide support to others who are suffering in silence.
Reflecting on his entry into the sport, Woodward noted, “I always say diving found me; I didn’t find diving.” He was quickly placed on an elite pathway, with the ultimate goal of reaching the 2016 Games. Despite the intense pressure and his own doubts about making the squad, he secured the final spot on the team through a combination of sacrifice and an obsessive work ethic.
However, alongside his athletic achievements, Woodward was grappling with a growing dependency on online pornography. He recalls first noticing issues as a teenager while studying for exams. “I first had these little niggles about it as a slightly older teenager trying to go through exams,” he said. “Something felt a bit off, but I kind of just pushed that to one side and didn’t really think much of it.” During his youth, he even searched online to see if his habits constituted an addiction, finding information suggesting that watching more than 10 hours of porn a day could be problematic.
The situation escalated as he sought larger dopamine hits, eventually leading him to trade personal content online. In 2017, the year after his Olympic debut, private content of Woodward was leaked. “That was one of the worst moments of my life. It really, really, really crushed me,” he admitted. The incident served as a painful turning point, forcing him to confront the reality of his behavior while he was still competing.
Following his retirement from professional diving, Woodward took a job on a cruise ship, which provided the necessary distance to reflect and begin his recovery. Through daily meditation and extensive reading, he worked to address his habits, a process he says took six years of persistent effort. Since going public with his story, he has been contacted by several other athletes, suggesting that the high-performance mindset of professional sports may contribute to a higher risk of compulsive behavior.
Woodward explained that the pressure to constantly achieve can lead athletes to seek unhealthy escapes. “I think the kind of people who are likely to become successful athletes are also the kind of people who maybe have a higher probability of having compulsive porn use,” he said. “You don’t live a normal young life, and I think it’s this high-performance mindset that is a bit of a trap. You pile your self-worth into what you can achieve.”
While porn usage is not currently recognized as an official addiction by the World Health Organization, experts like sexual and relationship psychotherapist Paula Hall emphasize that the impact on a person’s life is the primary concern. Hall describes it as a spectrum disorder, noting that while some use pornography recreationally, others use it to regulate difficult emotions like anxiety. “Over time, it goes further to the point where actually you’re using it just to feel normal,” Hall explained. She added that if someone could see the long-term trajectory of their habits at the start, they might choose to avoid the behavior entirely. The report also notes that like almost every boy, Freddie Woodward was exposed to porn at an early age. The report also notes that at first, it was nothing more than a glance at adult magazines or material shared between friends. The report also notes that then, as he got older, he stepped into the seemingly endless world of online videos, which offered a quick hit of dopamine for a curious mind. The report also notes that his relationship with adult content was nothing out of the ordinary; it’s a familiar path followed by millions of people worldwide, if we put embarrassment aside. The report also notes that we’re trying to make Olympic athletes from this and so it was four, five, six days a week almost immediately.”, from the get-go. The report also notes that but Woodward admits he never truly believed he would make the Olympic squad because he was growing up in a golden generation of British divers – including the likes of Olympic champion Tom Daley, the talent was obviously there. The report also notes that “It was an insane feeling, and in a sense, I wasn’t there with medal-winning expectations, so while it felt like such a big deal for me, there was a bit of pressure off.”.
