Olympic athletes pour everything into training for the Games, routinely pushing their physical and mental bounds to the limit—and beyond—for a shot at a gold medal. But getting into shape for what comes after the closing ceremony can be equally crucial, especially if the end of the Games also means the end of professional competition. Team USA rower Kate Knifton, a first-time Olympian at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, understands the mental stress that a sudden exit from the highest echelons of competitive life can bring. In 2022 she experienced a near career-ending spine injury.
“Your body has a reaction from doing all this training and then suddenly doing nothing at all,” she says. “I’m now more aware of having things in place for myself for one day [in the future] when I’m not rowing.”
Knifton is one of many professional athletes who have recently been acknowledging the importance of keeping close tabs on their mental health. Several other high-profile current and former Olympians, including gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Michael Phelps, have also come forward about their struggles and advocated for better awareness and support.
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Studies have found that elite athletes—professional, collegiate and Olympic—often confront a range of short- and long-term mental health issues, including burnout, eating disorders, anxiety and depression. A study by researchers at the University of Toronto found that 41.4 percent of Canadian national team athletes who were training for the 2020 Olympics had depression, anxiety, an eating disorder or more than one of these conditions when surveyed in 2019; in another survey of Olympic and Paralympic athletes in 2018 and 2019, 24 percent reported psychological distress after the Games. And mental health problems are even more prevalent among athletes who are planning to retire from the sport, usually as a response to a perceived loss of goals and identity.
Extensive research and interviews with Olympians have also noted the risk of postcompetition mental health downturns—particularly in the months after the Games. Karen Cogan, lead sport psychologist at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), says she has attended seven Olympics since 2010 and has noticed in recent years more athletes reporting a “period of letdown” immediately after the Games. “Not every athlete experiences it,” Cogan adds, “and it can be on a continuum.”
“When you have physically exhausted yourself, that means you don’t have capacity for those high, pleasant emotions like joy [and] excitement,” says Andrew Friesen, an associate professor of kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University and a certified mental performance consultant.
“When an athlete is wrapping up their pre-Olympics preparations, this is not the [best] time to have [mental health] conversations. It’s like asking someone on their wedding day if they have a good divorce lawyer.” —Andrew Friesen, associate professor of kinesiology, Pennsylvania State University
Emotions are also heightened by the nature of the event itself. The Olympics is a massive cultural spectacle—a whirlwind of global public attention, financial investment and saturated media coverage. New international celebrities are minted, and some contenders fall from grace amid various accusations or scandals. Athletes endure the pressure of representing their country, and winning medals, in front of a worldwide audience. But then “all of that hype and intensity around being an Olympian falls off very quickly,” Cogan says. Agonizing decisions can follow: Do I want to keep competing? Should I pursue a completely different direction or occupation? Such questions can be even more anxiety-inducing if athletes have injuries and need surgery or rehabilitation, Cogan says.
Briana Scurry, a retired soccer goalkeeper and two-time Olympic gold medalist, knows how tough the transition can be. Her professional career abruptly froze after a midgame traumatic brain injury in 2010. She encourages new Olympians to start thinking about retirement early in their career and ask themselves, “Who am I without my game?” Reflecting on her original love for soccer and the skills learned on the field helped Scurry pivot her career to coaching, motivational speaking and promoting awareness about how concussions can affect mental health. The same strategies and mindsets that help people succeed in sports are often transferable to business, she says.
She also recommends making a post-Olympics life plan. This can include signing up for workshops and professional development programs or even booking a vacation or a trip home—a research-backed tip. Staying in touch with teammates, as well as maintaining some routine physical activity, can offer structure and stability; suddenly stopping exercise canincrease depressive symptoms. Still, getting some rest—for both the body and the mind—is equally important, Scurry says. “At the end of the day, the Olympics part of your life will end,” she says. “You have a lot of time for the other parts.”
Mental health is a subject that people in the sporting world have historically hesitated to discuss, but Cogan says that attitudes are finally evolving. “The problem earlier on was this stigma that athletes are supposed to be strong and tough and manage all of these things on their own,” she says. “The world sees them as perfect. But they’re like all of us, and they struggle with things personally, too.”
Efforts to minimize this stigma have helped some athletes to open up more about their mental health—and ask for help. Experts advise Olympians to start conversations about mental health support well before the Games begin. “When an athlete is wrapping up their pre-Olympics preparations, this is not the [best] time to have those conversations,” Friesen says. “It’s like asking someone on their wedding day if they have a good divorce lawyer.” Olympians should also discuss mental health monitoring strategies before, during and after the Games.
The USOPC provides a range of mental health services through its staff and outside experts. The committee also runs programs including Athlete Career and Education (ACE), which hosts the Pivot Workshop—a new project that focuses on personal development and skills assessments to help athletes transition into different careers.
Knifton says she and her Olympics teammates now discuss their mental health candidly. “People are open about seeing a therapist outside of practice,” she says. “If someone has to take some time away from the sport, everyone is very understanding of that.” She says it has been helpful to hear about personal experiences and hardships from seasoned teammates who have been through previous Games.
Athletes and experts say the sporting industry has, in the last decade, been promoting better work-life balance outside of the game, even for current Olympians. “If you feel like you spend all your time on one thing, that doesn’t help your mental health,” Cogan says. Some athletes have told Cogan that solely focusing on training worsened their performance. Knifton says that the U.S. Olympic rowing team has a new director who is focused on retaining athletes long-term and wants them to develop a sense of identity outside the sport. Last year Knifton chose to focus solely on rowing, but after the Paris Games, she’s thinking about working a job alongside practice and competition. She adds that her team and coaches actively encourage spending quality time with friends, significant others, kids and families, as well as finding hobbies that feel joyful and rewarding.
“Not forcing myself to find hobbies outside of rowing was kind of detrimental to myself mentally,” she says. This year she’s making more effort to read, cook and hang out with her teammates outside of practice. After the Olympics, she’s looking forward to traveling with her friends and visiting her family in Texas.