The stress of competitions and demanding travel schedules can cause negative emotions. Athletes may be injured or unsure about their future in sport.

Some athletes are also subjected to psychological, physical or sexual abuse during their sport.

The pressures of elite sports

Research shows that elite athletes are more likely to experience mental health problems than the general public. According to a recent study, 41 percent of Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes who were surveyed had mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, or eating disorders.

Another study involving Australian elite athletes revealed that they were nearly twice as likely to experience significant psychological distress compared to the broader community.

Even though elite athletes often have many resources to support them, they may feel it is hard to reach out and ask for help. When left untreated, mental health challenges and performance pressures can lead to athletes feeling burned out or wanting to drop out of their sport, and they may even experience feelings of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts.

Young people engaged in elite sports might be at even greater risk.

Who are elite youth athletes?

Athletes skate during the men’s speed skating mass start race during the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, in January 2012. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)

Reaching the highest levels of performance often requires athletes to specialize in their sport during their teenage years, and several athletes competing at the Olympic Games are adolescents. There are numerous clubs, leagues, and schools that focus on elite youth sport specialization, and there will be 1,900 athletes taking part in the Youth Olympic Games from Jan. 19 to Feb. 1, 2024.

Clearly, youth athletes are already competing at elite levels or hope to reach elite levels in their sport.

While the term “elite youth athlete” can be tricky to define, we use the term to describe youth athletes who are training in sports settings that have a primary focus on achieving superior performance, with the explicit or implicit goal of moving to adult elite, collegiate, or professional sports.

Elite youth sports environments may prioritize spending time on sports activities instead of school or relationships with friends outside of sports. These settings can provide the training and specialized skills needed to become an elite performer, but they may also pose risks to the mental health of young athletes.

Mental health among elite youth athletes

Perfectionism is common among athletes and is strongly linked with poor mental health outcomes. (Unsplash/Jonathan Chng)

Some pressures that are unique to elite youth athletes include early specialization and over-training, having critical or demanding coaches and parents, poor sleep, and trying to balance educational and social needs with increasingly professionalized sporting demands. These factors can all affect the well-being of youth elite athletes.

Perhaps especially related to elite sports, young people around the world are reporting unprecedented levels of perfectionism. Perfectionism is common among athletes and is strongly linked with poor mental health outcomes.

Beyond the pressures of elite sports environments, young people experience the heaviest burden of mental ill-health. For young people around the world, the peak age at onset for a mental health disorder is 15, and approximately half of these disorders occur before the age of 18. There are many reasons why young people’s mental health is at such high risk, including increasingly troubling global conflicts and climate changeparental unemployment, and economic prospects.

Read more: Climate change is harming children’s mental health – and this is just the start.

Compared to the body of research on mental health among adult athletes, there is limited research exploring this issue among elite youth athletes. Currently, we do not have adequate data to reliably report on the prevalence of mental health disorders among elite youth athletes.

One exception is the topic of eating disorders, with a recent review suggesting that elite youth athletes may be at increased risk compared to non-elite youth athletes and compared to young people more broadly.

Considering the unique challenges faced by adolescents in elite sports, there is a pressing need to support the mental health of elite youth athletes.

Closing the gap: Supporting Elite Youth Athletes

Some pressures that are unique to elite youth athletes include early specialization and over-training, having critical or demanding coaches and parents, poor sleep, and trying to balance educational and social needs with increasingly professionalized sporting demands. (Unsplash/Sebastian Staines)

A key focus for supporting the mental health of elite youth athletes involves creating youth sport contexts that are protective for mental health. Select youth sports environments need to be psychologically safe and free from abuse and harassment.

A large responsibility sits with parents and coaches, who must avoid overly critical or demanding behaviors and instead engage with young people in supportive ways. Sports organizations should prioritize well-being and healthy development among youth athletes.

Early detection is important to help elite youth athletes get the support they need. Warning signs of mental health concerns can include changes in an athlete’s emotions, mood, behaviors, sleep, and appetite. Coaches and parents play important roles in noticing changes in athletes’ mental health, and they can help by opening up conversations about mental health among youth athletes.

Listening without judgment, asking athletes what they think they might need, and offering to help them find places to seek support are all helpful strategies when talking about mental health concerns.

Elite youth athletes and their parents may benefit by seeking support from a psychologist, psychotherapist, or psychiatrist who specializes in working with athletes.

Much more work is needed to understand the nature of mental health concerns among elite youth athletes. Given the unique demands and pressures of competing in select sports environments and the challenges that youth face, we must pay attention to the mental health needs of these young performers.