The resiliency of sport

When the 2020-21 academic year began, the conversation around the world and especially in sport focused on what was possible. Could sport successfully and safely execute games and competitions? Could leagues and governing bodies rebound financially? What would be different forever?

As the year continued and sport pushed closer and closer to normalcy, the 2021 Super Bowl set off what would become a relatively recognizable sports calendar, with packed arenas, cheering fans, and full seasons. But the return brought baggage. Like all of us, athletes who were now able to train and compete again struggled to move on from the upheaval of 2020 as well as the disturbance in their routine that was brought about by the pandemic and the summer’s social uprisings.

When it came time to hear from these elite competitors once again, their voices were often speaking out for others. Naomi Osaka displayed the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Tamir Rice and others on her face masks during the U.S. Open. The WNBA dedicated its 2020 season to Breonna Taylor and the Say Her Name movement. NFL players stood together behind the Black Lives Matter movement. Overseas, players and coaches in the Premier League, like the NFL and NBA, knelt before matches. Across all of it, the story expanded past activism or protest and into mental health.

As the Olympics neared, athletes like Osaka, Simone Biles and Sha’Carri Richardson again centered the conversation on mental health and wellness. Biles pulled out of multiple events because she feared for her safety due to mental health struggles. In the NFL, Dak Prescott will take to the fi eld once again since opening up about the depression he faced after his mother’s death. The effects of the past year persist not only in society but on sport fields everywhere.

“Getting mental health treatment is becoming a part of the fabric of being an athlete,” said Dr. Amber Cargill of the NFL Players Association in a November edition of GSM Live.

The Global Sport Institute has long sought to incorporate mental health into its exploration of the athlete experience. Our two-page resource guide works as a living document to inform and educate readers about athlete psychology and its effects on performance. Funded researchers like Masumi Iida and Alisia Tran continue to explore how intersectional identities interact with mental health to generate different psychological outcomes for gender-minority athletes or athletes of Color. Content such as our GSM Live panels delved deeper into how sport stakeholders view mental health and how our integrating storytelling and research can act as an aid for those working in the space.

No longer is sport considered purely a physical spectacle. Being able to compete at a high level involves psychological might in addition to a healthy body. While mental health’s place in sport is growing, athletes still often speak out about the challenges they face operating in the current landscape. For all of the great progress that has been made in removing the stigma, fans and media are still quick to criticize mental health struggles as weakness, which detracts from creating a more open, honest environment in sport. The Global Sport Institute will continue to keep the mental health conversation at the forefront as we explore new perspectives from across the globe.

Alisia (Giac-Thao) Tran

Amidst a rise of anti-Asian attacks in the U.S., Global Sport Matters spoke with Global Sport scholar Alisia Tran about her research work around Asian American and Pacific Islander athletes and their mental health. When it comes to meeting student needs, Tran noted, “What athletic and academic stakeholders have to take into account is that Asian and Pacific Islander and multiracial American student-athletes may be at higher risk relative to other groups, and they may also be very good at hiding and performing through it.”