How athletes navigate post-Olympic blues and what we can learn
Australian Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo. The Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower during the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Games in Paris, France.
After years of intense training, unwavering discipline, and the incredible emotional highs of competing at the Olympic Games, it’s no surprise that many athletes experience a tough psychological drop afterwards. This is often referred to as post-Olympic blues or post-Olympic depression.
While it’s undeniably hard, this emotional crash – and the reasons behind it – offer valuable insights into mental resilience. Why do some athletes bounce back, while others struggle or even avoid it altogether? In this piece, we explore what we can learn from these experiences.
Understanding post-Olympic depression
Studies show that up to 24 per cent of elite athletes experience clinical depression, with rates especially high after major events like the Olympics, which only happen once every four years.
A few key factors help explain this mental health shift:
Vacuum Effect: After dedicating years to one singular goal, athletes often face a sense of emptiness when that focus is gone. Sports psychologists refer to this as an “emotional vacuum.”
Neurobiological shifts: The brain’s reward system undergoes a big change. After months or even years of intense training and competition, which flood the body with feel-good chemicals like dopamine and endorphins, the sudden end of the Olympics can trigger withdrawal-like symptoms.
Transition challenges: The transition from strict routines to newfound freedom can be tough. Many Olympians report feeling adrift without the structure of their training schedules.
Identity recalibration: After so many years of defining themselves as Olympians, the end of that chapter can leave athletes with a sense of loss. Michael Phelps has spoken openly about struggling with depression after each Olympics, describing it as standing at the edge of a cliff and thinking, ‘Now what?’
“You get to the edge of a cliff, like ‘Cool, now what? Oh, I guess I’ve got to wait four more years to have the chance to do it again.’”
Strategies for success
Despite these challenges, many athletes have found ways to successfully navigate this tough transition, and these strategies can be helpful if you’re going through a big life change yourself:
Normalise the struggle: Many athletes say that just recognising this emotional crash as something normal and temporary gave them a sense of relief. Understanding this is often the first step toward building resilience.
Diversify your identity: Athletes who do best develop interests outside their sport before retiring. By finding multiple sources of meaning and achievement, they avoid feeling defined by just one thing.
Embrace new challenges: Studies show that athletes who jump into new, non-sport-related goals tend to transition more smoothly. Taking on fresh challenges gives them a sense of purpose and direction.
Community connection: Staying in touch with teammates while also building new friendships helps provide support and stability. Research consistently highlights how important social connections are for adjusting after competition.
Ask for help: With more sports psychologists and mental health professionals available, athletes now have the support they need to navigate these transitions. This growing access to help has made a big difference for many.
“I’ve learned that the best of the best use equal amounts of time training their brain as they do their bodies.”
Extraordinary toolkit
One of the most encouraging takeaways is that athletes who successfully navigate this transition often experience significant personal growth. After overcoming immense physical and mental challenges at the highest level, they gain unique strengths that help them thrive in life after sports.
Sports psychologist Cindra Kamphoff, in her book Beyond Grit, explains that the mental skills needed to succeed in the Olympics – like persistence, focus, and the ability to perform under pressure – equip athletes with an extraordinary toolkit for life beyond competition.
Research also shows that Olympic athletes often adapt exceptionally well in second careers, frequently excelling in completely new fields.
Powerful blueprint
The experience of post-Olympic depression serves as a reminder that even our greatest achievements can come with tough, unexpected challenges. But by understanding these patterns, we gain valuable insights into human resilience.
The strategies athletes use – like building diverse identities, embracing new challenges, seeking support, and normalising the struggle – offer a powerful blueprint for navigating major life transitions of all kinds.
By recognising these behaviours and applying proven coping strategies, you can build the mental resilience needed to handle life’s inevitable changes, whether or not you’ve ever stood on an Olympic podium.
