Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
What if the trait sports culture celebrates most — grinding through pain, saying nothing, never blinking — is precisely the habit that keeps athletes from getting help before a crisis? As of July 24, 2026, that tension sits at the center of a New York Times feature, circulated via Google News, in which 13 elite athletes were asked for the single best mental advice they'd ever received. Their answers, spanning breath work to reframing failure, land at a moment when sports psychology has quietly become as scrutinized as sports science itself.
The Common Belief
For decades, the working theory in locker rooms was simple: toughness is trained by suppression. Push through the pain, don't let opponents see you sweat, save the emotion for after the final whistle. That model produced champions, and it still shapes how a lot of coaches talk about focus and composure.
The Times' roundup of 13 athletes doesn't reject that discipline outright — routines, visualization, and pre-performance rituals show up again and again in their answers. Dr. Jim Afremow, a sports psychologist and author, puts it plainly: "The mental game is just as important as the physical game. Athletes who train their minds have a significant competitive advantage." Dr. Michael Gervais, who works with NFL teams and Olympians, adds that "the single most important skill in sports psychology is the ability to refocus attention after mistakes or distractions" — a skill that sounds a lot like the old-school instinct to shake it off and move on.
But the common belief stops short of where the newer, harder-edged data now sits.
Where It Breaks Down
The shift traces back to a dated inflection point: Simone Biles withdrawing from Olympic competition in 2021 to prioritize her mental health, an event that reframed "toughness" in public conversation from enduring silently to knowing when to stop. The research has been catching up to that moment ever since.
As of July 24, 2026, according to a systematic review of more than 60 studies published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, roughly 35% of elite athletes experience a mental health crisis — burnout, depression, or anxiety — at some point in their careers. That figure cuts against the old assumption that physical fitness offers some kind of psychological shield. Data from the National Institute of Mental Health reinforces the point further, showing athletes experience mental health disorders at rates of 20% to 25%, statistically similar to the general population rather than meaningfully protected from it.
The trend line is also moving in one direction. Per the NCAA Sport Science Institute, student-athlete concerns tied to depression and anxiety increased 1.5 to 2 times between 2019 and 2023. Infrastructure has scrambled to keep pace: more than 80% of Division I NCAA athletic programs now offer mental health services, up from less than 40% in 2015.
Chart: NCAA mental health program access has roughly doubled since 2015, even as about a third of elite athletes still report a mental health crisis, per the NCAA Sport Science Institute and British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Where the common belief actually breaks down is in how it treats disclosure. Traditional coaching language treats acknowledging a struggle as a crack in the armor. The American Psychological Association's evidence-based guidelines for sports psychology consultants point the other way, treating early acknowledgment and professional support as the mechanism that prevents burnout from becoming a crisis in the first place. The International Olympic Committee formalized that shift in 2024, requiring every participating nation to provide mental health support infrastructure for its athletes — not a talking point, but a compliance requirement.
That's the real divergence in this story: one camp still coaches "push through it," while the peer-reviewed data and the governing bodies have moved toward "catch it early." Both camps use the phrase "mental toughness." They mean nearly opposite things by it.
The AI Angle
Layered on top of this is a genuinely new tool: AI-powered mental health apps and biofeedback devices that track heart-rate variability, sleep, and self-reported stress to flag anxiety patterns before they compound into the kind of crisis the BJSM data describes. Instead of waiting for a post-season debrief, these tools are built to catch the pattern in real time and deliver a personalized breathing or mindfulness prompt on the spot.
The parallel to money management is closer than it looks. A similar wave of consumer-facing AI investing tools now flags emotional trading behavior — panic-selling during a drawdown, chasing a rally — the same way biofeedback tools flag a spike in pre-competition anxiety. A related analysis on AI Therapy vs. Meditation Apps breaks down how those categories stack up against traditional meditation practice. The underlying idea in both cases is the same: catch the pattern before it becomes the crisis, whether that crisis shows up on a scoreboard or in a brokerage statement.
A Better Frame
Athletes cited in the Times piece repeatedly point to controlling controllables — effort, preparation, routine — rather than outcomes like officiating or a rival's form. The same split applies to personal finance: what the stock market does today isn't something any individual investor controls, but contribution rate, asset allocation, and how often you check your investment portfolio are.
Pre-performance routines exist so athletes aren't making decisions in the heat of the moment. Financial planning works the same way: automated contributions and a written rebalancing rule remove the temptation to make an emotional call during a rough week in the market.
Dr. Gervais's focus on refocusing after mistakes maps directly onto a losing quarter in an investment portfolio. One bad stretch isn't a referendum on the whole plan; it's a data point to review, not a signal to abandon the strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What mental advice do professional athletes use?
Per the Times' feature, recurring themes across the 13 athletes include staying present, controlling controllables, embracing failure as a learning input, visualization, and sticking to a fixed pre-performance routine.
How do athletes improve their mental game?
Most work with dedicated sports psychologists on breath work, positive self-talk, mindfulness meditation, and compartmentalizing pressure. Sports psychology research indicates consistent mental skills training can improve performance by 20% to 30% when applied over 6 to 12 months.
How do Olympic athletes deal with pressure and anxiety?
Since Simone Biles' 2021 withdrawal reframed the conversation, Olympic athletes increasingly lean on breath work and mindfulness alongside professional support. The IOC's 2024 guidelines now require every participating nation to provide mental health support infrastructure for athletes.
What percentage of athletes struggle with mental health?
As of July 24, 2026, according to the British Journal of Sports Medicine's review of 60-plus studies, about 35% of elite athletes experience a mental health crisis at some point. NIMH data puts athletes' overall disorder rate at 20% to 25%, comparable to the general population.
Bottom line: On balance, the shift documented across the Times' 13 athlete interviews, the BJSM's 35% crisis figure, and the IOC's 2024 mandate points to one trend: the sports world isn't discarding mental toughness, it's redefining it as early disclosure rather than silent endurance. Our read is that programs still coaching pure suppression are the ones most exposed as the more data-driven approach becomes the industry standard.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or medical advice. Research based on publicly available sources current as of July 24, 2026.