In recent years, mental health for professional athletes has become one of the most prevalent issues in the industry. From Simone Biles withdrawing from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to Naomi Osaka pulling out of the French Open, mental health concerns for athletes can no longer be ignored.
At the professional level, athletes such as Biles, Osaka, Chloe Kim, Michael Phelps, DeMar DeRozan and Abby Wambach have used their platforms to spread awareness about mental health and share their experiences with anxiety, depression and handling the intense pressure of athletics.
But the stigma surrounding mental health in sports still plagues the collegiate level.
According to a recent study by the NCAA involving 23,000 student-athletes, about 40% of female athletes and 20% of male athletes reported feeling constantly overwhelmed.
Balancing being a student with the many time commitments of soccer and physical demands of playing at the next level in college athletics has been the greatest challenge to my mental well-being.
The moment I committed to UNK, I felt a weight of expectation that I had never experienced before. Until that point, sports had been entirely recreational – something I enjoyed doing in my free time. Now, soccer was my job.
As a goalkeeper, I had always felt the burden of not wanting to disappoint my teammates. Because of the nature of the position, the whole team relies on the keeper to save them from their mistakes. This can be an overwhelming task and a lonely one.
When I got to college, I found it more difficult than ever to overcome the pressure to perform.
It was clear from the beginning that my coach expected me to not only immediately compete for a starting spot as a freshman but help turn a bottom-of-the-table program into a conference title contender.
This pressure was heightened in my sophomore year when my coach told me I could be the difference between our team placing top four in the conference and failing to qualify for the tournament. I knew this pressure was meant to encourage me, but instead I blamed myself for every loss and goal conceded.
I started to feel like every move I made was being scrutinized by my coaches and teammates. My mistakes would keep me up at night. I was exhausted all the time.
But most of all, I felt alone – like no one around me understood the burden that I was carrying.
After weeks of crumbling under the expectation, I confessed how I was feeling to my coach. He didn’t take that weight away. Instead, he reminded me that pressure was a privilege.
When I walked out of his office, I was angry. I wanted him to tell me that it wasn’t my fault. I wanted him to give me an excuse, but I also knew that he was right.
I was reminded that soccer is just a game, one that I love and have the privilege of playing at the college level. I no longer cared about making mistakes. The pressure still existed, but I wanted to prove to myself that it did not define me.
I also opened up to my teammates, who helped share that burden with me. That is when our team started succeeding.
Whether it is a team or an individual sport, college athletes are expected to be elite. They are expected to be winners. They are expected to be perfect.
Mental health in college athletics is a real issue. Despite the progress at the professional level, there is still so much stigma that prevents college athletes from seeking help for their mental health.
Normalize these conversations. Being honest about our struggles doesn’t mean we are incapable of handling that pressure. It means we are strong enough to be vulnerable about what we need to embrace it.
