Champions Institute Topics: Supporting Athletes Beyond Performance and Pressure
January 15, 2026
Athletes face intense pressure on and off the field, yet mental health has long been overlooked in sports culture. Stress, injury, and transition can take a lasting toll, making resilience and emotional well-being essential to sustained performance and life beyond sport.
Topic: Athlete Mental Health & Psychological Resilience
Types of Athletes Involved: Competitive (NCAA athletes, Elite/Olympian, Youth Athletes); Tactical (Soldiers);
and Operational (First Responders)
Problem
Athletes across competitive, tactical, and operational settings face intense physical and psychological demands, yet sports culture has long emphasized performance at any cost. As a result, many athletes experience rising levels of anxiety, depression, burnout, sleep problems, injury, and difficulty transitioning their identities after sport.
Solution
This work designs and tests evidence-based programs that assess biological preparedness, strengthen mental health, emotional well-being, and psychological resilience alongside physical performance. By translating research into practical tools athletes can use in real-world, high-pressure environments, the program supports healthier coping, better sleep, stress management, and long-term resilience through in-person programming and accessible digital platforms.
Impact
By shifting the focus from crisis response to prevention and empowerment, this research is helping redefine excellence in sport. It equips athletes, coaches, and communities with tools that support both peak performance and long-term well-being—on the field, during recovery and transition, and throughout life beyond competition.
Research includes large, multi-year studies that follow athletes across seasons, as well as focused studies examining how the mind and body respond to varying levels of stress. Key stressors studied include injury recovery, postseason play, academic pressure, the COVID-19 pandemic, identity development, and transition out of sport.
Programs are delivered through clinics, schools, athletic systems, and digital tools such as smartphone apps and interactive e-health platforms. Areas of focus include sleep, body image, emotional health, healthy coping strategies, and adaptive resilience.
Publications
- Moderators and predictors of response to eating disorder risk factor reduction programs in collegiate female athletes. Psychology of Sport & Exercise (special issue: Eating Disorders in Sport), 15 (6), 713-720. PMID: 25400505
- The Female Athlete Body (FAB) Study: Rationale, Design, and Baseline Characteristics. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 60, 63-71.
- Development of the Athletes Relationships with Training Scale. International Journal of Eating Disorders. DOI: 10.1002/eat.22960
- The Female Athlete Body Project (FAB) Study: 18-Month Outcomes in Eating Disorder Symptoms and Risk Factors. International Journal of Eating Disorders.
- Resilience and mental health in female athletes: Identification of associations needed for future longitudinal research. Exercise Sport & Movement, 3(2), e00042.
- Modifiable Risk Factors of Female Athlete Psychological Resilience and Mental Health: A Longitudinal Investigation. In press by Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology.
- Resilience & Coping of Collegiate Athletes: A Pilot Study. Under Review by Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation.
- "We're forced to be resilient": Exploration of prospective risk and protective factors of resilience among women athletes. Under Review by Psychology of Sport & Exercise.
- Effect Of Allostatic Load And Psychological Resilience On Physical Performance In Female Collegiate Athletes
- Woolf EK, Cabre HE, Lowe AC, Appelbaum LG, Arent SM, Burke LM, Connaboy C, Goodson MS, Hackney AC, Ivkovic V, Lee SMC, Macias BR, McClung JP, Pasiakos SM, Popp KL, Ploutz-Snyder LL, Rapley SE, Trappe S, Allaway HCM, McKay A, Johannsen N, Irving BA, Chaisson F, Varzeas KA, Wesley NY, Spielmann G, Stewart, T.M. Optimization of Health, Performance, and Resilience: Courtside, Warside, and Spaceside. Sports Medicine. Manuscript submitted December 19, 2025 (Manuscript ID: SPOA-D-25-02082).
Key Partners / Funders
National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense (DOD), Pennington Family Foundation, National Eating Disorders Alliance, Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, Aspen Institute, Harvard /Boston Children’s Female Athlete Program, Women’s Health & Sport Performance (WHSP) Institute