The COVID-19 pandemic and Olympic/Paralympic athletes’ developmental challenges and possibilities in times of a global crisis-transition

Abstract

Our aim in this invited commentary is to stimulate discussion among sport psychology researchers and practitioners regarding the unique developmental challenges and possibilities that Olympic and Paralympic athletes are undergoing during their finalextended year of the Tokyo 2020 quadrenium. We begin the commentary with COVID-19 pandemic (C-19) context setting, proceed with discussing transitional and holistic perspectives on athletes' Olympic/Paralympic journey, outline three potential pathway scenarios and "C-19 as a possibility-provider" coping (meta-) scenario for Olympic/Paralympic athletes, and finalise our commentary with a summary of messages intended to invite further discussion and collaboration.

“Time for Recovery” or “Utter Uncertainty”? The Postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Through the Eyes of Olympic Athletes and Coaches. A Qualitative Study

“…By allowing themselves to explore a breadth of interests, athletes and coaches could use this historical time to grow in a holistic sense by developing their personal multifaceted identity. As a unidimensional athletic identity has been identified as a risk factor for developing symptoms of burnout ( Coakley, 1992 ; Gustafsson et al, 2008 , 2018 ), promoting a broader identity development in their clients and following a whole person approach could be an important intervention for practitioners working with Olympic athletes and coaches in these challenging times ( Wylleman et al, 2013 ; Schinke et al, 2020b ; Stambulova et al, 2020 ).…”

“…The issues ranged from handling social distancing, social isolation, and loss of social support to dealing with career disruption, uncertainties about the Olympic qualification status and process, limitations and bans of training possibilities as well as insecurities about future funding, sponsorship contracts and individuals’ health status ( Schinke et al, 2020a , b ; Toresdahl and Asif, 2020 ). From a holistic developmental perspective ( Wylleman, 2019 ), the COVID-19 pandemic can be regarded as a significant career development barrier for athletes, bringing about changes in their athletic, psychological, academic-vocational, financial and legal development ( Stambulova et al, 2020 ). On top of these unique demands produced by the current pandemic, the Olympic Games are considered a career change-event ( Samuel et al, 2016 ), comprised of a multi-phase transition process ( Stambulova et al, 2012 ; Wylleman et al, 2012 ), and entailing as such very specific challenges for athletes.…”

Where Did All the Sport Go? Negative Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Life-Spheres and Mental Health of Spanish Young Athletes

“…Within the sports field, previous evidence relates mental health issues with higher difficulties to undertake a dual career pathway (Sallen et al, 2018;Sorkkila et al, 2020). As highlighted by other authors (e.g., Samuel et al, 2020;Stambulova et al, 2020), COVID-19 lockdown can be understood as a changeevent with unexpected demands for the athletes that combine academic and sports career. Therefore, it would be interesting that future research addresses the impact of this adaptation process on young athletes' mental health.…”

“…Considering the changes that COVID-19 lockdown meant for young athletes' dual career (i.e., new academic reality, practices and competitions canceled, and social distance from peers), and the lack of resources in certain athletic environments for 1 Similar to Stambulova et al (2020), authors differentiate between COVID-19 as a syndrome caused by the SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 pandemic as the current global crisis triggered due to the spread of COVID-19 worldwide, and the COVID-19 lockdown as the period of confinement of the population that most countries adopted to stop the COVID-19 spread. 2 https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ youngsters developing a dual career in Spain (Mejías et al, 2020), it is needed to understand the complexity of the recent confinement in youth sport.…”

“…Research addressing the impact of this pandemic in sports identified specific challenges for athletes’ mental health during the lockdown, such as the difficulty in keeping training conditions ( Pillay et al, 2020 ), the social distancing from teammates ( Graupensperger et al, 2020 ), and the uncertainty regarding the delay or cancelation of future competitions ( Samuel et al, 2020 ). Despite most of these challenges are common for athletes of all ages and levels, research has mainly focused on high performance, professional, and/or Olympic/Paralympic athletes (see also Schinke et al, 2020a , b ; Stambulova et al, 2020 ), letting youth sports’ reality underexplored.…”