The Person Is Key?

In the challenging landscape of adolescent elite sports, sport psychology counseling plays a pivotal role in supporting both performance and well-being ( Lochbaum et al., 2022 ), yet research on its outcome quality is limited. This study assessed the outcome quality of sport psychology counseling, focusing on the person of the sport psychology practitioner, their gender, and gender-specific constellations between athletes and practitioners. The study group included 572 adolescent elite athletes and 43 sport psychology practitioners, taking part in either workshops or individual counseling. In workshops, the sport psychology practitioner accounted for 7 %–17 % of the variance in perceived outcome quality. Athletes rated outcome quality higher when counseled by male practitioners in workshops and by female practitioners in individual counseling. Gender-specific athlete–practitioner constellations also showed significant differences in outcome quality. Future research should explore additional factors influencing outcome quality and consider longitudinal designs to investigate whether relationship quality is a key factor influencing outcome quality.