Athlete activism, advocacy, and awareness: mental health in the Olympic Games

This scholarly commentary introduces background information about the recent media coverage of mental health activism in the Olympic Games, which includes complex issues, awareness implications, and the expressed values of the spokespeople involved. These personal narratives were not shared openly in the historical past of the Olympics because a public stigma towards mental illness prevented and discouraged individual athletes from doing so. In fact, until just recently in the past decade, mental health activism seemed like a silent subject, not to be mentioned, due to stigmatization and stereotypical assumptions. The described introduction sets the stage to explain these celebrity athletes’ significance to audience members and readers exposed to their messaging through journalism, social media, television interviews, and documentaries. Based on name recognition and the volume of news coverage their narratives attracted, Michael Phelps and Simone Biles are the two leading mental health activists discussed in the latter half of this text. These two specific athletes have been praised [and, on occasion criticized] for their actions in different ways through various media outlets. Societal significance is discussed on a broader scale with the impact on athletes’ performances and the overall sports industry. The final discussion addresses new research directions and how media impacts mental health narratives among elite athletes with future implications.