US Olympians grapple with mental health. What’s being done?

• A significant number of U.S. Olympians and Paralympians are expected to face mental health concerns leading up to the 2026 Winter Games.
• The USOPC has expanded its mental health resources, increasing staff and services following criticism and high-profile athlete struggles.
• Freestyle skier Nick Goepper, who has faced his own mental health battles, noted the significant improvement in USOPC resources over the last decade.

When it comes to mental health, the math is sobering as the 2026 Winter Olympics approach.

About half of the U.S. Olympians and U.S. Paralympians set to compete at the Milano Cortina Games will not be at their best mentally, according to Jonathan Finnoff, chief medical officer of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC).

‘Going into the Games, we know that 50 percent of Olympic athletes and 60 percent of Paralympic athletes are going to report some symptoms of mental health concern,’ Finnoff said in October at the Team USA Media Summit in New York.

So is the USOPC prepared to support those athletes? (The U.S. Olympic team is comprised of 232 athletes and the final U.S. Paralympic team will be announced March 2.)

Finnoff said the USOPC has built ‘an incredibly robust program.’ He noted the hiring of 16 dually certified mental health and mental performance providers, virtual consultation services with more than 500 psychological services professionals and several ways to assess athletes for mental health needs.

But at times, the USOPC’s mental health program has drawn more scrutiny than praise.

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The Borders Commission, created by the USOPC in 2018, concluded in a 2019 report that mental health care can and must be expanded. And Michael Phelps, the legendary swimmer who retired in 2016 as the most decorated Olympian in history, has talked openly about his own mental health struggles and repeatedly criticized the USOPC.

‘I can honestly say, looking back on my career, I don’t think anybody really cared to help us,’ Phelps said in ‘The Weight of Gold,’ a documentary released in 2020 about mental health challenges faced by Olympic athletes.

Simone Biles impact

At the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, what happened out of competition was no less important than what happened during competition.

In a shocking moment, Simone Biles withdrew from the final individual all-around women’s gymnastics competition. The American superstar later explained she’d suffered from ‘the twisties,’ a mental block that leaves a gymnast unable to safely complete twisting skills.

Biles opened up and sparked a conversation about mental health. Tennis star Naomi Osaka and sprinter Noah Lyles also opened up as the talk about mental health issues continued.

In time, the USOPC took action.

The USOPC said that between the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris Olympics in 2024, it increased the number of licensed psychologists on its staff to 15 from six.

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‘When Biles walked off the floor in the middle of the gymnastics team final at the Tokyo Games, it created a powerful paradigm shift throughout the sports world and beyond,’ the USOPC stated in its 2021 Impact Report.

In 2021, the USOPC announced a $1.5 million donation from the Rieschel Family Foundation for mental health support. At the Team USA Media Summit in October, the USOPC again mentioned donations received for mental health services.

‘We’re really, really focused on it,’ Finnoff said, ‘and we’re lucky this has been something that the leadership and, frankly, the public and all of our partners have really focused on is the health and mental well-being of Team USA athletes.’

A place of aimlessness

Nick Goepper, an American freestyle skier who is preparing for the Milano Cortina Games and his third Winter Olympics, has struggled with mental health issues.

‘Thankfully, the USOPC has amazing resources for us now in terms of the mental health stuff, which has gotten way better over the last 10 years,’ Goepper said.

With Biles, Osaka and Lyles watching their Winter Olympic counterparts, Goepper carries the torch for athletes trying to end the stigma around mental health issues. Since his Olympic career began, Goepper has said he has been to rehab for substance abuse and experienced depression, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.

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‘I’d say over the last 10 years I’ve experienced some high highs and low lows,’ Goepper said in October at the Team USA Media Summit. ‘Specifically after the 2014 Games and the 2018 Games, I kind of found myself in a place of aimlessness. And sort of lost, like, ‘What’s my purpose, what am I doing?’ And these kind of existential questions when you’re living in this tiny vacuum after you do the coolest thing you’re ever going to do in your life.

‘So I think it’s important to take care of your mental health or else you’ll find yourself in mental hell.’

From good to great

The USOPC’s corporate partners, which included Coca-Cola, Samsung and Visa, are not forking over tens of millions of dollars to have the most well-adjusted and mentally sound athletes in the world.

Medal count is important.

But the USOPC has experienced a shift over the past five years, providing services for mental performance and mental health, said Jessica Bartley, senior director of psychological services for the USOPC.

Bartley said she was hired about five years ago and ‘we were really focused on mental performance. We also really needed to be aware of mental health. And there was a lot shifting during that time.’

All of the USOPC’s providers are licensed in mental health and certified in mental performance, Bartley said. She also said there were 1,200 mental health sessions with Team USA athletes during the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

‘We actually coded every single session in Paris, the majority of our sessions were actually mental performance,’ she said. ‘We’re often really pushing athletes to go (from) good to great, and there was a lot of life issues that came up.

‘We had people that were going through real life issues, and we’ve had competitions where somebody actually experienced a miscarriage or they lost someone. And so we also are trained in the life issues as well.’