The mental health of elite athletes has been much in the news this year.

In May, tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open and then from Wimbledon,

saying she needed to focus on her mental health.

At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, gymnast Simone Biles, the greatest of all time,

skipped most of the competition because of a mental performance block.

And sprinter Noah Liles, who won a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash,

spent much of his post-race interview discussing his battle with depression and anxiety.

The world has noticed.

One media analytics company found that in the week following, Biles' withdrawal from the Olympic competition,

more than 9,000

news stories generated more than 2 million social media interactions that mentioned the gymnast and her mental health.

This media attention may be new, but the field of sports psychology is not.

Psychologists were on the ground with the Olympic athletes in Tokyo, and an increasing number of

professional and college sport teams and athletes at all levels now hire sports were on the ground with the Olympic athletes in Tokyo, and an increasing number of professional

and college sport teams and athletes at all levels now hire sports psychologists to improve their game.

So what is sport psychology? How do sport psychologists work with athletes to improve their performance

and their mental health? Is there a role for sport psychology outside elite athletics?

How does it relate to performance generally?

And how might the discussion around athletes' mental health affect the perception of mental

health in the United States and around the world?

Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association

that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life.

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