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Even the world\u2019s record-breaking athletes are not immune to the lows of grappling with burnout and mental health challenges.<\/p>\n
Freestyle skier and Olympic champion Eileen Gu said following the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing\u2014where she won two gold medals and one silver for China at age 18\u2014she was hit with a wave of burnout and anxiety, a feeling shared by many other elite athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this thing called post-Olympic depression, and it\u2019s like, very common among athletes, a pretty well-known phenomenon. But the interesting thing is, it\u2019s not at all correlated to results,\u201d Gu said in a June 2025 episode of The Burnouts<\/em> podcast hosted by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s kind of surprising to people, is like, you can win the Olympics and still just enter the deepest rut of your life and just really be questioning everything, your purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[You] feel so burnt out, but at the same time just have all this anxiety and pent up energy, not sure where to direct it,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd I was no exception.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At 22-years-old, Gu\u2019s accomplishments have already mounted. Aside from being the youngest Olympic champion in freestyle skiing, Gu also attends Stanford University, having scored a 1580 on her SAT. Her modeling has led her to become a founding member of Victoria\u2019s Secret\u2019s VS Collective helping to reshape the brand\u2019s image, and she was recently featured on the cover of Time<\/em> magazine. The Chinese-American athlete earns $23 million per year, but only a fraction of it comes from her illustrious skiing career. She has had endorsement deals with Porsche, Red Bull, and IWC Schaffhausen, as well as Chinese brands like Anta Sports and Luckin Coffee.<\/p>\n Born in San Francisco and raised by her mother, a first-generation Chinese immigrant, Gu competes under the Chinese flag. At the Winter Olympics in Milan, she is set to compete in the women\u2019s slopestyle, big air, and halfpipe. The game began on Wednesday, with the gold medal events starting on Feb. 7.<\/p>\n Gu said she reached her lowest point six months after the 2022 Olympics, when, despite her success, she became overwhelmed by how she was supposed to take her next steps.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re working your entire life towards this one massive goal,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re 18, you feel like you\u2019re on top of the world, and then you hit this hole.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just Gu who has experienced the come-down from victory at the global games. A 2023 study of 49 Danish Olympic athletes found more than a quarter of competitors reported below average wellbeing or moderate to severe depression, with 16% of participants reporting both. Female athletes had higher depression scores than their male counterparts.<\/p>\n Among the athletes who have grappled with the \u201cpost-Olympic blues\u201d is American swimmer Michael Phelps, who has 28 total Olympics medals, including a record 23 gold medals from five Olympic games. He told NBC News<\/em>\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d in 2024 he struggled with the post-game blues as early as his second Olympics in 2004, when he won six gold medals and two bronze medals.<\/p>\n \u201c2004 was my first taste of post-Olympic depression, you know, coming off such a high,\u201d he told NBC<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s basically\u2026 you get to like the edge of a cliff, like \u2018Cool now what? Oh, I guess I\u2019ve got to wait four more years to have the chance to do it again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Karen Howells, a sports psychologist, said these athletes may be experiencing the blues after a very specific experience and the years of training leading up to it, but many can relate to the period of reorientation following a big event, even a successful one.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s normal that when we build up to something, and then it\u2019s over, we are going to feel lost and upset,\u201d Howells told The Athletic<\/em>. \u201cThere may be anger, frustration, irritation.\u201d<\/p>\n Gu said she navigated burnout by seeking counsel in her support system of her mother and friends, who offer advice, despite Gu treading unfamiliar\u2014and unprecedented\u2014territory in her record-breaking career.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeking mentorship in a holistic sense is sometimes challenging, because a lot of the things I do kind of are the first time someone\u2019s doing it in the way that I\u2019m doing it,\u201d Gu said. \u201cBut there are people who\u2019ve gone through really incredible experiences, and everyone\u2019s unique.\u201d<\/p>\n Gu recently took time off following injuries, something her mother has encouraged her to do.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom\u2014I think people think that she\u2019s like, crazy tiger mom, but she\u2019s actually the opposite\u2014she\u2019s like, reverse tiger-momming me and being like, \u2018When are you going to drop out? When are you going to take time off?\u2019\u201d Gu said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nHow athletes navigate post-Olympic depression<\/h2>\n