Entering the 2021 Summer Olympics, the world had high expectations for Simone Biles, and she delivered in the most unexpected way. The superstar gymnast captivated audiences, but not through another gold medal-winning routine. Instead, she turned heads with her decision to step away from competition and focus on her mental health.

“We also have to focus on ourselves, because at the end of the day we’re human, too,” Biles said in an interview published with the Associated Press. “We have to protect our mind and our body, rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do.”

Biles’ moment of vulnerability in the Olympic spotlight helped fuel the growing conversation surrounding mental health in sports. She is just one of the several elite athletes who have publicly opened up about their personal struggles with mental health.

In 2016, right before he was set to compete in his last Olympics, Michael Phelps shared his mental health issues publicly for the first time.

“It wasn’t easy to admit I wasn’t perfect. But opening up took a huge weight off my back. It made life easier,” Phelps said in an interview with ESPN. “Now I’m opening up again. I want people to know they’re not alone. So many of us are fighting our mental health demons now more than ever.”

The stigma that surrounds mental health in sports has continuously kept athletes from feeling comfortable in addressing their own challenges. With their open and frank dialogue, athletes like Biles and Phelps serve as an inspiration for every other athlete who may be silently facing a similar struggle. 

“Mental health has a stigma that is tied into weakness and is absolutely the antithesis of what athletes want to portray,” said Dr. Thelma Dye Holmes, the executive director of the Northside Center for Child Development in an interview with the New York Times.

Athletes are burdened with expectations to be strong enough to persevere challenges on and off the field. The sports culture teaches them to push through any adversity which makes prioritizing mental health difficult. Without the encouragement to prioritize mental health, it also makes many athletes uncomfortable when talking about the topic.

“There’s a risk when you expose yourself that way and I think that is where the stigma comes from because it’s rooted in the socialization of sports – the culture of don’t show weakness, toughen up, just persevere through it kind of thing. Socialized norms take a long time to change,” said Katie Brookes, performance health coach for Northeastern University Athletics.

The phrase “mental toughness” is frequently used by coaches when they are training their players, but what does it really mean to be mentally tough? In a sports context, being mentally tough translates to being resilient in difficult competitive situations. Ironically, for an athlete to feel mentally tough there needs to be an understanding of that individual’s mental health.

“I see mental health as the foundation that any sort of skill rests upon. Be mentally tough, but teach me how,” said Brooks. “If there is a platform for mental health then [an athlete’s] ability to be mentally tough is heightened.”

Athletes have been trained to understand the importance of being strong in terms of physical health and many have the resources to maintain it, but is it the same with mental health? As more athletes continue to share their struggles, the general awareness of the subject will continue grow as well. From there, the demand for more professionals, programs, and other resources will likely increase.

“When you step back you realize there aren’t that many resources. It’s not something that is addressed regularly, and I think the reason for that is the stigma that is attached to it,” Brooks said.

One key for developing the conversation about mental health in sports is creating a safe environment for athletes to be vulnerable. Morgan’s Message, an organization with the mission to remove the stigma of mental health issues among high school and college athletes, does just that.

Morgan’s Message was founded after Morgan Rodgers, a talented student-athlete at Duke University, committed suicide in July of 2019. Morgan’s family and friends created the organization with the hope that they could create a platform for athletes to share their stories and open the conversation about student-athlete mental health, especially on their campuses.

Claire Kehoe, the director of education at Morgan’s Message, helped create the organization’s education program. “About a year later, we now have over 350 individuals at over 250 high school and college campuses in the U.S. and Canada,” said Meaghan Birnie, co-founder, and director of outreach of Morgan’s Message.

The education program supports their student ambassadors in becoming active leaders and advocates that encourage the dialogue around mental health on their campuses and in their communities. Education programs like this have the potential to become the platforms we need to will make eliminating the mental health stigma more possible. Morgan’s Message’s expansive platform has increased the number of resources available to athletes, coaches and schools.

“We think that by bringing these groups to campuses and have a student-run peer-to-peer network then people know it’s not a taboo conversation,” Birnie said. “The more we say Morgan’s Message the bigger it can grow.”

The athletes who participate with Morgan’s Message are no different from Biles, Phelps and the other famous athletes who have shared their mental health journey.

“It only shows younger athletes who have similar aspirations or just look up to these celebrity athletes as idols that they are all just human above all else. It doesn’t mean your career has to be over, and it can even make you able to come back stronger than ever,” Birnie said.

It is clear that as long as athletes—whether they compete at the high school, collegiate or professional level—keep the dialogue going and fueling the conversation, then it won’t die.

“The more athletes that we get to share their stories—the more Simone Biles-type individuals that share their stories—the more coaches that make it a priority and the more we make it a part of education in schools,” said Birnie. “It’s only going to help [the movement].”