The IOC is endorsing routine mental health screening and ongoing monitoring for elite athletes, emphasizing wellbeing as a system-wide responsibility across the sport ecosystem.

This guidance draws on the IOC consensus statement and editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, with linked sources for further detail.

Formal emergency plans should be established, rehearsed, and reviewed in elite settings, outlining responsibilities, referral pathways, and escalation processes, while recognizing that coaches and entourage members also bear mental health burdens.

Barriers such as stigma, confidentiality worries, and fear of deselection are identified, with calls to address them directly within organizations to enable disclosure and care.

Treatment should be personalized, culturally sensitive, and evidence-based, potentially involving psychotherapy or medication, with return-to-sport decisions based on safety, psychological stability, functional capacity, and training management.

Recommendations should be applied at predefined time points and after significant events, taking into account the full range of factors affecting training and competition.

Clinicians and sports bodies should proactively tackle stigma and confidentiality concerns, with care plans tailored and evidence-based.

Guidance also calls for addressing low mental health literacy, safeguarding for athletes, Para athletes, and adolescents, and attention to transitions and disability-specific stressors with culturally responsive management.

The piece notes youth-sport implications, including who administers screening and who holds results, due to fears of deselection and potential misalignment of responsibilities at clubs and academies.

Policy aims to translate high-level standards into routine practice at lower levels, addressing how screenings are administered, results handled, and ensuring those administering care aren’t deciding playing time.

Screening should occur at defined career points and after major events, injuries, deselection, retirement, or coaching changes, serving as an early warning and referral trigger rather than a substitute for clinical assessment.

Confidentiality is central to effectiveness, clarifying who can access results and how data may be used to prevent masking by athletes.