Contemporary issues in Sports Psychology highlighted by Olympic Games Paris 2024

Abstract

This paper briefly addresses several themes related to sport psychology that emerged from monitoring the Olympic cycle culminating in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. We discuss issues related to technological and media advances and their impacts on athletes’ conditions of (re)adaptation and coping with competition and high performance. We also highlight the observation of athletes who, despite appearing highly motivated, react poorly to experiences of frustration, defeat, and uncertainty during Olympic contests. The study further problematizes the dehumanization of athletes amid the growing commodification of sport and proposes the need to recognize athletes in their subjective and human dimension. Finally, we emphasize the relevance of psychoeducation in athlete development, the critical stance toward common-sense assumptions, and the importance of clarity and conceptual consistency in the language of sport psychology. We conclude by underscoring the psychologist’s role in sustaining the ambiguity experienced by athletes in their social and imaginary roles—especially intensified by social media, which amplifies multiple forms of demands, idealization, aesthetic pressure, and symbolic violence.