As junior Ava Alvarez wakes up, her throat scratchy and her limbs unusually heavy, a headache starts to form behind her eyes. Under any other circumstances, it would be enough to stay home, but it’s race day. Within minutes, she’s out of bed, pulling on her uniform and heading out the door, pushing aside the thought of sitting the race out.

In the sports world, athletes often develop unhealthy mindsets around illness, nutrition and physical injury, ignoring physical and mental symptoms in order to stay on the playing field.

Stigmas around these factors create unhealthy expectations that athletes should be able to perform through discomfort, even when their bodies signal otherwise. 

Student-athletes in particular are often forced to resort to unhealthy habits in order to manage pressure and simultaneously meet expectations. With school responsibilities and competitive sports overlapping, many rely on poor sleep, skipped meals or overtraining in the days leading up to competitions

“You don’t really think about sacrificing vital things for the sport as unhealthy in the moment,” Varsity girls basketball player Claire Yu (12) said. “You’re just focused on doing whatever it takes to perform well and help your team win. I do realize that over time these choices can add up, ultimately affecting both people’s health and well being.”

At the same time, there is a stigma regarding vulnerability and illness in sports culture. Admitting to feeling sick or sore, especially before important games, can be viewed as letting the team down. As a result, athletes feel as though they need to downplay symptoms in order to avoid being seen as fragile. Nurse Tiffany Gelineau noted the recurring pattern of students dismissing symptoms. 

“If your doctor is saying to stay out, you need to follow that or else it will make the recovery much worse,” nurse Tiffany Gelineau said. “I see a lot of people that try and push through, especially with concussions, and they don’t always realize how serious the long-term effects can be if they don’t properly rest.”

Physical stress responses are linked to the body’s nervous system becoming overactivated, especially when the stakes of the game feel high. The combination of academic demands and athletic pressure can amplify these effects, making it harder to distinguish between mental strain and concrete physical illness. 

“I get really nervous before I play in a really important game,” Claire said. “That pressure can make it harder to stay calm and focused during the game. I’ve never had to sit out due to physical responses to stress, but I can imagine athletes competing at the Olympic level, in front of millions of people — that’s got to take a mental toll on them.”

Additionally, many athletes experience unhealthy relationships with food due to comparison with others or the idea that performance can be improved either through extreme dieting or eating more. Stress can drive athletes towards these practices, both of which deeply weaken the immune system and slow down injury recovery. Over time, these habits take a toll on mental health and undermine performance rather than improve it.

“I definitely went through a time where I felt like the smallest version of myself would be the best version of myself competition-wise,” Ava said. “The truth was, that time was some of my worst results. In reality, the healthiest version of yourself is the best way to have the results that you want.”