Sports Burnout Recovery and Its Influence on Resilience and Team Cohesion Among Athletes
By Heidi Sonia Tasman —
A study by Madigan et al. (2022) shows that the prevalence of burnout symptoms has increased over the past two decades. This major psychological issue in sports is commonly associated with negative outcomes, such as the risk of dropping out of sports (Isoard-Gautheur et al., 2016). Nevertheless, “with the right support, full recovery is possible, and often, athletes return stronger and wiser” (Souleiman, 2025). Although burnout may negatively affect athletes’ mental health, athletes may gain higher resilience and teamwork skills post-recovery.
Maslach (1986) initially defined burnout as a multidimensional psychological syndrome with three symptoms: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. However, in 2001, Raedeke and Smith adapted this theory to improve its portrayal in the sports context. Raedeke and Smith extended the concept of emotional exhaustion to include both physical and emotional exhaustion, highlighting the highly demanding nature of sports that was once overlooked. Similarly, depersonalization was altered to devaluation, meaning a loss of interest and a growing negative perspective towards one’s sport. Finally, reduced personal accomplishment was adapted to reflect a reduced sense of athletic accomplishment, encompassing the competitive pressure that athletes may experience.
Coping with burnout itself is challenging; elite athletes often have to maintain their daily performance and prepare for competition while lacking motivation. Nevertheless, burnout recovery is crucial and should be prioritized over training. Burnout recovery is initiated with permission to rest physically and mentally; a time away from sport is essential and may provide clarity and healing (Souleiman, 2025). While reducing training load may be helpful, obtaining restorative sleep, adequate nutrition, positive social connections, and reduced psychological stress all play important roles in recovering (Gustafsson et al., 2017). Additionally, seeking professional assistance and rediscovering enjoyment in the sport may improve the pace of recovery.
As athletes successfully overcome burnout, they may return stronger with higher resilience. Sporting resilience refers to “a person’s ability to evaluate what they think, feel, and do when faced with adversity, which allows them to operate at their previous level and successfully adapt to persist” (Gupta and McCarthy, 2022). After recovering, athletes often develop healthier motivation and mindsets, as well as stronger emotional regulation, making resilience a dynamic process that can be strengthened over time. Through adaptation and reflection, athletes may gain lessons from their burnout experience to develop effective prevention and coping strategies, which may help them bounce back from future stress.
In point of fact, a considerable number of sport players who have previously experienced burnout create a supportive system based on shared experience. The feeling of social connectedness, known as relatedness, underlies athletes’ bonds in collective sports. Relatedness is especially essential in team-based athletics, where the importance of teamwork, referring to working together, extensively affects athletes’ performance (Campbell, 2018; Allain, 1997). In 2002, Sarazzin et al. discovered that demotivation and intention to quit increased when sportswomen encountered low relatedness among group members. Hence, a group whose members have previously had similar experiences will better empathize with each other and develop stronger team cohesion.
While burnout may induce negative effects, sport performers can acquire more profound resilience and teamwork following recovery. By adapting to and learning from previous experiences, athletes may better overcome similar situations in the future. Ultimately, being in a group with teammates who have had similar experiences increases the sense of relatedness, resulting in better teamwork. This summons us to support athletes during their burnout recovery process, with the purpose of reinforcing them as they return to their sports.