Every sports psychologist knows that resilience is a cornerstone of success for elite athletes and performers, but it’s often misunderstood as simply pushing through adversity. In reality, the secret to sustaining resilience lies not just in hard work, but in the combination of rest and maintaining a balanced athletic identity. For athletes striving to compete at your best, it is essential to recognize that rest is not a sign of weakness—it’s a strategic tool for growth and necessary to reach your peak potential. At Headstrong Mindset, we’ll unpack the key takeaways on resilience training for elite performers from this Olympic performance.
Photo Credit: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
The Comeback Story of the Winter Olympics
The incredible comeback story of Alysa Liu at the 2026 Winter Olympic games in Milan Cortina has a lot to teach us all. Liu became the first US women’s figure skater to win singles gold since 2002. Multiple times throughout the Olympic event, television announcers and analysts commented on how relaxed, carefree, and playful she seemed in the lead up to the competition. It was as though Alysa Liu was completely detached from the weight of the outcome and genuinely thrilled to get to skate in the Winter Olympics again.
When asked about how she was able to maintain her sense of calm, Liu answered “Winning and losing don’t affect me anymore… Medalling doesn’t fulfill me. I skate because I like to skate.”
But this wasn’t always the case for Liu who retired from figure skating at the age 16 after competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Prior to retirement Liu described the intense pressure as “traumatizing” and talked about feeling like her life was on the line when she skated.
Stepping away from the sport for two years allowed her to gain a sense of control over her life and pursue other interests including fashion, travel, attending college at UCLA, and frequenting karaoke bars with her friends which ultimately made her a much more well rounded person. Pursuing a balanced life outside of the ice rink allowed her to rediscover her love of staking and return to her sport with a renewed sense of creativity and passion.
When she took the ice for her final skate in Milan, her mindset had completely changed. “I didn’t need a medal,’’ she said. “If I fell on every jump, I would still be out there wearing this dress, so no matter what, I was all good.’’
The Unexpected Key to Resilience
Liu’s journey to the Olympic podium reminds me of a talk I heard given to a room full of coaches at the American Volleyball Coaches Association Convention. Let me introduce you to Dr. Roberta Kraus, PhD., the President of the Center for Sports Psychology in Colorado Springs. Dr. Kraus’s presentation titled Resilience Tools and Techniques was focused the importance of giving yourself adequate recovery time and having a balanced athletic identity to avoid career burnout.
“We have to spend time getting them back to the love of their sport, the love of performing and the love of participating the sport,” said Dr. Kraus. “Versus worrying about a ranking, a world record or a podium. As soon as you start focusing on an outcome, you’re adding additional pressure that starts in the mind, and the mind and the heart always decides what your body does.”
Dr. Kraus is a sports psychologist renown for helping athletes and teams reach their peak performance through a holistic approach to mental wellness and mental toughness. The mental training programs that she’s designed and implemented have a proven track record of improving player performance, communication and team dynamics under pressure. She’s worked hand in hand with Olympians and Paralympian’s at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center to support athlete mental health and help athletes achieve their dreams. Given her extensive experience in working with world class athletes, she could have talked about any aspect of sport psychology but she chose to focus on recovery and resilience strategies because career burnout is the greatest threat to your athletic career.
How to Avoid Burnout
According to a poll from the National Alliance for Youth Sports, approximately 70 percent of kids in the United States drop out of sports by time they turn 13 because, “it’s just not fun anymore”. Staleness syndrome starts at a young age and continues to plague players and coaches at every level. Athletes and coaches who overtrain, lack life balance and deny themselves critical space for rest and recovery experience burnout.
In other words, players and coaches lack resiliency. Dr. Kraus defines resiliency as, “the capacity of a department, team, coach or athlete to maintain their emotional balance, to empathize, to hope and to persist in the face of frustration”. So how we cultivate healthy patterns and habits within our team to support resilience training for elite performers?
The solution is a combination of rest and balance. Rest is critical because it helps prevent injuries, reduce fatigue, and enhance mental clarity, allowing you to bounce back from setbacks and perform your best when it matters most. However effective recovery strategies include more than just your physical needs like sleep, proper nutrition, hydration, rehab and active rest days. Incorporating practices of mindfulness, imagery and individual sports counseling can further support your healing process, reduce stress, strengthen your mental toughness and help you overcome burnout. By prioritizing your mental health and wellness, athletes and coaches not only recover faster but build a foundation for enduring resilience—both physically and mentally.
Let me put it simply, if you want to stay in the game long term, you’ve got to have balance. Allow yourself time to physically recover and explore other passions in life. Having a balanced athletic identity and being intentional about your recovery time are a critical components to developing resiliency in players and teams.
Get the Support You Need
Maybe as you read this, the story feels familiar —a spark of recognition that you know there is more to life than your sport, but you don’t know how to access it. The good news is that you don’t have to retire or step away complete, there are other ways to find balance, build mental resilience and extend your career by overcoming burnout. Choosing to invest in your mental health and wellness could be the most important investment you make in your career. You deserve to be in control of your own life and pursue your athletic career with joy and creativity.
At Headstrong Mindset, Dr. Brooke Rundle specializes in guiding elite athletes and coaches, through this very process. As an AASP Certified Mental Performance Consultant and licensed sports counselor in Colorado, Dr. Rundle is dually trained in both clinical mental health and sport psychology. This holistic approach to sport psychology can help you reconnect with your true self and rediscover your passion.
- Schedule your complimentary 15-minute consultation with Dr. Brooke Rundle today.
- Learn more about how mental coaching and sports counseling can help you build resilience and overcome burnout.
- Embrace the next chapter in your athletic career: one rooted in joy, resilience, and a deep love for your sport.
Other Services and Resources
In case you missed it, you can watch Alyssa Liu’s gold medal performance and learn more about her career as a member of the US National Figure Skating Team here.
For more tips on how to avoid burnout during your season, check out this interview with Utah University’s Head Volleyball Coach Beth Launiere on how to avoid burnout during your college season.
If you don’t already have it, make sure to download the free workbook that provides mental training worksheets to help you improve focus, increase confidence and balance your athletic identity.
