Changing the Game

2025-05-20

If you watched the Paris Olympics in 2024, it was hard to miss the coverage on sports and mental health. Specifically, the amazing comeback story of Simone Biles, who became the most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time after withdrawing from the Tokyo Games due to mental health issues in 2020. The narrative around sports and mental health requires nuance, and the specific situations smatter greatly. For example, in the world of elite athletes, a study conducted by the International Olympic Committee in 2019 found that up to 35 percent have mental health...

The narrative around sports and mental health requires nuance, and the specific situations smatter greatly. For example, in the world of elite athletes, a study conducted by the International Olympic Committee in 2019 found that up to 35 percent have mental health concerns. The intense pressure to perform and achieve perfection can often be a contributing factor to depression or anxiety. But on the opposite end of the spectrum, a widely cited 2019 study by the NIH noted that sports often has a net positive outcome on mental health in adults.

And for kids, sports are generally accepted as something with positive outcomes on metal health, grades, physical health, and social emotional growth. However, as kids’ sports become more specialized and intense, sometimes mental health issues emerge even in these arenas.

In this episode, we’ll speak with three entrepreneurial leaders each at the intersection of sports and mental health, who are creating access to mental health resources and provoking conversations surrounding it.

First, an entrepreneurial leader in philanthropy who is helping organizations secure grants to do lifesaving work. A Babson alum and CEO of a nonprofit that has reached over 1 million kids with group mental health services through sports and a Babson alum and former basketball player whose nonprofit supports mental health services for college and elite athletes.

Beth Brown, Managing Director of Mental Health and Well-Being at the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation
David S. Cohen ‘95, CEO of Doc Wayne
Teddy Sourlis ‘22, CEO and Founder of Men’s x Mental, Inc.

Sources:

Intro and Outro Segments:

1. Reardon CL, Hainline B, Aron CM, Baron D, Baum AL, Bindra A,

Budgett R, Campriani N, Castaldelli-Maia JM, Currie A,

Derevensky JL, Glick ID, Gorczynski P, Gouttebarge V, Grandner

MA, Han DH, McDuff D, Mountjoy M, Polat A, Purcell R, Putukian

M, Rice S, Sills A, Stull T, Swartz L, Zhu LJ, Engebretsen L.

Mental health in elite athletes: International Olympic Committee

consensus statement (2019). Br J Sports Med. 2019

Jun;53(11):667-699. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2019-100715. PMID:

31097450.

2. Eather N, Wade L, Pankowiak A, Eime R. The impact of