After reporting on elite athletes for almost a decade, I have one main takeaway: They’re just like us. No, really.
For all the physical strength and dominance they display, athletes on the collegiate, Olympic, and professional levels are still susceptible to the vulnerabilities that plague us all. They fret over their identities and legacies, the health of their platonic and romantic relationships. Some days they wake up feeling invincible; on many other days they know all too well they aren’t.
In recent years, I’ve had conversations with dozens of athletes about their mental health, specifically. My new book, Mind Game: An Inside Look at the Mental Health Playbook of Elite Athletes, is a deeply reported look into the athlete psyche and what non-athletes can learn from it. As someone who hasn’t played competitive sports since high school, I needed as many direct glimpses as possible into what high-level play is like—and the mental tolls that come with it. For that, in addition to original interviews, I turned to athlete memoirs.
Whether you’re looking to be inspired to push past an obstacle in your way or you’re struggling and just want to feel seen by someone successful who’s been in your shoes, look no further than athletes’ own powerful words. After all, no one has a better handle on their mental health struggles than they do. Here are nine captivating sports memoirs that grapple with mental health.
My Greatest Save by Briana Scurry with Wayne Coffey
Scurry, the goalkeeper of the U.S. women’s national soccer team during the famous 1999 World Cup victory, chronicles the saves that she made look effortless on the field and the trouble that she had saving herself off it. After a career-ending traumatic head injury in 2010, she fell into depression and self-medicated with Vicodin and alcohol. The icon digs deep to describe how she found herself and fought for her chance at recovery.
Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised by Carmelo Anthony with D. Watkins
The 10-time NBA All-Star had a particularly tough time adjusting to fame after growing up in poor Brooklyn and Baltimore neighborhoods, where he described being surrounded by drugs and violence. For Anthony, learning how to be vulnerable as a Black man and process his feelings in a healthy way became a lifelong journey.
Open by Andre Agassi with J. R. Moehringer
A former men’s world No. 1 tennis player, Agassi details a childhood rife with emotional abuse. Nevertheless, he was high-achieving from his teenage days at a tennis boarding school. Agassi, who is honest and reflective throughout about the pressures of playing professionally, even addresses getting past his 1997 positive test for methamphetamine.
Over It by Lolo Jones
The summer and winter Olympian—a hurdler and bobsledder—is perhaps known best for her shortcomings in both sports, especially tripping over the penultimate hurdle in the 2008 Beijing Games and missing out on gold. What fans may be less familiar with are the negative mental health effects she experienced after the traumatic event, when strangers wouldn’t stop mocking her. Jones’s faith, as she tells it, got her through, just as it got her through a tough upbringing.
Till the End by CC Sabathia with Chris Smith
An MLB Cy Young Award–winning pitcher who starred in Cleveland and New York, Sabathia was hiding his drinking as much as possible during the early stages of his career. Inevitably, people started to notice his erratic, confrontational behavior. In 2015 he took a step not many athletes do: publicly announcing that he was checking into a rehabilitation program — right before the playoffs, no less. He revitalized his career afterward and became an advocate for recovery from mental health and substance use.
Rise by Lindsey Vonn
Vonn put together one of the best skiing careers of all time; when she retired in 2019, she was the most decorated American in her sport. But that success and her speed on the slopes came at a cost: She struggled with depression for decades, learning to cope by leveraging attributes like grit and perseverance. Here, she gives clarity for athletes and non-athletes alike to those oft-murky concepts.
The Save of My Life by Corey Hirsch with Sean Patrick Conboy
By his early 20s, the Canadian goaltender had accomplished his dream of making it to the NHL. He also earned a silver medal in the 1994 Olympics. But Hirsch was also wrestling with dark thoughts and relentless anxiety he wouldn’t share publicly until decades later, in a groundbreaking 2017 Players’ Tribune essay about OCD. This book is an insightful expansion of that article, detailing his path to recovery.
In the Water They Can’t See You Cry by Amanda Beard with Rebecca Paley
In 1996, Beard made the Atlanta Games at age 14, and, with her teddy bear famously in tow, she walked away with three Olympic medals (including one gold). But the fame and pressure that accompanied global success at such a young age took a toll on her mind and body, as she silently struggled with depression and bulimia in the following years. Slowly, she learned to trust those around her and seek the help she desperately needed.
Getting a Grip by Monica Seles
The tennis star peaked at the women’s world No. 1 ranking in the early 1990s. From there, things got considerably harder. In 1993, a fan of opponent Steffi Graf stabbed Seles in the back, forcing her to take more than two years away from the sport to recover. During that time, she developed a binge-eating disorder and depression, while coping with her father’s cancer diagnosis and death. She eventually persevered through it all, making it back to the court and even picking up a ninth grand slam.
