Transcending The Scoreboard: Exploring Athlete’s Experiences and

Perspectives in Competitive Sports

Bonifacio, Kim G. Petonio, John Robert N.

Garcia, Arjay M. Sales, Von Eric P.
Hilario, Reynaldo Jr. Umali, Ranie C.
Moraleda, Ara Mina

Dr. Amalfi B. Tabin, Jr.

Thesis Adviser

Abstract
This study examined athletes' experiences and perspectives in
competitive sports, emphasizing psychological, emotional, and social
dimensions beyond scores and rankings. Using qualitative methods,
including interviews and narrative analysis, the research captured insights
from athletes of varying ages, genders, and competitive levels. Findings
revealed that athletes face challenges such as stress, anxiety, and
performance pressures before, during, and after competitions. They also
experience intrinsic rewards like personal growth and satisfaction,
alongside extrinsic benefits such as recognition. Social and cultural factors,
along with support from coaches and trainers, significantly influence their
motivation and resilience. The study underscored the importance of a
holistic approach to understanding athletes' well-being, advocating for
strategies that integrate emotional support with physical training. It offered
valuable insights for fostering a supportive environment that enhances
performance and long-term development.
Through interviews with athletes from various sports, the research
revealed that many athletes view success not only in terms of results but
also in personal growth, resilience, and the ability to overcome setbacks.
The pressure to perform at a high level can affect their sense of identity,
mental health, and overall well-being. While some athletes find meaning in
the process of training or in their relationships with teammates, others
struggle with burnout, anxiety, or the feeling of being defined solely by their
performance.
 This study suggested that a more holistic view of athletic success is
needed — one that goes beyond outcomes and includes personal
development, mental well-being, and the intrinsic rewards of sports. It
called for a shift in how society values athletes, emphasizing their emotional
and psychological experiences rather than just their competitive results. By
highlighting the broader scope of the athletic experience, the research
encouraged a more balanced understanding of what it means to succeed in
sports.

Keywords: Athletes' experiences, competitive sports, emotional well-being,

resilience, mental health, performance pressure, identity, success and
failure.

INTRODUCTION

This study explored the complex aspects of competitive sports in

terms of athletes' experiences and perspectives, moving beyond traditional
measures of scores and rankings. This qualitative study incorporated
methods such as interviews and narrative analysis to discover often-
invisible psychological, emotional, and social aspects of participation in
sports. It aimed to explore how motivation, well-being, and engagement in
sports were affected by different influences from within and outside of
athletes.

Three variables that included psychological well-being, emotional

dynamics, and social influence were evaluated. Psychological well-being
described the mindset of athletes regarding motivation, resilience, and
inner drive that propelled them forward. Scholars had recommended
inspiration as a strong motivational force that propels one towards attaining
his goals (Arthur, Hardy & Woodman, 2019). This study further built on the
findings of Thrash et al. (2019), in such a way that inspiration would have a
significant impact on self-growth by improving an athlete's view of their
capabilities and helped understand how the phenomenon manifested in
athletes' experiences. The second variable was emotional dynamics: the
gamut of feelings that athletes experienced from pre-competition anxiety to
the thrill of success.

According to Hanin (2020), positive emotions could strengthen

performance, while those negative emotions like fear or self-doubt
destroyed it; this report indicated that emotional regulation remained an
important skill for an athlete, enabling him to grapple with high-stakes
situations, such as the pressure felt by a soccer player during a penalty
shootout (Smith, 2019). Last but not least, social influence addressed the
communal aspects of competitive sports. According to Aiguang Chou (2019),
competitive sports were not just about winning but also created social and
cultural ties through organized activities with challenges and uncertainties.
Qu's (2018) classification of sports, which considered the influences of the
objectives of the tournaments and the contexts of participation, underlined
the importance of these influences in understanding athletic engagement.

This research could be relevant in that it could help with filling in the
knowledge that was missing in sports psychology, say, in bridging that gap
that had to do with understanding the internal athlete experience and
further on that how sport impacted personal development and resilience.
Traditionally, success measures tended to use the external performance
results while the factors that moved an athlete were far much than what
could be measured, for example, Smith, (2018). Therefore, the present
study's results can guide both coaching practice and mental health support
strategies to respect holistic well-being in athletes, promoting emotional
resilience that ensures a balanced perspective of sports performance from
easy success.

The motivation to conduct this research was on drawing a desire to

examine those aspects of sports participation that were unrepresented in
the literature. Although such work as Thrash et al. (2019) would
demonstrate how inspiration may spark self-concept and growth, it did not
demonstrate how athletes might live those developments through the
entirety of their athletic career. Finally, also useful would have been
comprehension of how athletes deal with emotional conflict in competition
which would be helpful to indicate supportive strategies that increase
participation and enjoyment in sport as well (Smith, 2018). Whereas there
was strong research into inspiration and emotional resilience, no research
had ever been conducted on athletes' experiences about these factors
within a competitive setting.

Hanin (2020) noted that emotions influence performance. However,

hardly any research had spoken about the long-term changes within both
positive and negative emotions as well as their impact on the psychological
well-being of athletes as well as on their social relationships. Where others
were exploring the process of categorization by sports, writers like Aiguang
Chou in 2019 and Qu in 2018 talked less about fine-tuned experiences of the
athletes within these contexts. The research filled the gap by furthering
understanding on how the athletes navigate complexities in the personal
and social areas of competitive sports.

Literature

Experiences in Competitive Sports

According to the 2018 outline by Christopher J Brown, Thomas L Webb,

Mark A Robinson, and Rick Cot grieve, the participants were able to realize
that people cared for them and listened to them and this factor made
support work. Some participants were not very good at seeking out or
asking support, and these individuals also thought transition was a harder
experience than others. With increases in the transition process, the self-
related adaptation was very much related to participant changing sense of
self. This new social relationships and role provided a sense of security from
others but also provided scope for providing support to other fellow retired
athletes.

Providing support helped participants feel growth which assisted in

adjustment to life outside of sport.

Researchers found that former collegiate athletes (FCAs) evidenced

unfavorable changes in physical and mental health later in life that may
have been compounded by physical inactivity following retirement from
college sport. Pre-intervention, it is necessary to understand the experience
of FCAs with PA after sports and the characteristic of programs they found
helpful. Seventeen inadequately active ex-Division I National Collegiate
Athletic Association athletes participated in semi-structured interviews to
examine their experiences of post-sport PA and perceptions of effective
program characteristics (Paula-Marie M Ferrara, Rebecca A Zakrajsek,
Morgan R Eckenrod, Cory T Beaumont, Kelley Strohacker, 2023).

Richard A. Sawyer, Sara K. Behnke, and Benjamin L. Snyder,

published in 2018, said that when collective goals are clearly set, it
increases team performance, cohesion, and member satisfaction
considerably. Shared-goal teams had a higher performance than no shared-
goal teams in social bond and satisfaction.
 Scientific current developments were structured as judgments from
the most influential perspectives such as economic, social cognition,
ecological dynamics or cognitive approaches illustrating some milestones in
research on judgment and decision-making in sports of today (Markus Raab,
Michael Bar-Eli, Henning Plessner, Duarte Araujo, 2019).

The concept of pressure in elite sports looked at its various forms,

which include competitive pressure, organizational pressure, and social
pressure. It further delved into how pressure affects the performance of the
athletes, psychological states, and well-being and pointed out the positive
and negative effects. It also mentioned the strategies that athletes use to
cope with pressure, which include imagery, self-talk, and mindfulness
techniques (Wagstaff, Fletcher, & Hanton, 2018).

These results were found based on an article by Jowett and colleagues

in 2019, focusing on the relationship with the coach and rewards offered in
sports. They show that a good relationship with coaches means that athletes
have higher rates of satisfaction and commitment in training, thus positively
improving performances. They also highlighted that those intrinsic rewards,
such as receiving positive feedback, autonomy support, and a caring
coaching style, were important because these have been linked to athletes'
intrinsic motivation and enjoyment for their sport.

Team Goals

According to Heleen Van Mierlo and Edwin A. J. Van Hooft (2020),

team achievement goals reflected shared motivational states that existed
exclusively at the team level. Teams performed better to the extent they
were more approach- and less avoidance-oriented in terms of both mastery
and performance; although mastery-approach goals related to early-season
team performance rather than predicting later changes in team
performance. The application of team achievement goals in general and the
team-level 2 X 2 framework in particular was new to research on sports
teams and warranted further attention regarding the shared nature of team
performance-avoidance goals and the meaning and consequences of team-
level mastery-avoidance. Moreover, all four team achievement goals
regarding team performance outcomes; team mastery-avoidance;
performance-approach; and performance-avoidance achievement goals also
concerned changes in team performance later in the competitive season.
Extending individual achievement goal theory suggested that teams scored
more game points across the competitive season to the degree these teams
were more approach-oriented and less avoidance-oriented regarding both
mastery and performance. This possibility of temporal shifts in the
importance of different achievement goals for team performance across the
lifecycle of a team was indeed a promising area for further study.

An evidence-based review by J. M. M. van der Linden et al. (2023),

summed up the connection between achievement goals and emotions in
team sports athletes. A systematic search of 23 studies revealed that
achievement goals are positively related to positive emotions and negatively
with the negative ones. The study pointed out the importance of
achievement goals in the prediction of emotional experiences in team sport
athletes and recommended that coaches and trainers should focus on the
promotion of achievement goals to enhance athlete well-being and
performance. According to Chris Ring et al. (2021). Interdependence theory
postulates that performance is affected by social interaction through task
structure.

For this purpose, they apply the framework to the sport performance.
Fifty-six males completed a basketball task in one of four conditions:
individual (individual; do your best) and cooperative (cooperation; where
teammates aimed to improve their individual performance); means
independent competition; where two teams competed in sequence to
outperform the other team; means interdependent competition; where two
teams competed simultaneously to outperform the other team). Task
performance was higher in the independent competition condition in
comparison to the other conditions. Competitions had the highest levels of
anxiety and effort, while enjoyment was much higher in the competition and
cooperation condition than in the individual condition. To explain the
performance effects, emotions, efforts, and actions were hypothesized.
Social interdependence theory was an effective device for framing emotion,
motivation, and performance. Team competition can thus be applied for
effort building and performance improvement in sport (Williamson et al.,
2022). Goal setting was widely used in sport. Even though several reviews
had examined the performance effects of goal setting, little was known
about its concurrent psychological and psychophysiological effects.
Therefore, they conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis that
synthesized the effects of goal setting on task performance in addition to
various psychological and psychophysiological outcomes in sport. According
to Healy et al. (2018), goal setting was a method that could lead to
improved performance, commonly used in sporting contexts.
 Recommendations for goal setting have been widely used in sport and
performance settings by researchers, practitioners, athletes, and coaches.

Yet, on the other hand, these suggestions were maybe too simplistic;
within the sporting literature, there was not enough critical commentary to
recognize that in reality, goal setting was complex. For instance, it has been
recognized that important considerations of applied recommendations have
remained ignored including the following: individual differences among
people when formulating goals; environmental contexts; and characteristics
of goals being pursued. Equally relevant was that most goal-setting
research had focused on progress or achievement toward goals, which then
ignored the greater benefits of efficacious goal pursuit on other facets like
well-being. In an analogous manner, the same academic literature and
applied recommendations generally provided scant attention to the
interplay between these various factors which may have all led to reduced
effectiveness with goal setting among athletes resulting in taking them to a
suboptimal performance where low well-being was a side effect.

Decision-Making

According to Ashford, Abraham, and Poolton (2021), making good

decisions is necessary while performing at their optimum level in elite
sports. We were always in a question of how athletes who we worked along
with the coaches could help athletes make better decisions at different
times. It has the thinking process where choice happened in available
alternatives based on most reasonable actions from them. Under this,
athletes were supposed to make consideration of the game and personal
goals to help in making appropriate choice. Mental pressure in making
choice described psychological stress or pressure athletes experienced,
especially in competition. Skills in decision making in sports took some
period to learn. By employing these strategies, the athletes would be able to
enhance their decision-making and, therefore, would be able to perform
better under pressure. The mental game would become sharp due to their
decision-making at the proper times, and this would be the way to obtain
greatness in their sport.

According to Silva, Ramirez-Campillo, Sarmento, Alfonso, and

Clemente (2021), the decision-making interventions were independently
associated with a significant improvement in youth team sports players'
tactical behavior against the number of sessions that players were exposed.
DM interventions were also associated with a significant improvement in
technical execution. The outcome must be interpreted in a more cautious
manner considering heterogeneity in the overall quality of the articles.
Future DM interventions should have included a combined approach that
enabled players to develop both tactical behavior and technical execution.

According to McCluney, McCullick, and Schempp (2018), decision-

making had been studied in psychology and business for quite some time;
however, scholars had only recently started focusing attention towards this
type of decision-making in the coaching field. This study determined
which performance-related factors, referred to as stressors, caused the
greatest pressure, or strain, on basketball coaches' in-game decision-
making. Males and females who were basketball coaches with an average of
19.77 years of experience were asked to rate 14 stressors separately as to
whether they caused great (1), moderate (2), or low (3) pressure on in-game
decision making. Descriptive statistics were used to determine which
stressors produced high, moderate, and low pressure on coaches' in-game
decision making for the entire sample and for gender, years of experience,
current coaching position, educational level, gender of athletes coached,
and level of athletes coached. Perhaps differences between high-school and
college coaches may have reflected which decision was made, if in or out.
These data were relevant as they could help guide researchers in how to
design studies of coaches' pressurized in-game decision-making processes.
Decision making was the bedrock of athletic performance, influencing sport
outcomes at every level of competition, as noted by Mendoza (2024). This
would elevate performance and success for any athlete on the field, court,
or track with understanding the key factors that determined decision
making and developing strategies to strengthen this critical skill.

Through practice, experience, and commitment to continuous

improvement, the art of decision making in sports was well within anyone's
reach. In sports, it was referred to as the process of assessing various
options and selecting the most appropriate one in a given situation. It
involved factors such as the assessment of the opponent's tactics, analysis
of the game situation, and execution of the selected strategy with precision
and confidence. Effective decision making not only improved individual
performance but also contributed to team success, making it the
cornerstone of athletic excellence. According to InnerDrive (2024), decision-
making was a fundamental element of any sport, especially open, fast,
dynamic team sports such as volleyball, football, soccer, rugby, and
basketball. To succeed in winning any game and competition at national and
international levels in all individual and team sports there was a need to
reconsider all success factors in order to make a better decision to win. At
the elite level, coaches and athletes seemed to make good decisions in
highly temporally constrained situations.

Although there were no systematic ways of decision making in sports

for decision-making agents such as coaches, athletes, and referees, there
were some characteristics that seemed general enough to take away from
these fields. It aims to identify those features that later on is linked to
the practices adopted in taking study choices towards sports events,
particularly involving coaches and athletes: such game-changing decisions
that enhanced decision-making in sports. According to Khan, W. Khan S.,
Arif, T., and Khan S. R. (2018), in sports, the skill of decision-making was
quite significant as it had to be adopted in order to achieve the essence of
sportsmanship responsible for making an actual impact on real life.
Decision-making was a process by which athletes considered their context
and opted for a strategy that best suited their current sporting situation.
Although effective management could achieve the ultimate area of an
assumed task; however, the process was complex because it relied on an
athlete's skills to find the right information in environmental planning and
plan further actions while choosing the most appropriate response
according to the particular situation.

Sports were broadly regarded as an essential element of developing

life skills and promoting healthy early stages.

Intense Pressure

According to Low, Freeman, Butt, Stoker, and Maynard (2023),

pressure training (PT) placed systematic pressure on the athlete as he
trained to ready them for the psychological challenge of competition. The
article explores how one places pressure on physical therapy and its effects
on a performance at competitions. Its specific objectives were to explore the
views of athletes and sport psychologists about: (a) typical features of
effective pressure manipulations; and (b) PT's mechanisms for improving
performance under pressure. Eight international athletes and eight sport
psychologists participated in semi-structured interviews. Three
characteristics of successful pressure manipulations have, therefore, been
identified through thematic analysis: expanding the scope of consequences
(a), mimicking psychological demands of competition (b), and roughly
emulating the degree of competition pressure but not reproducing it exactly
(c). Three components were described in the review as describing how
physical therapy improved performance: (a) development and application of
coping strategies, (b) "changing the relationship" with pressure, and (c)
raising the standard of teaching. This would enable athletes to understand
the benefits better and be convinced that they should engage in physical
therapy (Low, Freeman, Butt, Stoker, & Maynard. (2022).

According to Piepiora and Witkowski (2018), the purpose of this study

was to create psychological portraits of the athletes who both engage in
individual and team sports using the types of pressures they have on
opponents in a competition. It has been selected that contact with an
opponent during a competition should be a basis for differentiating the
applied pressures. The neuroticism and conscientiousness scales showed
that there existed differences between the sports disciplines in which
pressure was indirectly applied to the opponent and the practices in which
pressure was directly applied to the competitors. In general, athletes were
more affable and responsible than volleyball players; however, differences
between the groups under study existed regarding neuroticism, except in
the case of the comparison between footballers and volleyball players. The
findings revealed that the personality of a player was affected by the kind of
pressure applied to their opponent in the cases of individual as well as team
sports. This allowed building psychological profiles of elite athletes.

According to Mesagno, Garvey, Tibbert, and Gröpel (2019), when a

performer exhibited extreme deteriorations of performance under pressure,
the activation pattern in the left hemisphere persisted. In many tests, on
physical and cognitive tasks, brain activation for left-handed people differed
from that in right-handed individuals; the pattern of left hemisphere
activation was more robust in the right-handed; these findings implied that
"choking" (acute deterioration in performance) of athletes under pressure
occurred whenever they could not perform in an expected manner at the
critical moment.

Due to pressure manipulation, both groups reported state increases in

anxiety to be equal; this meant that the two handedness groups had equal
increases in anxiety. Results: There are performance differences between
left- and right-handed participants under the high-pressure condition. The
left-handed retained the performance, while that of the right-handed
degraded. In other words, further EEG studies studying this relationship
may establish the association between handedness and choking. According
to Arthur-Cameselle and Keeler (2024), it was indicated that even 15
minutes of mindfulness training could positively influence the performance
of athletes in pressured situations, but it was unknown how minimal
mindfulness training might be and still have some effect. The purpose of the
present study was to explore how different durations of MT affected free-
throw shooting under pressure. About 46 participants with prior experience
playing competitive basketball completed pretests on mindfulness and
anxiety before shooting under duress.

Participants were assigned to match groups based on performance. In

fact, there was no evidence for differences between groups regarding
average shooting percentage, nor did anxiety and mindfulness states
change under extreme pressure. The results were checked regarding
applicability and potential interactions between characteristics, motivation,
and incentive values. According to Svenja A Wolf, Katharina Utesch (2024).
Competition itself was linked with stress that could negatively and
positively influence performance through the engendering of cognition as
well as emotions. Teams were also common in sports and had various
impacts on their members. However, nothing was known about how teams
affected how their members responded to pressure, including how they
functioned as a resource by distributing responsibilities and mitigating the
consequences of pressure or as an additional demand that created social
indispensability and contributed to its effects. To determine whether
outcome interdependence vs. independence influenced athletes' perceptions
of task importance and coping prospects, anxiety and excitement, and
penalty shooting performance under lower vs. higher situational pressure,
and the extent to which performance order and teammate skill moderated
these effects, we conducted a field experiment among two samples of skilled
handball players. We found that whereas pressure increased emotional
arousal and job importance, it had no influence on whether or not someone
was in a team.

Descriptively, interdependence did enhance excitement rise when

combined with experienced teammates but depressed anxiety rise under
higher pressure.

However, lack of pressure changes, insensitive sampling, and

measures made that replication was essential and definite inferences about
how teams affected members' reaction to pressure could not be drawn.

Rewards

As Litvik (2023) asserts, awards were bivalent in sports and athletic

events. That is, they served as an inspiration to athletes to be the best and
do more than they have ever done. They were also a form of appreciation
for the work done by the athletes, teams, and the support staff. Winning an
award would come with recognition, which may be a good motivation to
athletes to keep training and improving. Awards also played an important
role in creating a sense of community and competition within sports and
athletic events. In many cases, they also served as symbols of achievement
and were able to bring people together for the same goal. More often than
not, awards also helped define the culture of a particular sport or athletic
event, and certain awards could be seen as synonymous with excellence and
achievement in that particular area.

According to research done by Zia-Ul-Islam Sohail Roman, Afshan

Jabeen from Sarhad University of Science & Information Technology (2020),
the reason for the selection of this present study was that the performances
were reported to be low among university athletes as well as meager
participation at national and international level sport competitions. The
main focus of this research study was to highlight the effect of incentives
(traveling allowance, daily allowance, and refreshment cash prizes
accommodation facilities reserved sport seats scholarships) upon athletes'
performance levels at university level both in public and private sector
universities in KP province Pakistan. Methods: The researcher selected 671
athletes and 31 director sports out of a total population of 3305 from both
sector universities as samples. An 82% return rate of responses was
recorded. Proportionate random sampling technique was preferred to
provide equal chances for each university's population for true
representation in the selected sample. The required information was
collected through five-option Likert-type questionnaires. The pilot testing
(validity and reliability) of the self-prepared questionnaire was made
accordingly. Results: The results showed that the non-availability of proper
incentives affected athletes' performance levels both in public and private
sector universities in KP Pakistan. Furthermore, results also showed that
greater effects were noticed in private sector universities compared to
public sector universities. Conclusion: It was concluded that improper
incentives affected the performance levels. According to Smoll F.L., PhD,
2019, "due to intrinsic motivation to play "for fun," the participant athletes
were playing sports." As extrinsic rewards became the reason the athletes
started playing sports, withdrawal of those rewards removed the interest in
participating in the sports.

In some instances this problem migrated from particular sports to

sports as a whole.
 In any case incentives could have provided youth with short-term high
points but resulted in long-term depreciation of athletes' motivation.
Training in a sport typically consumed most of their time keeping them from
having part-time jobs. In such instances it's understandable that parents
provide athletes with additional pocket money since they did not have time
to work. Adults who were responsible for youth sports administrators'
coaches' parents needed maintaining proper perspectives so trophies didn't
become be-all end-all participation. It was important that awards were
modest proportions available for most-improved dedicated athletes as well
as most skillful ones.

According to Stephanie H., Danielle T., Jennifer J.W., (2018). Athletes

competed in practiced sport for various reasons falling into two major
categories intrinsic extrinsic motivation. Athletes who were intrinsically
motivated participated sports internal reasons such enjoyment whereas
extrinsically motivated participated external reasons such material rewards.
Extrinsic rewards were central competitive sports; athletes received
publicity awards money among other things college-level athletes obtained
scholarships talents.

According to Shi X., Kavussanu M., Cooke A., McIntyre D., & Ring C.
(2021). Performance competition simple physical tasks team competition
was facilitated rewards with optimal performance associated unequal
rewards(i.e. Performance-related pay).The benefits performing rewards
compared no rewards explained increased cohesion effort. Social
interdependence theory helped explain performance simple motor tasks
team-based competitions. The findings had implications pay structures
adopted by sports teams.

Challenges in Competitive Sports

According to Rice et al. (2019), elite athletes were subjected to unique

stressors, which may increase the risk of mental illness among athletes.
Some of these key factors include the psychological impacts of injury,
overtraining, and burnout as well as coping with continued competitive
pressures to perform. Further high-quality epidemiological and intervention
studies would be necessary to evaluate and address athletes' mental health
needs at a level consistent with their physical needs. Ideally, where possible
and appropriate, the findings should have been shared outside the
organization or sporting code.
 Moreover, as argued by Paul et al. (2020), even though sports
participation had several positive effects on individual health and well-
being, the athletes were also subjected to more risk factors that may have
affected their mental health. The sports medicine physician and other
members of the athletic care network were best placed to identify early
signs of mental health issues and intervene appropriately. Providers had to
have a thorough understanding of how issues arose in the athletic
population, as well as an awareness of the relevant psychological, cultural,
and environmental influences. In addition, professional athletes had higher
self-esteem and sensation-seeking tendencies than amateur athletes.

In addition, athletes with lower levels of self-esteem and sensation-

seeking were more likely to experience depression, anxiety, social anxiety,
and negative physical symptoms, all of which could impair performance. At
the extremes, too little or too much athletic identity could limit
performance. Performance was likely more impaired by externally driven
perfectionism encouraged by parents, coaches, teammates, or others than
by internally driven perfectionism. Externally driven perfectionism was
related to low mood, anxiety, anger, and hostility-all of which could
undermine performance (Chang C., 2020). According to Yufei Qi et al.
(2024), this study significantly improved understanding of the impact of
digital technologies on sports operations. The research showed widespread
adoption of technology and associated benefits in terms of performance,
injury prevention, fan engagement, and organizational efficiency. However,
balancing opportunities for innovation with ethical risks and
implementation challenges remained key. When the level of sport
participation was competitive, it was prone to becoming entangled with
other stressors such as injury, performance pressures, high internal and
external expectations, and difficult retirement transitions. Retirement could
leave athletes vulnerable to experiencing mental health challenges,
especially if an athlete had developed a strong athletic identity (Jewett, R.,
Kerr, G., & Tamminen, K., 2018).

In summary, elite athletes were exposed to numerous stressors that

included psychological injury, overtraining, and media pressure that could
exacerbate vulnerabilities to mental illness. Sports participation offered
many benefits, but the athletes were at risk of mental health issues that
need early detection and intervention by sports medicine professionals.

Knowing the special psychological profiles of athletes, such as self-

esteem, sensation-seeking, and perfectionism, is important for performance
and well-being. High-quality epidemiological studies and interventions
were essential to address elite athletes’ mental health needs
comprehensively and disseminate findings beyond the sporting community
for broader impact.

Perspectives in Competitive Sports

Higham (2020) indicated that the value of athlete perspectives in

directing the course of sport tourism highlighted current challenges and
future directions. The demand for research to include a broader scope of
sports and sport-related tourism was reflective of an increasing interest in
participative and recreational sports. Such initiatives were instrumental in
informing the solutions to widespread social and environmental issues.
Higham's work provided important insights into trends that were
developing in sports tourism.

Yet a significant gap existed in the literature on sports involvement of

African American girls. A more nuanced understanding of the association
between involvement in school-sponsored athletics and the academic
benefits toward enhancing African American high school girls' educational
development is an important area of focus. A high-poverty, majority-
minority high school was five times as likely to have weak promoting power,
indicating a requirement for focusing on the academic need of African
American female students.

Most of the research on sports in the educational environment

focused on the effects of high school athletic participation on White and
African American males, pointing out the differences between the two
groups regarding the association between athletic participation and
academic achievement, as well as educational and occupational attainment.
While it was very important to bridge the achievement gap between
White and minority students, it was equally important to look at what
contributed to achievement gaps among African American students. Overall,
research on sport tourism has developed greatly and has taken different
approaches within the scope of the study, including the connection between
active leisure and active vacation, the effect of participating in sports on
academic performance, and the importance of the perspectives of athletes
in determining the direction of sport tourism.
 However, there was still a need for more research on the impact of
sports participation on the educational endeavors of minority female
students and the factors contributing to achievement gaps among African
American students. According to Jeffrey Ives et al. (2020), the simultaneous,
head-to-head environment of the sprint task led to faster sprinting, but the
sequential competitive environment of vertical jumping did not lead to
significantly higher jumps. These findings suggested that a definitive
competitive environment could lead to improved physical performance or at
least consistent maximal performance compared to a more ambiguous
competitive environment.

This enhanced training environment was likely an outcome of a more

motivating environment that contributed to stronger mental and physical
effort. Most notably, this effect was found in all subject groups, even
those not considered to have strong competitive traits. These results were
consistent in athletes, non-athletes, males, and females and had
implications for athlete training and recreational exercisers. According to
Yanik (2019), athletes with a desire to win concealed unethical behavior and
exhibited unsportsmanlike behavior to deceive all stakeholders, especially
referees. If the athlete's attitude was based solely on score orientation and
performance results only interested them with regard to their physical
skills, it may have become so clear that this would do it all and was
everything needed in the life of such athletes; they were role models in
society, expected of (Arslan & Sezen-Balçıkanlı, 2019).

For the simple reason that when this virtue of sportsmanship was
disregarded and forgotten in search of victory-this is actually a great means
for bodily development and nurturing affection toward sport the
consequence can prove to be adverse or even cataclysmic (Giray, 2021).

Once more, several of the athletes followed some kinds of

sportsmanship behaviors based on their attitudes, values, and practices.
Consequently, the external factors that included making the team
successful and gaining external rewards and popularity led to a lack of
emphasis on sportsmanship and unethical behaviors. This situation resulted
from the perception of winning at all costs (Mohd-Zain et al., 2021). A poor
coach-athlete relationship also made athletes suffer from negative cognitive
and emotional states. Thus, athletes were suffering from maladaptive
behavior patterns and demonstrating unsportsmanlike conduct both on and
off the field (Shippert et al., 2019).
METHODOLOGY

This research explored how the psychology and sociology of sports overlap
by looking beyond performance measures. This would help in the
understanding of athletes' experiences much better. By consulting other
studies, it aimed at a more detailed understanding of what influences
athletes.

For this, the research employed surveys, interviews, and focus groups
with participants from various sports backgrounds, ages, and competitive
levels. The careful selection process guaranteed that a wide range of
perspectives were represented, which would add depth to the data
collected.

The data was then analyzed using statistical methods and thematic
exploration to determine the patterns of how athletes view competitive
sports. All findings were presented clearly using visual aids like tables and
figures to clearly communicate the result.

Based on experiential evidence and existing literature, conclusions

and recommendations were drawn toward enhancing the experiences and
competitive sport performance of athletes in study conclusion. The results,
therefore, guided the way for future studies by practically providing insights
that facilitated not only practitioners but policymakers improve the
competitive sports environment.

In this study, the researcher employed qualitative data analysis using

Colaizzi’s (2019) descriptive phenomenological psychological method to
analyze data gathered from respondents’ experiences and perspectives.
These data were obtained through various means, such as face-to-face
interviews, written narratives, and online interviews.

According to Praveena and Sasikumar (2021), citing Colaizzi, the

process began with the researcher listening to audio recordings and
reading through transcripts multiple times to gain a general understanding
of the content and immerse themselves in the data.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Sub-Problem 1. Demographic Profile of the participants in terms of
age, gender, sports played and levels of competitions.

Figure 2

Age Profile of the Participants

Figure 2 shows the age distribution of the participants. Forty percent

(40%) of the respondents were in the 21-23 and 24-26 age groups. Twenty
percent (20%) were between 18-20 years old, making the total 100%.

The sample includes athletes aged 18-26, from various sports and
competition levels. Research indicates that athletes' experiences and
physical abilities can differ greatly depending on their age, which can affect
their performance and training. For example, a study in the *Journal of
Sports Sciences* highlights that athletes aged 21-23 often reach their peak
physical performance, improving both individual and team results during
competitions (Baker & Horton, 2019).

The larger number of participants aged 21-26 compared to those aged

18-20 could be explained by several factors. People in the 21-26 age range
are often more independent, which makes them more likely to join sports
programs or activities. On the other hand, younger participants (18-20) may
have fewer opportunities to participate due to school obligations or parental
oversight.
Figure 3

Gender Profile of the Participants

Figure 3 shows the gender breakdown of the participants, offering an

overview of how different genders are represented in the sample. It
indicates that the number of male respondents (50%) is higher than that of
female respondents (30%) and LGBTQ+ respondents (20%), with a total of 5
males, 3 females, and 2 LGBTQ+ participants. This means that most of the
participants were male. This gender imbalance matches findings from
several studies that show women and gender minorities are often
underrepresented in surveys, especially in fields like technology and
engineering. For example, a study by Smith et al. (2020) found that male
participants often outnumber females in STEM-related surveys, reflecting
wider societal patterns.

The higher number of male participants may be due to greater

interest or involvement in the survey topic. On the other hand, females and
LGBTQ+ individuals might feel less represented or more reluctant to share
their views. To achieve a more balanced gender representation in future
surveys, it would be helpful to create strategies that encourage and actively
engage a more diverse group of participants.
Figure 4

Sports played of the Participants

Figure 4 displays the different sports played by the participants,

showing the variety of athletic activities they are involved in. The athletes
participate in various sports, including team sports like badminton,
basketball, chess, table tennis, taekwondo, track and field, and volleyball.
The most popular sport among the group is volleyball, with 60% of
participants playing it. Basketball and track and field each have 20% of
participants, making them the second most common sports.

This data shows that team sports, like volleyball and basketball, are
more favored, which might appeal to athletes who enjoy working together
as a team. Track and field, while less common, still attracts a noticeable
number of participants. The popularity of team sports suggests they
dominate competitive environments.

The popularity of team sports, such as volleyball, is supported by the

study of Eys et al. (2018), which focuses on the role of social bonds in team
sports. Their findings revealed that athletes in team sports have more
motivation and satisfaction levels due to the teamwork nature of these
sports.

There are several reasons why more participants might have played
volleyball compared to other sports like basketball. Volleyball is often seen
as more accessible because it requires less specialized equipment and can
be played in many different locations, such as beaches, gyms, or backyards.
Additionally, volleyball's growing popularity, particularly in schools and
recreational leagues, may draw in a larger group of players. Finally, the way
the survey was structured may have appealed more to volleyball players,
encouraging a higher response rate.
Figure 5

Level of Competition of the Participants

Figure 5 compares the levels of competition between collegiate and

professional athletes. Ninety percent (90%) of the participants compete at
the collegiate level, while only ten percent (10%) are involved in
professional sports. This shows that most athletes in this study are still in
the early stages of their careers, balancing both their education and sports.
The smaller percentage of professional athletes may be due to the highly
competitive nature of reaching professional sports and the limited
opportunities at this level.

Collegiate sports play a crucial role in developing athletes who aim to

move into professional leagues. A study by Lally and Kerr (2019) found that
student-athletes often develop important skills like time management,
teamwork, and leadership, which can help them in both sports and other
careers. Collegiate programs are important for nurturing talent, allowing
athletes to grow physically and mentally while competing at a higher level
than they may have before.

There are typically more collegiate athletes than professional ones

because college sports programs have more teams and athletes, while
professional leagues have smaller rosters. Additionally, college sports
attract a broader range of students who are eager to compete at the
collegiate level.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of the study led to the following conclusions in terms of

the research questions.

1. Most of the respondents are collegiate athletes, strongly male dominated,

and volleyball is the most favored sport. This is a developmental stage of
athletes who have to manage sports commitments with academic
responsibilities. Including diverse genders, such as LGBTQ, shows how
inclusive the athletic community is and points out the vast differences in the
needs of athletes dealing with both personal and academic requirements
which are bound in the competitive sport.

2. Competitive sport participants described experiences characterized by

struggles such as performance expectations, stress from injuries, and team
dynamics. While many spoke about the importance of personal growth,
resilience, and strength in the face of adversity, they also mentioned
significant physical and emotional stresses. Support systems and faith
proved to be essential coping mechanisms for them, underscoring the
significant impact competitive sports have on their lives.

3. Competing sportive activities have a considerable and profound effect on

their growth in the personal plane by fostering resilience and improvement
of decision-making skills towards more challenging and competitive
performances to meet the goals on the team. Overcoming academic
schedules, stressful pressures, and handling of injuries all contribute
positively, thus leading to development based on time management skills
and goal-setting, together with the support systems needed in this
endeavor.

4. Success in competitive sports is driven by continuous learning, mental

readiness, discipline, and resilience. The essential factors include a growth
mindset, effective time management, patience, and strategic thinking, along
with talent, hard work, teamwork, and strong support systems. All these
elements help athletes overcome challenges and achieve long-term success
both on and off the field.

5. The intervention program of "Strength through Tough Times" enables

empowerment of the athletes by improving the mental toughness and
stress-management skills. It increases concentration, performance, and
even confidence among athletes through such training as visualization,
management of coping strategies, and simulated game scenarios.

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