Abstract
Four British Rio Olympians described post-Olympic blues as Olympic highs followed by homecoming lows — with celebrity rising during the Games then collapsing after return, hurting wellbeing; athletes often read the slump as a normal response to coming home.
Howells, K., & Lucassen, M. (2018). Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 37, 67–78. DOI
Key findings
- High–low arc — Experiences spiked around the Games and dropped after return to the UK — a recurring emotional rhythm, not a single bad day.
- Three phases — Athletes named Olympic experience, homecoming, and moving forwards as distinct temporal chapters in the post-Games story.
- Celebrity cycle — Celebrity developed during the event then diminished afterward — status and attention loss compounded negative affect.
- Normalised blues — Negative emotions and behaviors were often interpreted as a normal response to returning home — short-term phenomenon in this sample, not automatically clinical depression.
Limits
Four female British athletes · IPA · retrospective interviews — no medal winners in sample; later work (e.g. broader Rio cohorts) notes expectation–performance gaps and support access matter too. Qualitative — no population prevalence claim.
Application
When identity was the Games and the room goes quiet afterward, read this before panic: plan homecoming and next horizon support the way you planned the peak — celebrity and attention are fuel; their drop is data, not proof the climb was wrong.