Competing in elite sport, despite its merits, is damaging to both children and teenagers. Wojtys (2013) found that children who specialised in a single sport at a young age, who then continue to reach success at an elite level, experienced much higher rates of depression and anxiety. With a drastic increase in likeliness of experiencing poor mental health in adulthood. This is due to athletes attributing their self-worth purely to their performance ability, as a result, mental health is thus reliant on their successes and failure, introducing an element of instability. Furthermore, Nixdorf (2016) found that athletes within individual sports risk increased development of depression and anxiety. Further negative impacts of elite sport participation during childhood include increased risk of overuse injuries, development of antisocial behaviours, poor coping skills and increased social isolation (Jayanthi, 2013). Early specialisation can also lead to a phenomenon called ‘sports burnout’ identified by Gomes (2017) as the physical or emotional exhaustion that comes with the long-term stress associated with sports performance. This burnout can result in mental health issues, declines in motivation, illness, fatigue, and the child abandoning any sport in its entirety. It is for these reasons that I strongly argue that early sport specialisation in childhood should be discouraged. Wojtys, Edward M. “Sports specialization vs diversification.” (2013): 212-213. Nixdorf, Insa, Raphael Frank, and Jürgen Beckmann. “Comparison of athletes’ proneness to depressive symptoms in individual and team sports. Research on psychological mediators in junior elite athletes.” Frontiers in Psychology 7 (2016): 893. Jayanthi, Neeru, et al. “Sports specialization in young athletes: evidence-based recommendations.” Sports health 5.3 (2013): 251-257. Gomes, A. Rui, S. Faria, and C. Vilela. “Anxiety and burnout in young athletes: The mediating role of cognitive appraisal.” Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 27.12 (2017): 2116-2126.

I would have to disagree with this opinion, especially since sport and sport participation is not only seen as a leisure activity, but contributes towards the overall development of physical and mental wellbeing. And while there admittedly are valid concerns involving the overall wellbeing of children participating in youth elite sports, it should also be noted that there are athletes (children) who choose to narrowly specialize in one sport because it is their passion, they enjoy it, and they choose to spend their time focusing on that sport. I believe what needs to be addressed, at large, is the management of how things are done. For instance, the blog on us.humankinetics.com points out that with youth elite sport participation there is a risk of overspecification – which apparently is quite a common occurrence in sport. They define this as, when the exclusivity or intensity of specialization is so great that children suffer adverse mental and physical health effects. What's more, the danger of this occurring can be as a result of either pressure from parents, coaches, the sports industry, etc. Nancy Justis (2018) who is a correspondent for the Gazette, confirms this when she points out to us that the main reason for this, as well as, children quitting sports early is as a result of adults. Furthermore, she goes on to say that according to Gordon MacLelland of “Working with Parents in Sports,” parents, coaches, the school, sports industry and private providers should all be held accountable to a certain degree. MacLelland says, coaches are to blame because they’ve “put success ahead of smiles and excellence ahead of enjoyment." In other words, performance and being the best is all that counts. Parents are to take some of the blame, since they are the targets of the elite junior sports salespeople and not the athletes. Schools are at fault for the large number of junior elite sports academies and institutes, especially since secondary schools are establishing ‘sports-academies’ as a marketing (tool) to attract more families to the school.” The sport industry has to accept some responsibility as well because they’ve pushed and promoted the ‘pathway’ to healthier living and excellence in (certain) sporting activities. Also, private providers need to accept some of the responsibility as some of their practices are questionable with regards to morals and integrity. Moreover, the world of sport has seen some great examples of youth elite sport, especially in the figure skating industry. Some of the top figure skaters that have been affected by this and that it has had a negative impact on are Julia Lipnitskaya and Gracie Gold - both were affected by eating disorders. Other skaters that have also been affected by this but in a more positive light are Michelle Kwan - overcoming criticism that she was too old and had nothing left to offer, Yuna Kim - struggling with a painful back injury, and Gordeeva and Grinkov - Gordeeva chose to become a single skater after her husband Sergei died of a heart attack . Here then, is undeniable proof that youth elite sport specialization shouldn’t be discouraged as it’s not all bad. It’s plain to see that while external factors definitely influence and play a role in shaping an athlete's experience, it’s also important that they have a strong support system around them. Possible solutions to address might be to look at the age category, which includes when or how early athletes (children) should specialize in a sport. To be more precise, the various sports federations/organizations can have a look at the age that is acceptable for the different sporting categories and perhaps make some adjustment. Also, more openness where psychological issues are concerned needs to be looked at. According to Sally Hilton (2021), a UKCP registered Psychotherapist who also owns her own developing practice working with sports people, in recent years there has been more acceptance and admission of the problem of mental health in elite sport. MacLelland also offers some very doable solutions such as looking at changing the terminology that we use by not using the words ‘elite’ or ‘high performance’ or thinking about elite junior athletes. He also suggests changing the marketing strategy by not making exaggerated promises of success. And finally, the most important one yet, where he mentions that we need to stop trying to turn children into elite level performers and focus more on creating sporting experiences which provide the opportunity for them to “fall in love” with the sport or sports (they are interested in). Youth elite sport will always have these vulnerabilities, as do other sport categories as well. However, I do not believe that truly talented children need to be deprived of the opportunity to explore and have fun, or to possibly be denied the opportunity of becoming the next Olympic swimming, gymnastics, etc. champion. Especially since there might very well be children who are exceptionally talented and do express their own interest (without being forced or coerced by parents, coaches, etc.) Athletes should decide for themselves whether and how much to specialize in a particular sport or sports, with proper, honest, transparent guidance and support (not mandates) from parents, coaches and the various other organizations involved. After all, if they do what they love, they’ll love what they do. Sources: 1) Mental health in elite sport: It's tough to talk https://believeperform.com/mental-health-in-elite-sport-its-tough-to-talk/ [accessed January 26, 2021]. 2) Specialization in Youth Sport https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/specialization-in-youth-sport [accessed January 26, 2021]. 3) Your young athlete is not 'elite' https://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/iowa-prep-sports/your-young-athlete-is-not-elite-20181123 [accessed January 26, 2021]. 4) Yulia Lipnitskaya https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Yulia_Lipnitskaya [accessed January 26, 2021]. 5) Eating disorders: The dark side of figure skating https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/2/16/eating-disorders-the-dark-side-of-figure-skating [accessed January 26, 2021]. 6) Michelle Kwan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Kwan [accessed January 26, 2021]. 7) Yuna Kim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuna_Kim [accessed January 26, 2021]. 8) Ekaterina Gordeeva https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekaterina_Gordeeva [accessed January 26, 2021].