The world watched with anticipation as American Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn stepped up to the start gate to compete for her fourth Olympic medal. An improbable moment for the 41-year-old, who tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her final competition leading up to the 2026 Milano Cortina winter games – a moment made for the Olympics.
Instead, just 13 seconds into her run, a horrific scene unfolded. What many hoped would be a story of triumph instead turned into one of tragedy. Vonn experienced a complex fracture in her tibia, and the debate over whether competing with a torn ACL contributed to her crash ensued. But there are other factors to consider, possible psychological factors that may predispose athletes, such as Vonn, to injury.
Here, we explore what those factors are, how they might have impacted Vonn, and what these factors look like among student-athletes.
The stress and injury model
Although Vonn is a well-known example, injuries at the winter games are not uncommon. A study by the International Olympic Committee published in the British Medical Journal Open Sport & Exercise Medicine (Palmer et al., 2025) determined that 49.1% of Summer 2020 Olympians and 50.6% of Winter 2022 Olympians experienced an injury in their four years leading up to the Olympics. Although numerous factors can contribute to an injury, the best understanding of how psychological factors can play a role comes from a theoretical model developed by Andersen and Williams (1998). This is commonly referred to as the stress and injury model. The stress and injury model proposes that athletes with a history of stressors, who have personality characteristics that exaggerate the stress response, and have either few adaptive or maladaptive coping strategies, are more likely to perceive the event as stressful and thus exhibit physiological changes that could predispose them to injury.
History of stressors
The first component of this model is a history of stressors. A meta-analysis by Ivarsson et al. (2017) found that particularly negative life events, daily hassle, and previous injuries were associated with a higher injury occurrence. As this relates to our student athletes, another study in football players found that the highest risk of injury was during preseason (Mann et al., 2016). However, during the season, the risk of injury went up twofold in weeks of high academic stress. Although Vonn was not under any stress from an impending midterm, her previous injury, as well as the potential daily hassle of non-sport-related obligations associated with being a well-covered member of the Olympic team, could have been a potential psychological factor.
Personality traits
The second component of the theoretical model is personality characteristics. Desirable personality characteristics can have the ability to mitigate a stressful situation. One such personality trait is optimism. Individuals with an optimistic personality trait anticipate that good things are about to happen. A study by Wadley et al. (2013) showed that athletes with an optimistic disposition not only had a decreased likelihood of injury occurrence but also had more positive effects after an injury. A potential undesirable personality characteristic is higher levels of anxiety. Anxiety can be separated into trait anxiety and state anxiety.
Trait and state anxiety
Trait anxiety is an individual’s general disposition to perceive even mundane situations as stressful. State anxiety is when individuals become overly anxious during specific states. One example of state anxiety students may experience is test anxiety. As it relates to athletes, some athletes become overly anxious during an athletic competition. We consider these athletes to have what is referred to as competitive state anxiety. Interestingly, a study showed that track and field athletes who were considered to have higher levels of competitive state anxiety incurred not only more injuries but also more severe injuries (Hanson, McCullagh, & Tonyman, 1992). As it relates to personality characteristics, we could infer that possibly Vonn had both mitigating and aggravating personality characteristics, being both optimistic in her future performance but also potentially anxious about the possible outcome of the race.
Coping resources
The last component of the stress and injury model is coping resources. Coping resources can be internal from the athlete or external from their support group. Not surprisingly, athletes who have a strong social support not only have a decrease in injury risk but also show positive responses to daily hassles (Hardy, O’Connor, & Geisler, 1990). Internal coping resources, such as an athlete being able to self-control their amount of anxiety, stay focused in the moment, and use positive self-talk, also might decrease injury risk (Devantier, 2011). Although we do not know what is going on in their personal life and minds, Olympic athletes like Vonn and our National Team recognize the importance of maximizing these resources. In fact, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) employs 18 dedicated psychologists. At the 2024 Paris Games, they conducted more than 1,200 one-on-one sessions, more than at any previous competition (Abrams, 2026).
Eliminating the risk of injury
Altogether, it is hard to fully understand how and why injuries occur to ourselves or the athletes we watch. While there may be some variables we can control to help mitigate the risk, sometimes injuries can still occur. However, research supports the idea that athletes who have high social support and strong psychological coping skills can eliminate the risk of injury even in athletes with a history of stressors (Ivarsson & Johnson, 2010). Thus, if you are an athlete, try to build a strong support system with your family, your teammates, and your coaches. It can have a large effect on injury prevention, but also on recovery after a potential injury.
References
Mann, J. B., Bryant, K. R., Johnstone, B., Ivey, P. A., & Sayers, S. P. (2016). Effect of Physical and Academic Stress on Illness and Injury in Division 1 College Football Players. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 30(1), 20–25. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001055
Palmer D., Soligard T., Fernandes G., Collins D., Elliott N., Kelly P., Murray I.R., &Engbretsen, L. (2025) Insights from the first IOC Olympian Health Cohort: injury and illness in Olympians preparing for the Tokyo 2020 Summer and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. 2025;11:e002545. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2025-002545
Wadey, R., Evans, L., Hanton, S., & Neil, R. (2013). Effect of dispositional optimism before and after injury. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 45(2), 387–394. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e31826ea8e3
