This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Pitt chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

If you are anything like my roommate and me, the Olympics have dominated your life for the past two weeks. We are obsessed with the Team USA women’s hockey team, captivated by the Blade Angels, in awe of Federica Brignone’s comeback, and completely in love with Ilia Malinin. However, watching near 24-hour Olympics coverage has me questioning the pressure we put on our athletes.

By now, most people know the Simone Biles 2020 Tokyo Olympics story. After being called the GOAT (a title which she has reclaimed), and being built up as the face of Team USA, Biles got what she calls the Twisties. During her vault, Biles got lost in the air, only completing 1 ½ rotations instead of 2 ½. Biles promptly pulled out, as she told NPR, “[with] the weight of the world on her shoulders”; she couldn’t compete. Biles received both backlash and support for her decision. One side of the aisle called her soft, and the other praised her for putting her mental health first.

One of the greatest alpine skiers of all time, Mikaela Shiffrin, experienced a similar situation at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. Shiffrin is considered the most decorated skier of all time, and again, was the face of Team USA. Dealing with the loss of her father, and the pressure built up by the media, Shiffrin crashed and DNF’d three out of the six of her races. With the Milan Cortina games coming up, Shiffrin told news outlets that she has been on a mental health journey to shift her mindset from the Olympics being a “burden” to a “privilege.” And it worked; Shiffrin walked away with the gold medal in her signature event, slalom. She beat the competition by a whole second and a half.

This year, we watched the same story unfold. Twenty-one-year-old Virginia native figure skater Ilia Malinin was the heavy favorite coming into the 2026 Winter Games. After being passed up for the 2022 games, Malinin dedicated himself to becoming the best. He became the first person to land a quad-axel in competition and landed seven quad jumps in one program. He more than earned his self-proclaimed title of “Quad-God.” With the odds in his favor, the spotlight grew brighter on him. After crushing his free skate and bringing USA gold in the team competition, it seemed like the whole world was watching him compete in singles. The pressure grew to be too much, and Malinin had a disappointing free skate on Friday 2/13. Since then, Malinin has been open about what happened that day, and how competing on Olympic ice is unlike anything he has ever experienced.

As this cycle grows more vicious, avid Olympics spectators (like me) are forced to ask themselves why does this keep happening? One answer could be the media circus. For athletes like Biles, Shiffrin and Malinin, their sports are only heavily followed by the American public once every four years. So, while they are used to the spotlight within their worlds, they are not accustomed to the spotlight of the world. To get viewership, NBC must introduce these athletes to the public and “make them care,” Gary Zankel, NBC’s Olympics coverage president, says. In the process of “making them care,” NBC plasters these athletes face everywhere — in commercials, on billboards, TikToks, and interviews. We are introduced to the athlete, their story, and how they are “the best” or, in some cases, “automatic gold.” This is all before the games even start. Once the athletes arrive at the Olympics, the commentators are just as much at fault as the pre-games media circus. They spew big talk about the American athletes, deeming them as unbeatable. Imagine being 21, branded unbeatable, and making a mistake. That would be impossible to bear.

Zenkel disagrees with the backlash NBC is receiving. He dissents that NBC’s coverage is the nail in the coffin for these star athletes and rather, their fleeting chances at Olympics glory: “It’s on that [Olympic] stage that they’re ultimately, and maybe in their minds, measured” (Zenkel). He goes on to tell Sports Illustrated that Michael Phelps had the same amount of pressure, if not more, and was still able to thrive.

Whether or not you think NBC is the culprit, there is no denying the pattern. From Dan O’Brien in 1992, Tyson Gay in 2008, McKayla Maroney in 2012, Nathan Chen in 2018, Biles, Shiffrin and Malinin, I think it’s time to step back and look at how we treat our athletes. Maybe it’s time to ask ourselves if other countries treat their elite athletes the same way?

It’s Time to Rethink The Way We Treat Our Olympic Athletes

We wanna slide into your DMs