The Super Bowl & Olympics aren’t just games—
they’re emotional endings. (AKA Grief)
with Professional and Expert Insights by Emilio Parga, M.Ed
Over the past week, many of us have been glued to our screens — watching the big game and the Olympics unfold in real time. We’ve celebrated the triumphs and felt inspired by the victories. But as grievers, we can’t help but notice something else: the athletes who give everything to a dream years in the making — and fall short.
Because sports are never just about a trophy. They’re about identity, sacrifice, hope, and the future we imagine for ourselves. When that vision doesn’t come to pass, the loss can be profound.
So we reached out to our resident sports grief expert, Emilio Parga, to explore three key questions: What are athletes really losing when they lose? Why do sports losses cut so deeply — even for fans? And what can these public moments of heartbreak teach us about grief itself?
Get Griefy: What kind of grief shows up for athletes and fans when everything comes down to one defining moment—and it doesn’t go the way they hoped?
Emilio: When major sporting events conclude — such as Super Bowl LX or the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina — both athletes and fans can experience forms of grief that often go unnamed. Because no death has occurred, these reactions are frequently minimized as “just part of sports.” Yet grief is not limited to bereavement. It is the natural emotional, cognitive, and physiological response to meaningful loss, identity disruption, or unmet expectations (Worden, 2009; Stroebe & Schut, 1999).
For athletes, one of the most significant losses involves imagined futures. Training cycles, sacrifice, and daily discipline are organized around mentally rehearsed outcomes: winning a title, reaching a podium, completing a career-defining performance. When reality diverges from that vision, athletes grieve not only the result but the hope for future that suddenly disappears. This loss can produce rumination, self-doubt, emotional withdrawal, and identity disturbance.
Closely connected is identity grief. When seasons end, performances disappoint, or careers conclude, athletes may experience a profound absence of structure, belonging, and purpose. The removal of a uniform or role can feel like losing a core part of the self, particularly for those whose identities have long been intertwined with sport. Athletes may also grieve the effort and sacrifice invested — time away from loved ones, physical strain, and emotional cost — which can feel heavier when outcomes do not reflect the perceived price. In performance-driven cultures, this grief often turns inward, surfacing as anger or self-blame rather than being recognized as a natural response to loss.
Fans experience parallel processes. Collective grief emerges from shared identity and belonging, as teams symbolize community, continuity, and meaning. When seasons end or expectations collapse, that shared narrative fractures. Symbolic grief may also arise, as major games carry hope for joy, pride, connection, and validation. When those meanings dissolve, disappointment can feel deeply personal.
Across both groups, secondary losses — routine, anticipation, emotional intensity, and social connection — contribute to the disorientation often felt after major events. Grief in sport is not weakness; it reflects the ending of something psychologically meaningful.
Patriot’s Wide Receiver Stefon Diggs shows disappointment after loss to Seahawks.
After the Super Bowl or an Olympic event ends, what emotional crash do athletes experience—and why do fans often feel a version of that same emptiness?
Emilio: When massive sporting spectacles like Super Bowl LX or the Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy come to an end, both athletes and fans can experience surprisingly intense emotions. These reactions are rooted in psychology, identity, anticipation, and the deep social meaning attached to sports (Baumeister, Vohs, DeWall, & Zhang, 2007).
For athletes, the conclusion of a major event often brings what is commonly described as “post-games blues” - a letdown from the intensity of elite competition. After years, sometimes decades, of physical, emotional, and psychological investment, the event that structured daily life is suddenly over. The towering goal disappears. The strict routine vanishes. The shared mission with teammates dissolves. This abrupt shift can create a sense of emptiness, loss of purpose, and emotional flatness. Many elite competitors describe it as an “emotional vacuum,” fueled by the sudden absence of adrenaline, dopamine, and collective energy that sustained them.
Even athletes who perform well are not immune. The high of achievement can fade quickly, replaced by the question, “What’s next?” The transition from peak performance mode back to ordinary life can feel disorienting. For those who fell short of personal goals, this period may be layered with disappointment, self-doubt, or grief over what might have been.
Fans experience a different but parallel emotional shift. Events like the Super Bowl and Olympics create powerful communal bonds - through rituals, watch parties, traditions, and shared anticipation. Fans are not just observing; they are participating emotionally in a collective story. When the event ends, the buildup, social gatherings, and emotional intensity suddenly disappear. This can lead to temporary “post-event blues,” marked by sadness, irritability, or a sense of letdown - especially for those deeply invested in the outcome.
While athletes and fans do not share the same experience, both may feel emptiness and emotional adjustment after major sporting events. For athletes, it often centers on identity and purpose. For fans, it reflects the loss of connection and shared excitement. Recognizing these reactions as natural helps normalize the emotional downturn that can follow the world’s biggest sporting moments.
Ice Dancing Duo, Madison Chock and Evan Bates receiving the Silver Medal after a controversial score from judges.
What grief shows up for athletes after a major loss or retirement that the world tells them to shake off?
Emilio: Grief shows up for athletes in distinct yet overlapping ways following a major loss, the end of a global event, and retirement. These emotional realities are often acknowledged indirectly through athletes’ own reflections. Following defeat in Super Bowl LX, Drake Maye spoke candidly about the pain of loss, noting how deeply such moments can hurt. Upon retiring from professional tennis, Rafael Nadal emphasized meaning and closure, expressing peace of mind in the legacy he leaves behind. Similarly, after international competition, Alex Morgan reflected with pride on the broader impact of her career, highlighting the pathways opened for future generations.
Although these moments are considered normative within sport, their psychological impact can be significant. Grief after a defeat is rarely limited to the scoreboard. Athletes often grieve lost possibilities - the championship moment that will not occur, the milestones left unreached, the validation they hoped performance would bring. This can manifest as rumination, self-doubt, emotional withdrawal, irritability, and identity disruption. Research on athletic career transitions consistently shows that losses tied to performance and role expectations can produce responses similar to other meaningful life losses (Stambulova et al., 2007; Park, Lavallee, & Tod, 2013).
When global events such as the Olympic Games conclude, grief often becomes more layered. The Olympics represent years of structure, sacrifice, and singular focus. Their ending can trigger what many athletes describe as an emotional drop or “post-games blues.” Routine, intensity, and collective purpose vanish almost overnight. Even medalists may experience unexpected emptiness once the adrenaline fades. For others, grief may include finality - an awareness that this opportunity may never return — alongside a sense of loss for the version of self-forged through pursuit, discipline, and anticipation.
Retirement frequently evokes the deepest grief. Athletes are not simply stepping away from competition; they are separating from identities that shaped their schedules, relationships, bodies, and sense of worth. Whether voluntary or forced, retirement can bring feelings of disorientation, sadness, anxiety, and a loss of meaning. Secondary losses — including structure, recognition, community, and physical capacity - often compound the transition.
Across all three contexts, grief remains under-recognized because sport culture emphasizes toughness, emotional control, and rapid recovery. Naming these experiences as grief rather than weakness creates space for healthier adjustment, identity integration, and long-term well-being.
Lindsey Vonn seriously injured during her Olympic Appearance
In the end, sports remind us that loss is not separate from greatness — it’s woven into it. The same passion that fuels extraordinary achievement also makes disappointment ache. By understanding the grief behind the game, we gain a deeper compassion not only for athletes, but for ourselves. Because whether on the field or in our own lives, courage is found not just in winning — but in showing up again after loss.
Emilio Parga, M.Ed., is the Founder and Executive Director of The Solace Tree in Reno, Nevada, a nonprofit organization providing grief and loss support to children, teens, adults, and families.
With more than 24 years of experience, Emilio has coordinated grief support groups and counseling services at The Solace Tree and across seven Nevada school districts. He also created the Good Grief Project, a specialized initiative offering trauma-informed, on-site support for K–12 students, student-athletes, educators, coaches, and families following a death and any loss.
As an Adjunct Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno in the College of Education and Human Development and as an Adjunct/Clinical Faculty for the Nevada School of Medicine, Emilio teaches courses on death and dying and helping children and teens cope with death and all loss. A nationally recognized speaker and trauma-informed educator, he provides training and consultation to schools, hospitals, social service agencies, sports teams, funeral homes, first responders, organizations, and businesses. His work has included bereavement consultation following large-scale traumatic events, including school and mass shootings and wildfire disasters across California and Nevada.
He is the author of No Child Should Grieve Alone, Love Never Stops, and several additional grief-support books, journals, and articles on children and teens sold nationally and internationally. He has co-founded four grief centers in Nevada and one in New York, and continues to advocate for accessible, compassionate grief education, and support across communities and cities.
In addition, Emilio founded the Death and Trauma-Informed Grief - Special Interest Group (SIG) with the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) one and a half years ago. This SIG was created to provide space for all members of AASP to begin and or continue meaningful conversations about death and dying within sport and performance settings, and to strengthen and build grief-literate programs, psychological safety, for teams, and organizations.
References:
Worden, J. W. (2009). Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the mental health practitioner (4th ed.). Springer Publishing.
Stroebe, M., & Schut, H. (1999). The dual process model of coping with bereavement: Rationale and description. Death Studies, 23(3), 197–224.
(Baumeister, Vohs, DeWall, & Zhang, 2007).
Stambulova, N., Alfermann, D., Statler, T., & Côté, J. (2007). Career development and transitions of athletes: The International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) position stand. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology.
Park, S., Lavallee, D., & Tod, D. (2013). Athletes' career transition out of sport: A systematic review. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology.
