Mental health takes centre stage at FISU 2025

Day three of the 2025 FISU World Conference in Bochum, Germany, cast a spotlight on athlete mental health and resilience—issues often sidelined in favor of medals and metrics.

In compelling keynote sessions, Dr. James Santomier Jr. and Dr. Rajesh Pratap Singh challenged traditional approaches, offering innovative mental health frameworks that nations like Uganda could adopt to foster healthier sports environments.

Under the theme “Navigating Stress and Performance Readiness,” Santomier advocated for systemic mental health support. “Athletes should not have to ask for help that mindset is outdated,” he said, urging sports institutions to embed psychological care alongside physical therapy and nutrition.

His recommendations included partnering with licensed sports psychologists, normalizing counseling, and building individualized care plans rooted in models like Andersen & Williams’ Stress-Injury framework and APA guidelines.

He also distinguished resilience from mental toughness—terms often conflated. “Resilience is long-term recovery from adversity. Mental toughness is moment-to-moment confidence under stress. Athletes need both,” explained the Professor Emeritus from the Jack Welch College of Business and Technology.

Following Santomier, Dr. Rajesh Pratap Singh from Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University in India broadened the dialogue under the theme “Mind Over Mental Health.”

He focused on real-time stress management in elite sports, spotlighting cricket as a case study. Singh showcased biofeedback tools, wearable stress trackers, and gender-responsive strategies including menstrual-cycle-informed recovery and peer mentorship for female athletes.

His structured program, encompassing resilience drills, scenario workshops, and data-driven progress tools, is something African universities and clubs could easily emulate.

For Uganda, the message was resounding: mental wellness must be integrated into everyday practice.

Instead of waiting for athletes to reach crisis, sports stakeholders should prioritize psychological care alongside injury prevention and dietary planning. Embedding psychologists, running mental health check-ins, and fostering emotionally supportive training spaces could improve both performance and retention.

As discussions wrapped up at Bochum’s historic Jahrhunderthalle, one truth rang clear: athlete well-being isn’t a luxury, it’s a competitive advantage Uganda can no longer afford to ignore.