Rockstar athletes like Ilia Malinin often get 'the yips' at the Olympics. It can make them stronger

""It actually bears a lot of similarities to grief," said Dr. Sahen Gupta, a sports performance psychologist and researcher at the University of Portsmouth, who works with elite athletes including Olympians. "Malinin did amazingly in terms of how he handled everything after [his eighth-place performance]," Gupta said. "But in his post-match interview he talked about being in shock and that's one of the first responses we get when we are in grief. It's like, Oh my God, what happened here?""

"A pantheon of rockstar-level U.S. Olympians gymnast Simone Biles, figure skater Nathan Chen, alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin have experienced these cruel moments. After years of training and performing with consistent brilliance in high-level competitions, they reach the Olympic stage and everything goes wrong. There are names for these stumbles in the sports world: "You know, yips or twisties, these are actually very highly studied. The technical term for that is performance failure, or performance blocks," Gupta said Why do the yips and twisties seem to happen more often on the Olympic stage?"

Ilia Malinin fell repeatedly at the Olympic competition and experienced shock and emotional upheaval consistent with grief. Sports psychologists identify sudden performance failures, often called yips or twisties, as known phenomena among elite competitors. High-profile athletes with heavy media attention face intensified pressure that can trigger performance blocks. Several prominent U.S. Olympians have encountered similar breakdowns despite prior consistent excellence. Social media amplification and pre-Games profiling increase scrutiny and expectations. Psychological responses often include shock, disorientation, and grief-like stages, and recovery typically requires targeted mental skills support and strategies to rebuild confidence and technical execution.

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