How Olympic Athlete Sunny Choi Is Honoring Her Mental Health
The Olympics can offer a chance for athletes worldwide to showcase their skills, connect with other athletes, and win medals for their years of hard work and athletic prowess. However, the journey toward becoming an Olympic athlete can be long and difficult, often contributing to various mental and physical health challenges. Many Olympic athletes are starting to speak up about mental health and how they take care of themselves during and outside of this competition to destigmatize mental health in athletic circles. One of these athletes is Sunny Choi, a female breakdancer who has openly discussed topics like working with a sports psychologist, which can encourage others to seek the mental health support they deserve.
Who is Sunny Choi?
Sunny Choi is the first US female breaker (often colloquially referred to as a “breakdancer”) to qualify for the Olympics in the new breaker sport category. She has won several breakdancing competitions, including the 2022 World Games, where she won a silver medal in the B-Girls event. She has also won the first gold medal ever given for breaking in the Pan American Games, which led to her qualification for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Sunny’s background
Sun Choi (stage name “Sunny”) is the daughter of Kyung-Ju and Jung-In Choi and was born on November 10th, 1988, in Queens, NY. She attended the Wharton School of Business and worked as the director of global creative operations at Estee Lauder before leaving the corporate world and pursuing her dream of becoming a breaker.
Sunny’s parents immigrated from Daegu, South Korea. They raised her to work hard in her studies and put Sunny in gymnastics, where she became a competitive gymnast. However, when she was 12, her decision to train for the Olympics was thwarted. Instead, she focused on her studies, which led to chronic burnout and difficulty with daily life. Sunny reports having turned to alcohol use to cope.
In college, she joined the Penn State Freaks of the Beat, a breaking group. After significant persuasion, she started competing in breaking competitions with her group alongside her marketing career. Choi reports having struggled to decide whether she would remain focused on her career or take a riskier path by following her dream. She reported being “miserable” in her job. After winning the World Games in 2022, she left her job, despite not being guaranteed a spot in the Olympics.
Taking this risk ultimately paid off for Choi. She was sponsored by Nike and Samsung for the Olympics, where she will compete with 16 B-boys (break-boys or male breakdancers) and 16 B-girls (break-girls or female breakdancers) for the gold medal. Sunny is reportedly excited to begin and is taking steps to protect her mental health in the process.
Breakdancing as a sport in the Olympics: The backlash
Breaking has yet to be widely accepted as a sport for the Olympic games in Paris. Several news sources and individuals have branded it a “mockery,” claiming dancing is not a real sport. Breaking has frequently faced backlash, even outside of the Olympics. As an American dance style founded by Black Americans in the Bronx, NY, breaking has roots in African American culture and New York communities. Hip-hop, Jamaican-style sound, and elements of gymnastics are often incorporated into breaking.
Some believe that adding breaking to the Olympics may shadow its history and cultural significance, making it into a corporate sport without regard for areas of breaking that are considered unique and emotionally charged, such as passion and improvisation. These concerns lead some to be unsure whether its addition to the Paris games is truly positive.
How Sunny Choi is honoring her mental health for the 2024 Olympics
Due to the backlash toward breaking in the Olympics and Choi’s own experience of challenges related to her dreams, she is taking significant steps to care for her mental health in the process, including the following.
Challenging self-doubt
Sunny reports facing moments of self-doubt and low self-esteem. She attributes this experience to growing up in majority-white areas in Tennessee and Kentucky, where she was mocked by others and didn’t have much of an Asian American culture outside of her home. Breaking may have led to even more backlash, as this dance form is often considered unconventional.
For Choi, facing self-doubt means asking for help, expressing emotions openly, and surrounding herself with people who support and love her. Her parents fully support her journey in the Olympics and are a significant support system for her. In addition, breaking tends to be more widely accepted in New York, which allows her to connect with others who appreciate and love the sport.
Meeting with a sports psychologist
Sunny is open about seeing a sports psychologist (a type of specialized mental health professional) to discuss her struggles as she prepares for the Olympics. Although her psychologist helps Sunny find nutrient-rich foods for her unique situation and guides her through sports-related topics, Sunny reports that they often provide more than sports advice, such as emotional regulation guidance.
Depression is another topic Sunny is working to address in therapy. She reports going through cycles of depression, which she attempts to work through by being kinder to herself. She experiences some symptoms of burnout as she works through the rigorous training often required to participate in sports tournaments like the Olympics, which is her most significant conquest yet.
Being open about her struggles
Sunny Choi aims to speak openly about her desire to protect her mental and physical well-being and the importance of acknowledging the mind-body connection. Because the Olympics usually requires extensive physical effort, mental health can also be pushed to its limits. Talking about these topics may encourage other athletes to seek support.
How athletes can prioritize mental well-being
Athletics take a toll on mental health for many people. Athletes tend to have a higher risk of mental illness, with 35% of elite athletes living with a mental health condition.
Athletes may have an increased risk of the following mental health disorders:
Because of pressure from teammates, coaches, judges, and society, these issues are often perpetuated by social systems, which can make them difficult to combat. Openness about mental health may be a first step toward supporting athletic mental health. Athletes may also partake in the activities below to prioritize their mental well-being:
- Self-care activities, like taking a walk, spending time in nature, taking breaks from training, and spending time with loved ones
- Talking to loved ones about challenging emotions or experiences
- Eating nutritious meals and working with a registered dietician
- Practicing meditation and mindfulness exercises like deep breathing and muscle relaxation to reduce anxiety
- Creating art or playing music
- Keeping their living space clean and clutter-free
- Writing in a journal
Support options
Regardless of whether you’re an athlete, mental health can be as important as physical health. Individuals struggling with challenges like anxiety, depression, stress, burnout, and other mental health conditions may benefit from speaking to a therapist. Over 41.7 million US adults see a counselor for support, and therapy is becoming less stigmatized as more people publicly discuss their struggles.
Despite destigmatization, significant barriers like finances and inaccessibility can lead some people to avoid in-person therapy. In these cases, individuals may benefit from online therapy platforms like BetterHelp, which tend to be less expensive and enable users to attend therapy from the comfort of their homes or other convenient locations.
Studies suggest that online therapy is effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress, which tend to be some of the most common symptoms in athletes and others facing burnout. In a 2018 study, researchers found that internet-based therapy typically led to more of an improvement in symptoms of these conditions than in-person therapy. In addition, the intervention generally led to increased quality of life and was more affordable for participants.
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