Aysia Hill

Dr. Guenzel
ENC 1102 – 0M37
3-10-2021
Rhetorical Analysis Part 1: Covid-19's Impact on Physical and Mental Health of Athletes
Amir Hossien Mehrsafar studies sport psychology and has found a drastic impact on the
physical and mental health of professional athletes. Him and his team were able to bring
the attention the importance of tracking the mental health of athletes as it can cause
more physical harm overtime, especially when paired with Covid-19. They wrote this for
a primarily a neutral audience in order to inform them on their recent findings in this
subject areas. They are, however, hoping to convince their audience into understanding
the situation these athletes are in. Though this coverage can bit slightly controversial, as
they mentioned that these athletes still are well off financially and many people are still
struggling to make ends meet. However, they do not focus on the financial situation, but
more on the isolation and Covid-19 diagnosis impacted these athletes. He does confuse
fact with belief as he states that he believes athletes should receive more financial
support when they are put into isolation, he does not back this statement up very well as
it was a very subjective statement for him to make. He introduces a good explanation of
how the Covid-19 infection impacts the neuroendocrine-immune system. This impact
leads many to experience troubles coping with stress, and when that occurs the
physical state can also be greatly impacted. One's immune system can even lower if
stress is not dealt with in a timely manner. Throughout the article, he makes good
analysis that shows how the mental health can greatly impact the recovery rate from
Covid-19. This analysis is greater with athletes as he claims they are heavily impacted
mentally thus halting their recovery and even making their physical health worse. Not
much rebuttals were introduced in his argument as he was mainly focused on analyzing
the data he researched. After reading his research, it seemed fairly trustworthy, as he
had many notable sources and explained his research thoroughly. I would say,
however, the seemed to push a lot towards the end for the financial compensation of
athletes out of their jobs rather than fully summarizing his findings of their mental and
physical health due to Covid-19. Besides that, his tone throughout remains constant as
he presents his information in a clear and organized manner, which allowed for me to
fully understand the depths of his research and how his final thoughts formed.
Work Cited
Mehrsafar, Amir Hossien, et al. “Addressing Potential Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on
Physical and Mental Health of Elite Athletes.” Brain, Behavior, and Immunity,
Elsevier Inc., July 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7201218/.