Mackedon 1

Camille Mackedon

Professor Gonzalez

ENC 1102

25 January 2023

The Impact of Fame on Sports

Performance
Research Questions

For my research project, I will be doing the topic: “The Impact of Fame on Sports

Performace?”

The questions I am going to be researching are:

1. Can fame improve sports performance?

2. Can fame worsen sports performance?

3. Does the media coverage of professional athletes affect their performance in any way?

4. Can an athlete's “fame” ruin their mental health?

Statement of Significance

Other researchers should care about what I'm investigating because in America sports are a

huge thing many people enjoy. Social Media is another thing that many people utilize and

enjoy. It is unavoidable for athletes who perform well and win championships and receive

medals and rings to become famous. But can this fame be a good thing or a bad thing? I
 Mackedon 2

think that knowing about the impacts that media and fame can have on professional athletes

is important because it can affect the way sports conferences, sports magazines, social media

posts, and sports articles are done. It’s important for media to take into consideration that

what their posting may have an effect on an athlete's performance and or mental health. With

social media in this day and age, it gives a platform to anyone who wants to express their

opinions on sports players, mainly negative, which then affects an athlete's performance and

mental health.

This topic is important to me because I grew up playing softball, had goals of playing at the

collegiate level, and was even scouted by colleges. Something that really had an impact on

being recruited was posting your achievements on social media for college coaches to see.

Playing a sport there are always going to be ups and downs and it was always fun to post my

achievements, but when I wasn't performing well I had nothing to post about myself. This

took a toll on my self-confidence because seeing other people post about always performing

well made me feel like I wasn't good enough, leading me to over-working myself and

eventually getting burnt out. Therefore, I am very interested in seeing how social media can

affect professional athletes, similar to the way social media affected me especially since

professional athletes have such a huge audience and platform.

Research Description

My research procedure for this study is utilizing the UCF library database to find various

articles that are credible and relevant that I can deeply analyze to help support my findings. I

also want to research multiple well-known professional athletes who have been open about

how fame and social media have affected their athletic performance to also help support my

findings.
 Mackedon 3

Works Cited

“As Biles Steps Back, More Athletes Speak up about Stress and Mental Health.” Paris 2024

Olympic Games, https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/biles-steps-back-more-athletes-

speak-about-stress-and-mental-health.

Discovering Your Cosmic Self. “How Fame Affects an Athlete's Mental Health and

Performance.” Discovering Your Cosmic Self, 3 Sept. 2021,

https://www.discoveringyourcosmicself.com/effects-of-fame-to-athletes/.

Preece, Brian. “Wealth and Fame Can't Solve the Mind: Pro Athletes Speak out about

Mental Health.” The Daily Utah Chronicle,

https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2021/09/29/wealth-fame-pro-athletes-mental-health/.

“Simone Biles and Pressure: Talking about Mental Health.” Lee Health,

https://www.leehealth.org/health-and-wellness/healthy-news-blog/mental-health/

simone-biles-and-pressure-talking-about-mental-health.