Elite Athletes

Introduction
Stress is very common among elite athletes (Koivula, Hassmén, & Fallby, 2002). It is a mental and emotional strain on the body caused by demanding circumstances which affects high level athletes (Bejan & Toniţa, 2014). Elite athletes are athletes that play at one of the highest levels, participate in major competitions, and are experienced athletes (Swann, Moran, & Piggott, 2015). Many studies have been conducted on how elite athlete’s stress levels are affected due to challenges in their life, including school, work, and poor training programs (Thatcher, 2008; Bejan & Toniţa, 2014). These studies acknowledge that elite athletes are overwhelmed by stressful events in their everyday lives, causing them to become emotionally weak.
Brink et al. (2011) and Kellmann (2010) performed a correlational study using a recovery-stress test questionnaire (RESTQ) to monitor athletes and assess overreaching (too much stress). The study by Brink et al. (2011) shows that overreaching harmed emotional stress, physical recovery, and well-being. Thus, adequate recovery time is needed in order to prevent high stress levels (Brink et al., 2011; Nunes et al., 2014). Kellmann (2010) agrees with this quantitative data by stating the importance of balancing stress and recovery. Kellmann (2010) specifically found that when intensity and volume are increased during training, elevated stress and reduced recovery scores are present (Kellmann, 2010). Although these studies demonstrate that increased training intensity and volume cause higher levels of stress, they lack research on the different causes of high stress levels, for various individuals. For example, increased stress levels and negative symptoms may not only be due to the athlete’s training program, they can also occur due to other factors, for example, sleep quality and injuries (Noon et al., 2015). This study will measure diverse factors, rather than just perceived stress