When Passion Turns Darker: The Fragile Line Between Harmony and Obsession in Endurance Sport
Dr Gareth Jowett — Sport Psychologist (Leeds, UK)
Supporting endurance athletes worldwide | www.jowettsportpsych.com
“The race is won by the rider who can suffer the most.” — Eddy Merckx
Passion is the currency of endurance sport. It fuels the early mornings, the endless training loops, and the intentional pursuit of discomfort that would seem irrational anywhere else. In cycling especially, where suffering is part of the deal, it’s easy to equate passion with obsession.
This raises some important questions:
When does passion shift from healthy to something more rigid, compulsive and obsessive?
How can athletes recognise this drift early, before it undermines performance, wellbeing, or relationships?
What allows passion to remain sustainable and flexible over the long term?
As a sport psychologist specialising in endurance sport, this is one of the most common (and most misunderstood) psychological challenges I see. Here’s an example:
How Passion Shifts in Endurance Athletes: A Case Example
Mateo (pseudonym) grew up riding the quiet roads of northern Spain with his father, Davide. In the early years, cycling was uncomplicated: shared effort, steady improvement, and the simple pleasure of feeling stronger.
Davide, a former semi‑pro, was encouraging and emotionally present but also exacting. Praise was available, as was critique. “You hesitated.” “You could have gone earlier.” Expectations were high. There was genuine care, but sometimes Davide knew he pushed Mateo a little too hard.
By his late teens, Mateo was winning races. In his early twenties, he was riding professionally. Cycling had become meaningful, absorbing, and central to his identity. For a time, his connection to the sport appeared balanced. Enjoyment drove the work, and the work drove progress.
And then, slowly, things began to tighten.
Passion, Revisited: More Than a Simple Divide
The dualistic model of passion, developed by Prof. Robert Vallerand and colleagues, helps illuminate Mateo’s case. The model explains how an activity becomes part of one’s identity — a process called internalisation — and how this can unfold in two different ways.
In one form, passion develops harmoniously. The athlete feels they are choosing their engagement with the sport. It sits alongside other life roles, and although it occupies a meaningful place, it doesn’t overwhelm. The rider can push deeply when needed but can also step back when appropriate, preserving flexibility.
In the other form, passion becomes more obsessive. Here, engagement is driven less by interest and more by internal and/or external pressure. The athlete feels compelled to train, even when stepping back would be beneficial. The sport begins to take up disproportionate psychological space. Instead of the athlete using the activity, the activity starts to use the athlete.
Crucially, these two forms of passion are not opposite ends of a single continuum. They can coexist, shift, and interact. Many athletes hold both at once, a brighter side and a darker shadow.
This framing helps make sense of stories like Mateo’s. Athletes rarely jump from harmonious to obsessive passion. More often, the balance is complex, often shifting, sometimes so slowly that its barely noticed.
Is Obsessive Passion Necessary for Success in Endurance Sport?
Professional cycling can certainly make it seem that way. Contracts are fragile, selection is unforgiving, and small margins define careers. Many riders display behaviours that, may on the surface at least, appear obsessive.
But experiencing some obsessive elements is not the same as being driven by them.
Research suggests that athletes with more harmonious passion tend to show stronger engagement, enjoyment, and resilience, whereas dominant obsessive passion is linked with burnout, conflict, and reduced psychological flexibility.
So, obsession may be present, but its dominance is not inevitable, nor is it optimal.
Mateo, Reconsidered: When the Balance Shifts
Early in his professional career, Mateo’s harmonious passion appeared to lead. He trained hard but maintained flexibility. He valued performance but didn’t rely on it entirely for self‑worth. His relationship with his girlfriend Erica grew, and cycling existed within the broader context of a life.
Then came injury, inconsistent results, and contract uncertainty. Under this pressure, the controlled aspects of his passion intensified. Training shifted from development to reassurance. Rest felt uncomfortable. Setbacks lingered. The evaluative voice that once belonged to his father became internal, more consistent and difficult to silence.
He still loved cycling, but that love had become tangled with something more rigid.
When Passion Narrows
As this shift took place, Mateo began adding training beyond what was prescribed, not out of curiosity or enjoyment but out of a sense that it was necessary.
Missing a session created discomfort that stayed with him. Being present with Erica was harder. Conversations drifted repeatedly back to performance, even in unrelated moments.
Externally, it still looked like commitment. Internally, it was beginning to feel like compulsion.
This narrowing is a hallmark of obsessive passion. The sport quietly expands into areas once occupied by rest, connection, and perspective.
How to Recognise Obsessive Passion in Endurance Athletes
For athletes
Rest feels like lost ground rather than recovery.
Setbacks linger and drive rumination.
Training feels compulsory, not chosen.
Enjoyment becomes inconsistent or eroded.
For coaches
Athletes regularly exceed prescribed training.
Reduced load is met with resistance.
Feedback is experienced as judgment rather than information.
For partners and loved ones
Plans become conditional.
Attention becomes fragmented.
The sport slowly and increasingly encroaches on relational space.
No single sign is definitive, but together they may be indicative of the shift toward obsessive passion.
Challenging an Obsessive Drift
There are some strategies that can help athletes and those around them challenge this shift.
Rebuild autonomy: Even small choices within structured training can restore a sense of ownership.
Broaden identity: Sustaining roles beyond sport reduces the total weight placed on performance.
Reframe failure: Treating setbacks as information reduces the intensity of self‑criticism.
Cultivate self‑compassion: This softens the pressure that fuels obsessive patterns.
Create space for conversation: Athletes often sense something is shifting; support comes from giving language to it.
The aim is not to dampen passion, but to reshape how it is held.
📩 If you'd like support from a sport psychologist specialising in endurance sport, you can reach me at:
👉 www.jowettsportpsych.com
Returning to the Key Questions
When does passion shift from healthy to rigid or obsessive?
This shift tends to happen gradually, often under pressure e.g., injury, selection stress, or fear of falling behind. Passion becomes less about enjoyment or growth and more about reassurance, control, or maintaining identity. The athlete stops choosing the sport and begins feeling controlled by it.How can athletes recognise this drift early?
By noticing the psychological markers: rest feeling unwarranted, training becoming compulsory, setbacks triggering rumination, relationships becoming strained, and enjoyment fluctuating or fading. These signs rarely appear all at once but instead accumulate.What keeps passion sustainable, flexible, and healthy over time?
Maintaining autonomy, broadening identity, reframing failure, using self‑compassion, and having supportive conversations all help keep passion balanced. These strategies allow athletes to stay deeply committed without becoming rigidly attached or overwhelmed.
This brings us back to Mateo…
He is still racing, training, and ambitious. What has changed is not the depth of his passion, but the quality of it. Through support from his coaching team and a sport psychologist, he has learned to recognise when his sport energises him and when it constrains him.
That awareness hasn’t transformed everything overnight, but it has given him clarity, language, and a way to navigate future pressures.
His task now is the same one many endurance athletes face: to stay passionate, but relate to his sport with more awareness, flexibility, and self‑support.
Looking for Endurance Sport Psychology Support?
If you’re an athlete, coach, or parent noticing similar patterns to those outlined above, I can help. I specialise in:
· Performance psychology
· Overtraining & burnout
· Motivation & confidence
· Identity, pressure, & perfectionism
· Working with cyclists, runners, triathletes & ultra‑endurance athletes
🌍 Based in Leeds, UK — working with endurance athletes worldwide
👉 Explore support options at:www.jowettsportpsych.com
Further reading…
Akehurst, S., & Oliver, E. J. (2014). Obsessive passion: a dependency associated with injury-related risky behaviour in dancers. Journal of Sports Sciences, 32(3), 259-267.
Lopes, M., & Vallerand, R. J. (2020). The role of passion, need satisfaction, and conflict in athletes’ perceptions of burnout. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 48, 101674.
Schellenberg, B. J., & Lötscher, J. (2024). Passion and engagement in sport: A look at athletes and coaches using a quadripartite approach. Psychology of sport and exercise, 75, 102703.
Schellenberg, B. J., Verner-Filion, J., Gaudreau, P., & Mbabaali, S. (2021). The two dimensions of passion for sport: A new look using a quadripartite approach. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 43(6), 459-476.
Vallerand, R. J., & Paquette, V. (2024). The role of passion in the resilience process. Self and Identity, 23(3-4), 288-305.
