A Comparative Scoping Review of Challenges, Social Support Networks, and Resilience in Para-Athletes and Olympic Athletes

Resilience and social support are widely recognised as critical psychosocial factors influencing athletes’ wellbeing and performance. However, athletes compete within very different structural, social, and environmental contexts. Para-athletes often navigate disability-related barriers, classification systems, stigma, and accessibility challenges, whereas Olympic athletes face performance pressure, commercial expectations, and elite sport demands within able-bodied systems. Although both groups are frequently studied in sport psychology, it is unclear how the literature conceptualises, measures, and discusses resilience and social support across these two populations, and how their reported challenges and support networks differ. This scoping review aims to map and compare how challenges, social support networks, and resilience are described and studied in para-athletes and Olympic athletes.