Photo by Jenny Yu '24. Several student athletes at Mount Holyoke reported that playing sports improves their well-being.
Victoria Faulkner ’25
Staff Writer
“I find that playing a sport … is good for releasing pent-up stress, anger or any unhappy emotions that have been bottled up and brewing under the surface during the week,” Nina Sydoryk ’25, a club ice hockey player, said.
Sydoryk’s observations mirror the conclusions of a 2019 public health study in Sweden, performed by Christer Malm, Johan Jakobsson and Andreas Isaksson, which found that “Participation in sports, with or without competition, promotes healthy behavior and a better quality of life.”
Sydoryk further observed that the health benefits of playing club ice hockey applied to both her physical and mental health. “Despite being tired after hockey practice, I find that I do have a sense of renewed energy, almost like I got a full body massage — despite my muscles aching,” she said. “My mind and body are cleared and a little less filled with stress.”
Sydoryk is not alone in connecting her involvement with athletics at Mount Holyoke to her overall well-being. Many student-athletes from across the College’s 13 varsity sports and six competitive club sports expressed that they’ve experienced the benefits of athletics as well.
Mount Holyoke’s club sports, which include dressage, western riding, fencing, ice hockey, rugby and ultimate frisbee, compete regularly against New England schools such as Smith College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bowdoin College. Mount Holyoke’s athletics overview website further details the non-competitive student exercise-based organizations at MHC, including hiking events through student organizations like the Outing Club and dance teams like Taal, which specializes in Bollywood dancing.
Varsity athletes and club sports players alike stated that athletics also provided opportunities to make friends in a way that aided their mental health. Providing a perspective from a varsity team, rower Ellie Mohn ’25 said, “I’ve noticed I’ve become more outgoing and my mental health has improved slightly.” Mohn elaborated that her “favorite part is spending practices with some of the coolest people ever. They make the sport so fun and inviting. I couldn’t ask for better teammates.”
Camden Breckenridge ’24 noted that they particularly enjoy club ice hockey because they “really enjoy the friendship element of sports.” Breckenridge continued, “It’s really great to be able to make friends and spend time together doing something we all enjoy.” They also expressed appreciation for the team’s culture. “They make you feel like you are meant to be there and they value every effort you make,” Breckenridge said.
Jaime Eldridge ’25, a member of Mount Holyoke ultimate frisbee, also commented, “Some benefits that I’ve experienced from sports [are] both how much it’s helped me mentally as well as socially. Mentally, I was able to find a community that made me feel like I could be myself, and a place where I felt supported and gave me structure.”
The improvement of physical health through physical activity is also a well-documented and highly-researched aspect of sports played at any level. In a 2016 study on resistance training in relation to musculoskeletal disorders, Scientists Emmanuel Gomes Ciolac and José Messias Rodrigues da Silva reported that physical activity notably enhances bone density. Another study, conducted in 2014 by Eduardo Lusa Cadore, Ronei Silveira Pinto, Martim Bottaro and Mikel Izquierdo, indicated that physical activity decreases risk of osteoporosis. Prerequisite symptoms to cancer were also provably counteracted by exercise, as shown by controlled trials of cancer patients performed in 2014 by K. Steindorf, M.E. Schmidt and O. Klassen. Additionally, the 2018 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activities Guideline Report noted a 20-35 percent decrease in risk of cardiovascular disease among those who are routinely physically active.
Though several student-athletes spoke of the beneficial effects of sports on their well-being, involvement in sports also presents certain risks. In a 2016 review, Doctors Elizabeth Joy, Andrea Kussman and Aurelia Nattiv reported that athletes of any type are frequently prone to adopting restrictive eating habits, among other dangerous behaviors. Athletes are often also at a higher risk for injuries and other health complications such as joint inflammation. However, as some Mount Holyoke student-athletes have reported, for many, improvement to mental and physical health as a result of participating in sports might outweigh those risks.