For many of today’s high-level athletes, performance no longer begins and ends with competition. Alongside training schedules, team commitments, and international travel, there is another area they must navigate: social media.
The 2023 SIRC article, Managing Social Media as a High Performance Athlete, unpacked this reality, examining how social media shapes athletes’ lives economically, culturally, and psychologically. It highlighted the opportunities that come with sponsorship and visibility, but also the challenges of harassment, body image, and financial precarity. Building on that foundation, this feature shifts the lens to the athletes themselves.
Through candid Q&As with three Canadian athletes, we hear firsthand how social media fits into their lives. Olympic gymnast Shallon Olsen, Paralympic ice hockey player Liam Hickey, softball Olympian Larissa Franklin, and retired professional rugby player Phil Mackenzie share what drives their online presence and the strategies they use to make it work.
Athletes’ responses have been edited for length.
Larissa Franklin
| Age: | 31 |
| Sport: | Softball |
| Primary platform: | |
| Follower count: | 5.2K |
Larissa Franklin is an outfielder with Canada’s senior national softball team and a two-time Olympian. Her team won bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and gold at the 2015 Pan American Games. She discusses balancing social media with high-level competition, while also using the platform to make women’s sport more accessible and share behind-the-scenes moments.
Q: “How has your relationship with social media evolved over your career, and what are your main goals when you post today?”
A: “When I first got on the team, Instagram wasn’t really a thing. At the start I just posted what I wanted, but over time it shifted into catering posts to other people and building a brand. Suddenly being an athlete wasn’t just about doing my sport, I was also trying to manage a brand, but I had no marketing experience.
You’re kind of flying by the seat of your pants, looking to other people, comparing yourself, and trying not to get caught in group think on a team. It just got a lot more complicated, because you’re putting yourself out there and don’t want to say or do the wrong thing as you are under a microscope. It became so much more than when you’re just playing your sport.”
Q: How do you manage or balance the pressures of social media?
A: “When I’m competing, I’d rather not post anything. My mind is all on my sport. I don’t want to be thinking about collecting content. But then I’ll realize three days have gone by and I haven’t posted.
Recently I downloaded an app called Dispo, like a disposable camera. You take the photos and the next day they develop. I’d save them and post them on my story so people could see what we were doing. It gave people a behind-the-scenes look, but it also gave me a routine that let me stay present.
Posting at the end of the day, instead of in the moment, really took the pressure off. I’ve had to remind myself it’s okay if people don’t know exactly what I’m doing right now. That’s been one way to manage it. Out of season is harder… I’m still working through that like most people.”
Q: What role does social media play in promoting softball and women’s sport?
A: “My mind goes to the young girls. I still think about how we can be role models for those younger girls who don’t see us on TV. We really only have one major tournament a year, the Canada Cup, but now 365 days of the year they can follow us and see us at a whole other level.”
Q: You shared your lymphoma diagnosis online. What went into that decision?
A: “My main thought was that it would be selfish to keep it to myself. I felt I couldn’t go through this, learn the lessons I did, and not share them. The hardest part was deciding when. I didn’t want everyone to know while I was going through it, so I waited until I had one treatment left, when I was in a better place mentally.
I’m grateful I shared it. I didn’t know what would come from it, but recently a 16-year-old girl with lymphoma reached out, and it makes me happy that by being open about my story, I can now impact other people.”
Q: How does social media connect with your public speaking career?
A: “After the Olympics, I told myself I didn’t want to just be an athlete who speaks, I wanted to be a professional speaker with a brand and a business. That meant focusing on stage work, presence online, and everything that comes with the craft.
Social media has helped me push that message to more people than just the audience in the room. I’ve gained opportunities, like connecting with the Canadian Student Leadership Association, because they were able to see my clips and what I’m about online. And I don’t need a ton of followers, just need enough to impact people and show who I am.”
Did you know?
A 2022 longitudinal study of Canadian athletes found that women reported higher levels of disordered eating and stress compared to men, often tied to pressures of performance and visibility (Dubuc-Charbonneau et al., 2022). Franklin’s openness on social media reflects evidence that authenticity and sharing personal stories can help buffer against these pressures.
Liam Hickey
| Age: | 26 |
| Sport: | Para ice hockey |
| Primary platform: | |
| Follower count: | 4.3K |
Liam is a Canadian Para ice hockey player and two-time Paralympian currently preparing for the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympics. He also competed in wheelchair basketball at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio. Off the ice, Liam uses social media to connect with fans, advocate for Para sport, and share an authentic look at life as a high-performance athlete.
Q: What are your main goals when you post on social media?
A: “What comes to mind is to reach more people than I ever thought possible. That’s one of the great things about social media… you tend to reach people who didn’t even know you existed, or didn’t know your sport existed, or that parasport existed…
When I’m creating posts around the athletic side of my life and my journey, it’s about trying to find ways to connect with as many people as possible. I’ve got that general following of people who know me, fans, friends, family, but there’s such a vast diversity of people on Instagram. It’s about finding a way to connect with everyone on a different level. That’s what makes social media exciting.”
Q: How do you manage or balance the pressures of social media?
“I think it just comes with not taking it too seriously. Social media is what it is. Obviously, there are amazing opportunities like endorsements, brands, promotion, but to me it’s a very small aspect of who you are and what you do. A lot of people get over-consumed with it.
Managing it is about enjoying it. Post what you want and what you’re comfortable with. Don’t fake your personality to try and get something out there that you’re not. I’ve seen that, especially in high performance sport, where some people post outside of who they are to gain attention or money. That’s not for me.”
Q: Has social media been a tool to help you advocate for Para hockey and Para sport?
A: “In the last five to seven years, social media has probably been the biggest advantage for us as Para sport athletes, and not just in our sport, but for the Paralympics as a whole. It gives people of all ages and cultures access to see Para sport in ways they couldn’t before.
When you have a 14- or 15-year-old kid on Instagram who recently acquired a disability, but sees Para hockey on Hockey Canada’s feed or the Paralympics’ feed, that offers not only promotion of the sport, but also the inclusion part of it, and being able to see yourself in somebody else’s shoes.”
Q: How have you learned to navigate social media and build your brand as an athlete?
A: “Yeah, I think it’s been a learning journey. When I first started it was kind of throw whatever up there, like workouts, on-ice stuff, just trying to get yourself out there. Now it’s changed, and people want to see more of the day-to-day life, the small things they can actually relate to.
For me, the biggest change has been just being myself. I’m not one of those people to post outside of who I am or put on a facade. Staying grounded and personal is what matters to me.”
Q: What advice would you give to young athletes navigating social media?
A: “To any athlete just getting into it, especially younger kids, I’d say be extremely careful and always err on the side of caution. It’s very important to protect yourself and protect your image. If you’re more comfortable with a private account, do that. No one is forcing you to make everything public. Just stay true to who you are.”
Did you know?
Research highlights that social media plays a critical role in raising awareness of Para sport and improving representation. Seeing athletes like Hickey online can help young people with disabilities envision themselves in sport, which increases participation and fosters inclusion (Martin Ginis et al., 2023).
Shallon Olsen
| Age: | 24 |
| Sport: | Artistic gymnastics |
| Primary platform: | |
| Follower count: | 48.9K |
Shallon Olsen is a Canadian artistic gymnast and three-time Olympian. She won silver on vault at the 2018 World Championships and gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. On Instagram, she describes using the platform to connect with fans. She shares content on training and competition, speaks openly about her sport, and offers glimpses of life beyond the gym.
Q: What are your main goals when you post on social media?
A: “I try to get as much engagement and reach as possible, especially if I’m putting a certain topic out there. I want people to see it, react and engage. It makes me feel more connected to my fans. Social media also helps me stay in touch with athletes and friends around the world that I don’t see often.”
Q: How do you manage or balance the pressures of social media?
A: “I have difficulty coming up with content sometimes. If I’m competing in a major competition, it’s pretty straightforward. I can get pictures and post about it. But if I’m not in the gym, it’s harder to think of something.
I don’t post all the time. I share things when they feel significant, when they mean something. That might be a concert I went to, or dinner with friends. Just small things to give people a glimpse of my life, even if they can’t be there.”
Q: What is your preferred platform and why?
A: “I’d say Instagram is my favourite because I can see everything more easily, even though the format changes have been a learning curve. I’ve thought about using reels since they get more engagement, but they take a lot of planning, editing, and figuring out what content to post. So I usually just stick to photos and videos. Having an agent or social media manager would make a big difference, since we’re given a platform but not the resources to manage it well.”
Q: What role does openness or transparency play in the way you use social media?
A: “I try to be as transparent as possible, just to share my experiences with people and hopefully help them in a certain scenario they’re going through. I’m always looking to help anyone as best as I can. And if my life experience can shed some light on something they’re struggling with, like mental health, mental blocks in gymnastics, or anything else, I feel like I’ve done my job. Even if people don’t know me, through Q&As or just asking me questions, if I can be of help then I’ve done what I set out to do.”
Did you know?
A 2025 Canadian study linked difficulties in regulating emotions and managing performance concerns to higher risks of depression and anxiety among athletes (Cook et al., 2025). For judged sports like gymnastics, this pressure is amplified, making Olsen’s focus on balance and transparency an important social media strategy.
Conclusion
These answers show that social media is not just an add-on to sport but something that requires planning, intention, and effort. It is where athletes connect with fans, raise the profile of their sports, and share parts of themselves beyond competition.
As the digital landscape evolves, so too does their role within it. Finding ways to balance visibility, connection, and authenticity online is part of the new reality of high-performance sport.
For today’s athletes, making social media work seems to be part of the game.
Ressources
Cook, J., et al. (2025). Emotion dysregulation, performance concerns, and mental health among Canadian athletes. Frontiers in Psychology.
Dubuc-Charbonneau, N., et al. (2022). A longitudinal examination of changes in mental health among elite Canadian athletes. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.
Martin Ginis, K., et al. (2023). Quality participation in parasport: A narrative perspective. SIRC.