Questions to Ask Athletes
Good questions to ask athletes, whether you are interviewing one for a school paper, a podcast or a club profile, or talking with one you already know. The first ten are openers that work in any sport and at any level, and they stand on their own if ten is all you have time for. After that the list runs through training, competing, setbacks, the people around them, and life beyond sport.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Openers
How did you first get into this sport?
Why ask it
Almost every athlete has a ready answer, so it warms up the conversation without effort. It also tells you whether they chose the sport or inherited it from a parent or a school, which colors how they talk about pressure later on.
What do you love most about your sport?
Why ask it
The plainest question here, and people who train every day are rarely asked it. Good answers are small and physical: the sound of a clean strike, the first cold length of a morning swim, the bus ride home after an away win. If you get 'the competition', ask which part of competing.
What does a normal training week look like for you right now?
Why ask it
Asking about this week rather than their routine in general gets you the real schedule, including the parts nobody sees: the gym work, video review, travel, time on the treatment table. If the answer stays general, ask what yesterday looked like.
What keeps you going on the days you do not want to train?
Why ask it
The bad days get a truer answer than a general question about motivation, which tends to produce a slogan. Listen for whether it is a goal, a habit, or a person waiting for them at the session.
What is your proudest moment in the sport so far?
Why ask it
It is rarely the biggest result. Athletes often pick a comeback, a selection, or a race nobody watched, and the reason they chose it tells you what they value. Ask who was there when it happened.
What do you do in the hours right before you compete?
Why ask it
Pre-competition hours are ritual heavy and very specific: the same warm-up order, the same breakfast, the same seat on the bus. It is an easy answer to give, and it opens the subject of nerves without anyone having to use the word.
Which athlete did you want to be when you were a kid?
Why ask it
A childhood hero is easy to name and nearly always comes with a story: a poster on the wall, a move copied in the backyard. Follow up by asking whether they have since met that person, and whether it held up.
What are you aiming at this season?
Why ask it
Some will give you a result, others a time, a selection, or simply staying fit to the end. If the goal is one they cannot control, such as a ranking, ask what they are doing each week toward it. Out of season, ask about next year.
What advice would you give a young athlete who is just starting out?
Why ask it
The first answer is usually a stock line about hard work or having fun. Follow it by asking what they got wrong in their own first few years. That is where the real advice sits: training too much, sleeping too little, copying a program built for someone with a different body.
What do you do for fun that has nothing to do with sport?
Why ask it
A good closer for a short conversation, because it lets them be a person and not a performer. You might hear about a second life of study, work, music or children, or an honest admission that there is very little else right now. Neither answer needs fixing.
Training
Which part of training do you actually enjoy, and which part do you just get through?
Why ask it
Splitting the question in two gives them permission to admit boredom, which athletes rarely volunteer to a stranger. The part they merely get through is often where their weakness sits.
Who do you train with, and what are they like?
Why ask it
Training partners are the people they see most and mention least outside the sport. This gets you names and characters, and it is usually where the conversation stops being about sport at all.
Do you listen to anything while you train, or do you need quiet?
Why ask it
Small and easy to answer, and it shows how they get through the dull hours. Ask for the actual song or podcast, and whether it changes when the effort gets hard: plenty of people who start a session in headphones finish it in silence.
How do you eat during a heavy training block, and has that changed over the years?
Why ask it
Ask about the change, not the meal plan. The story is often a swing from eating too little, or copying a fashionable diet, toward something duller and steadier. Keep it to food and fuel; body weight is theirs to bring up, especially with a young athlete.
How much sleep do you need, and what happens when you do not get it?
Why ask it
Sleep is the least glamorous part of the job, and most athletes can give you a firm number. The second half is where it gets specific: slower reactions, a short temper, a session abandoned. Travel and early starts usually come up without your asking.
What does a rest day actually look like for you?
Why ask it
Rest days separate athletes who treat recovery as part of training from those who treat it as guilt. Notice whether they can sit still, or whether the day quietly fills up with a second sport.
What do you do in the off-season that you cannot do while you are competing?
Why ask it
You will hear about vacations, late nights, another sport, food they have missed. It also shows how long they can truly switch off, which for some turns out to be less than a week. Mid-season, hold this one back unless they bring up the break first.
Did you play other sports growing up, and what carried over?
Why ask it
Plenty of athletes arrived at their sport sideways, from gymnastics, football, swimming, or whatever an older sibling played. What carried over is usually something particular, like footwork, balance, or reading a game, and they tend to enjoy explaining the link.
How did you end up in your position or your event?
Why ask it
Positions and events are often handed out early, by a coach who needed a goalkeeper or noticed a tall kid, and the athlete has had years to make peace with that or not. Ask whether they would pick the same one today. In a sport with neither, ask how they would describe their style.
What are you still trying to fix in your technique or your approach?
Why ask it
An athlete who is still fixing something specific is still improving. If the answer is a shrug or a general aim like getting stronger, they may be coasting, or protecting a weakness they do not want to discuss.
Competing
When did you first believe you could be good at this?
Why ask it
The moment is usually smaller than people expect: beating a training partner, one remark from a coach, a single session that went right. Athletes who cannot point to a moment often admit they still do not quite believe it.
How do you handle nerves before something big?
Why ask it
Ask how, not whether: nearly everyone gets them, and treating that as a given makes the question easier to answer. Useful replies are practical, such as breathing, a set routine, a phrase, or keeping busy. If they say they never get nervous, ask about the night before.
Is there a superstition or lucky habit you would not dare skip?
Why ask it
Light and reliably funny: a pair of socks, a particular song, which foot crosses the line first. Then ask what happened the one time they skipped it.
What does it feel like on a day when everything clicks?
Why ask it
Athletes are asked constantly about what went wrong and seldom about what it is like when it goes right. Descriptions vary a lot: time slowing down, no thinking at all, watching themselves from slightly outside. Give them a moment, because it is hard to put into words.
What goes through your head when a game or a race starts going badly?
Why ask it
This asks about thinking inside competition instead of inviting a rehearsed line about mental toughness. Some describe a short checklist, some describe going quiet, some admit they spiral. All three tell you something real.
Who is the toughest opponent you have faced, and what made them so hard?
Why ask it
The reason is worth more than the name. Speed and strength are the dull answers; the better ones are about an opponent who never made mistakes, or who seemed to know what was coming. Notice how much respect is in the description.
Which game or race do you replay in your head most often?
Why ask it
Left open on purpose, so they can choose a win or a loss. Whichever they pick, ask what they see when it replays: a single decision, a sound, the final few seconds. Someone who goes straight to a defeat may still be working through it, so go gently with the follow-up.
How do you come back the next day after a bad performance?
Why ask it
The day after is where habits show. You learn whether they watch the footage or avoid it, who they call, and whether they train harder than they should out of anger.
How do you celebrate a win, and how long do you let yourself enjoy it?
Why ask it
The second part is the real question. An athlete who is back in training the next morning and has never properly marked a result may be telling you that winning feels more like relief than reward. Ask what the last celebration actually was: a meal, a day off, a phone call home.
How do you judge a good season when the results do not go your way?
Why ask it
Results are the easy measure, so this asks for the harder one. Staying healthy, turning up consistently, or one technical gain are the usual candidates. If the only measure they offer is winning, ask what was good about a season they lost.
Setbacks
What has been the hardest stretch of your time in this sport?
Why ask it
Stretch, not moment, because the hard parts of sport are usually long: a season on the bench, a run of poor form, a year of rehab. Let them set the scale. If the answer turns on someone else's decision, such as a coach's team selection, expect some feeling still attached to it.
How do you tell the difference between soreness you can train through and pain you should stop for?
Why ask it
Experienced athletes tend to have a personal rule here, usually learned from something they trained through and should not have. Ask for the story behind the rule. It is their rule for their body, not guidance for yours.
What has an injury taught you that training never did?
Why ask it
Being hurt forces athletes to learn things they had no reason to learn while healthy: sleep, patience, who checks in on them, what their body does with no training at all. Expect a slower answer than the training questions get.
Have you ever been dropped or left on the bench, and how did you find out?
Why ask it
How they found out is often the part that still stings: a lineup pinned to a wall, a short phone call, or nothing said at all. Then ask what they did at the next practice. Leave it alone if it happened in the last few weeks.
Have you ever come close to quitting, and what kept you in?
Why ask it
Many have, often in their teens or after a long injury, and they tend to remember the exact week. What kept them in can be a person, a stubborn streak, or the plain absence of another plan. Save it until you have some rapport.
What do you do with criticism from people who have never competed at your level?
Why ask it
Athletes tend to sort feedback by source rather than by content. The interesting part is who they do let in, because that short list is the real circle around them. Comments online usually come up here, so ask whether they read them.
What do people say to you after a loss that misses the mark?
Why ask it
Everyone reaches for the same few phrases after a defeat, so hearing which ones grate is immediately useful to you. It also gets at what they do want, which is usually company rather than analysis.
People
Who has had the biggest influence on how you compete?
Why ask it
It might be a coach, a parent, a rival or an older teammate. Whoever it is, ask for one thing that person did that they now catch themselves doing. A rival is the answer to stay on longest, because it means they learned from someone who was trying to beat them.
What is the best advice anyone has given you about your sport?
Why ask it
The advice matters less than who gave it and when it finally made sense. Many athletes heard the line years before they understood it, and that gap is the story. If it sounds borrowed, ask for the last time they acted on it.
What does your coach say to you that works, and what does not land?
Why ask it
Naming what does not land is far more revealing than praise. It tells you how they want to be coached, and it shows whether they can describe an important relationship without flattering it.
What makes someone a good teammate or captain, in your experience?
Why ask it
They will usually be describing a real person without naming them, so ask who they have in mind. The traits they pick, such as honesty, calm, or doing the unglamorous jobs, are the standard they hold themselves to. For an individual sport, swap in training partner.
How do you handle it when a teammate is not putting in the same work?
Why ask it
This is where team culture becomes visible: whether people say it to the teammate's face, take it to the coach, or quietly stop passing to them. Ask what happened the last time, not what they would do in theory.
Who in your life is honest with you about your performance?
Why ask it
Finds out whether anyone is allowed to say something unwelcome, or whether the sport has left them ringed by encouragement. The absence of such a person is usually the more telling answer.
Who took you to practice when you were young, and do they still come and watch?
Why ask it
Behind most athletes is someone who drove, waited in parking lots, and paid the entry fees. This gives that person a moment, and the athlete is often plainly pleased to talk about them. Tread lightly if the answer suggests they are no longer around.
What does your sport ask of the people you live with?
Why ask it
At home the effects are concrete: meals planned around sessions, early nights, weekends lost to travel, someone else doing the laundry. An athlete who says it asks nothing may never have checked, so a light 'would they agree?' is fair.
Do you like having people you know in the crowd, or does it throw you off?
Why ask it
Hardly ever asked, and worth knowing before you turn up. A familiar face settles one athlete and distracts another, and many have a firm view on being spoken to before the start. If you plan to watch, ask where they would like you to stand and when it is fine to say hello.
Beyond sport
What is the most ridiculous thing you have done for your sport?
Why ask it
Asks for a story rather than an assessment: an overnight drive for a two-minute race, drills in a hotel corridor, a wedding left early for a morning session. Telling it lets them be funny about the commitment instead of having to defend it.
How do you fit school or a job around your training?
Why ask it
Below the fully professional level, athletes are usually students or employees as well, and the logistics are a story in themselves: dawn sessions, an understanding boss, homework on a bus. With a full-time athlete, ask how they fill the hours between sessions.
What would you be doing now if you had never found this sport?
Why ask it
A playful question with a serious edge. A quick answer usually names a career or another sport they nearly chose. A long silence says how much of who they are sits in this one, and it gives you a soft way into the subject of stopping.
What has this sport cost you that people watching do not see?
Why ask it
Late in a conversation this is fair to ask, and the answers tend to be concrete: missed weddings, friendships that faded, schooling deferred, a body that aches in the morning. If they deflect, leave it there.
What do you know about yourself now that you did not know before you started?
Why ask it
Better than asking what sport has taught them, which invites a motivational poster. This gets something particular: a limit they found, a temper they now recognize, a tolerance for discomfort that surprised them.
What would you say to a parent whose child wants to follow you into this?
Why ask it
Advice aimed at parents comes out more honest than advice aimed at children, because nobody feels obliged to be inspiring. You may hear about cost, specializing too early, sideline behavior, or how to tell whether the child actually wants it.
What is the one thing you most want to do in this sport before you finish?
Why ask it
Not this season's target but the long one, and often something they have never said out loud: a place on a national team, a school record, one more year with the same teammates. Do not ask how likely it is. Ask what would have to go right.
What do you want to be doing five years after you stop competing?
Why ask it
Asking about the years after the transition, rather than the transition itself, gets past the practiced line about staying involved in the game. Many athletes have simply never been asked to picture that far ahead.
What do you wish more people understood about your sport?
Why ask it
Lets them correct the record on something that actually bothers them, whether that is testing, funding, judging, or how easy it all looks on television. You get the frustration they normally swallow.
Talking with athletes
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you start
Find out where they are in the season
The same question lands differently in week two of pre-season and the night after a final. Mid-season, stay on routine and craft. Straight after a loss, do not open with the loss. In the off-season you will get longer and more reflective answers about almost anything.
Learn enough of the sport to skip the basics
Ten minutes of reading spares you from asking an athlete to explain the scoring or the calendar, which is the quickest way to lose their attention. Knowing one recent result, or the name of a rival, is usually enough to show you did the work.
Decide whether you are a fan, an interviewer, or a peer
Fans get generosity and stock answers. Interviewers get on-the-record answers. Another athlete gets the truth about training loads. Say which you are early, and ask for the version of the answer you actually want.
Choose by group, not from the top
The list is grouped as Openers, Training, Competing, Setbacks, People and Beyond sport. With ten minutes, ask the Openers and stop there. With longer, take two or three from each group instead of working down the page, and bring in Setbacks only after they have talked about something that went well.
Getting past the media answer
Ask about this week, not their philosophy
Broad questions about mindset produce sentences they have said fifty times. Specific ones about Tuesday's session, the last five minutes of a match, or what they ate before a race produce something they have to think about.
Let a pause run
Athletes who have given a lot of interviews learn to fill a silence with something safe. Wait two or three seconds after they seem to finish and you often get the second half of the answer, which is the honest half.
Follow the number
When they mention a time, a weight, a distance, or an age, ask what it was a year ago. Progressions and plateaus are where the story lives, and numbers are easier for them to talk about than feelings.
If you are writing it up
Say before you start where it will appear, and whether you are recording. Afterwards, check the spelling of every name and any time, score or date they quoted. With a school-age athlete, anything about injury, food or family stays out unless they say it can go in.
What to avoid
Do not ask for a secret
Anything phrased as their secret, or the one thing that made the difference, gets a shrug or a cliche, because the real answer is years of dull repetition. Ask what they changed most recently instead.
Do not press on current injuries
An injury they are carrying is competitive information and sometimes private medical information, and they may not have told their coach. Ask what being hurt taught them, and let them decide how much of the present to hand over.
Do not compare them to somebody else
Asking whether they can be the next so-and-so, or how they rate against a rival, moves the conversation onto another person and puts them on the defensive about a comparison they did not make.
Do not convert every answer into advice for yourself
Steering each reply toward what you could apply at your own desk flattens the conversation and makes them a motivational speaker. Ask about their sport on its own terms and take the lessons away quietly.