There are some voices in sport that carry weight because of what they have lived, not just what they have won. Tony Adams, the Arsenal and England captain who built one of English football’s great defensive careers, spoke from that place this week as his charity, Sporting Chance, launched a new research hub dedicated to the mental health of professional athletes.

The hub, developed with Loughborough University and supported by The Players’ Foundation, was launched on October 1 at York Racecourse. It is designed to be a national centre for research into athlete wellbeing, addiction and the psychology of life inside and outside professional sport, turning two decades of frontline experience into evidence-based support.

A charity built from lived experience

Adams founded Sporting Chance in 2000 after confronting his own alcohol addiction. The charity has since become one of British sport’s most important support systems, offering counselling, treatment and education to athletes across football, rugby, cricket and beyond. Adams’ decision to build the charity out of his own recovery gave it a credibility that no awareness campaign could buy.

“I could not be prouder of Sporting Chance,” Adams said at the launch. “What started as a lifeline for a few of us has grown into something that can genuinely change how sport thinks about mental health. This research hub is the next step. We are taking everything we have learned and making it count for the next generation.”

The gap this is trying to close

Professional athletes live in a pressure cooker that most workplaces never approach: public scrutiny, injury risk, short careers, identity tied entirely to performance. Support has improved enormously in twenty years, but it remains patchy, inconsistent and often reactive. A player in crisis can still find themselves navigating a system that was not designed for them.

The new hub aims to change that by doing what sport has historically been bad at: measuring. Working with Loughborough University’s research teams, it will study what actually helps athletes, from prevention and early intervention to treatment and life after sport. The goal is not more awareness. It is better answers.

Why athletes, why now

The timing matters. Sport is in the middle of a long-overdue reckoning with mental health, from gymnastics to tennis to football. Athletes are talking more openly than ever, and the conversation has moved past whether the problem is real to what to do about it. A research hub rooted in both lived experience and academic rigour is exactly the kind of infrastructure the moment needs.

There is a lesson here beyond sport. The model Adams built, turning personal crisis into an institution that outlives it, is one of the most powerful forms of philanthropy there is. It says: the worst thing that happened to me can become the best thing that happens to someone else.

What the rest of us can borrow

You do not have to be a professional athlete to take something from this. The hub’s core insight, that support should be built on evidence and lived experience together, applies anywhere people work under pressure. Ask for help earlier than you think you need to. Build the system before the crisis. And remember that the strongest thing a person can do is admit they need a hand.

Start the day right: these are NYC’s best breakfast sandwiches for grab-and-go mornings. And if you are planning a day out, here are 20 fun things to do in NYC this weekend. Sometimes the best support is simply showing up for each other.