Presently the sport communities give a special priority to barriers for progress in sports and their mitigation, prevention and control methods and tools. Objective of the study was to theoretically analyze mental burnouts in elite sports in the context of the modern competitive progress challenges and evolution of the global Olympic movement. The theoretical analysis was designed to find reasons for and manifestations of mental burnouts in the sports elite. We rated and analyzed mental burnout elements in elite Olympic sports by a questionnaire survey. It should be mentioned that the modern Olympic sports are increasingly influenced by contradictory and biased interests and discriminatory policies of the relevant international organizations including the World Anti-Doping Agency that create barriers for access to the Olympic Games and, consequently, uncertainties in the sport careers. These discriminatory policies and progress uncertainties cannot but contribute to the growth of mental burnouts in the sports elite. Such burnouts are known to be gender-, age-, skills- and training-service-specific, and this is why the prevention/ control psychological services will be provided on an individualized and sensitive basis, with a special emphasis on the critical stressors including the ‘lost success motivations’, ‘emotional and physical exhaustion’ and ‘unappreciated accomplishments’.