The purpose of this study was to examine impact of vulnerability on mental health among Japanese university athletes according to the weakest link model. The subjects of the survey were 689 university athletes (men = 467, women = 222, mean age = 19.9, SD = 1.24) belonging to the sports club activity of the university, and the survey was conducted in October 2017. The analysis showed that women athletes scored significantly higher mental health than men athletes, demonstrating that women athletes had poorer mental health than men athletes. In addition, the mental health of athletes with high vulnerability was showed to bad, and suggesting that those who are high vulnerable are about twice as likely to deteriorate in mental health as those who are low vulnerable. These results indicate the need to take an approach to maintaining good mental health for vulnerable athletes.
