Purpose: The purpose with this study is to find out and understand whether athlete's performance can be affected by destructive leadership in sports organizations, then weigh this together with theory. This is a try to contribute to the discourse on destructive leadership.   Method: This study is performed using a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews in which the interviewees are selected through a convenience sampling.   Theoretical framework: This investigation’s theoretical framework consists of theories dealing with leadership, leadership in sports organizations, power, destructive leadership, how destructive leadership can be positive and how it can be negative.    Empiricism: This investigation’s empiricism consists of 17 interviews with athletes who have experienced a destructive leader in sports organizations.  Conclusion: All athletes could express a negative influence on performance from destructive leadership, but the majority who expressed a positive influence expressed that it was a kind of fear, pressure or anger among the athletes that made the athletes perform better as the motivation and the desire to disprove the leader increased. How the destructive leader influence the athlete may depend on the athlete's personality and attitude. It is possible to discern in this study that athletes look, feel and respond differently to a destructive leadership, which can determine the positive and/or negative effects.