Winning the Gold Medal in the Olympics appears a pinnacle in any elite athlete’s career, but physical fitness or technical skill may not, in fact, be the crucial factor. Increasingly sports scientists are becoming convinced that it’s grit and determination, resilience and desire, which separates winners from losers.
Motivation triumphs over muscle.
But what precisely are these mysterious, hidden, but crucial mental aspects which separate the winners from the rest, who appear to be trying just as hard? Can the rest of us benefit as well from the psychological strategies of Olympic Gold Medal winners?
David Fletcher and Mustafa Sarkar, sport and performance psychologists, have recently published one of the most in-depth studies ever, getting inside the mind of Olympic Gold Medal winners. At the time of publishing their paper, they were both based at Loughborough University in the UK, (where historically much of the science behind the training of Team GB’s medal campaign has been developed).
Mustafa Sarkar is now Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. The investigation involved an analysis of 12 Olympic Gold Medal winners’ accounts to the researchers of how they used their minds to win.
[For more of this story, written by Raj Persaud & Peter Bruggen, go to https://www.psychologytoday.co...ic-gold-medal-winner]
Comments (0)