The Mental Aspect of Olympic Competition

DR. COLLEEN HACKER, U.S. OLYMPIC MENTAL SKILLS COACH: Without a question, the physical excellence is inextricably linked to psychological resilience and to mental health. We don’t come at performance as compartmentalized human beings. We don’t perform in the Olympic Games with just our bodies. We are integrated. It is our entire selves. And I will say, quite frankly, at the Olympic Games or any major competition, everything is a performance issue. Every aspect that affects our lives as human beings comes with us to the performance domain.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: So talk about the role that you play, the critical role. You have worked with soccer teams, ice hockey, and U.S. women’s swimming as well. What do you do with these athletes? And how do you coach them, along with their trainers, their physical trainers, how do you coach them to maintain their mental health?

HACKER: Right. Well, there is always a team behind the team. There’s always a team behind each individual athlete. I have been fortunate to serve on six Olympic Games’ coaching staffs, and, as you mentioned, in a variety of sports, and then worked with a significant number of individual Olympians. What I bring to the equation, I’m a certified mental performance consultant, and I’m listed in the United States Olympic and Paralympic Sport Psychology Registry. And my focus is on the performance enhancement side. So, I work with athletes around issues like dealing with the pressure, dealing with the distractions that are common in the Olympic Games, imagery, for example. We know from research that 97 percent to 98 percent of Olympic athletes use imagery on a consistent basis. We work on their self-talk, on their breathing techniques, mindfulness. And so, a whole host of variables along the performance enhancement will alongside, folks like me, (INAUDIBLE) enhancement side are all clinical sports psychologists that work with athletes around people issues. So, these are the things, like clinical anxiety that we’re talking about now, trauma, eating disorders, suicide ideation, testing positive for COVID, substance abuse. So, these two groups of professionals work hand in hand, the performance enhancement side and the mental health side. I’m on one side of the equation, and I’m fortunate to work with many of the best in the world at their particular craft.