For a first time Olympian, there are many emotions they will experience at the games. Awe. Wonder. Excitement.
Getting too excited, however, may cause them to stumble on the biggest stage of their careers.
“When you get too excited, which will automatically happen at the Olympics, your focus goes really, really narrow,” says Kim Dawson, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University. “You stop paying attention to some of the things that you need to pay attention too.”
Dawson works in the kinesiology department at WLU and specializes in sport psychology. She’s been working with athletes for two decades to make sure they are ready for the stresses of the Olympic Games.
“Just as they need to train physically to be at the top of their game, they also have to be prepared mentally,” she says.
Ahead of this year’s games in Rio she has worked with four athletes, including Kitchener’s Mandy Bujold (boxing) and Guelph’s Andrea Seccafien (track).
“She’s so physically fit, and so incredibly strong, and she’s such a brave and courageous runner,” Dawson says of Seccafien, who will be competing in her first Olympics. “It’s about making sure she can get out of her own way to let that come through.”
For some athletes, just making it to Rio can be a distraction.
“There’s going to be a time where she’s going to have a little bit of disbelief that she’s actually there,” says Dawson.
Seccafien will be running in the 5000m starting Aug. 16. Bujold steps into the ring for her first bout on Aug. 12.
With reporting by Marc Venema
