Alberto Cei

Winning a medal at the Olympics means being able to stay focused on your performance for the duration of the event, regardless of your score, your opponents, the weather, the crowd, your own expectations or those of others.

For many it represents the competition of a lifetime and for this reason the pressure and expectations are so high that they can destroy an athlete or a team.

Visualization is the psychological technique most used by athletes to live these moments in a way that is positive and effective for them. Below are some statements from the last 35 years that confirm its validity.

“Athletes confirm in their statements the validity of this approach: Alex Baumann (gold in 200 m and 400 m swimming, Los Angeles olympic Games): “The best way I learned to prepare myself mentally for the race was to be able to visualize it in my mind” [Orlick and Partington, 1986]. Sylvie Bervier (gold in diving, Los Angeles Olympics): “I was constantly replaying the dives in my head. At night, before going to sleep, I always repeated my dives. Ten dives [...]. I was doing everything as if I was really there” [Orlick and Partington, 1986]. Franck Dumoulin (gold in pistol shooting at the Sydney Olympics): “I use mental imagery a lot on different occasions, especially when I’m looking for quality. Technique is the base but thinking about technique evokes feelings and it is enough to think about the feelings for the technique to be immediately ready” [Ripoll, 2008]. The Japanese national judo team, holds the record of 72 medals won at the Olympic Games, including 36 gold: “Mental training was integrated into the daily collegiate schedule. Athletes did exercises at 7 a.m. every day. Activities included attitude training, laughing, listening to soothing music, talking with teammates, breathing exercises, meditation, and playing back their best performances in a slowed down manner [Terry et al., 2014)” (From Cei, 2021).

The years will pass but it is inevitable not to feel a sense of sadness every time I see a photo of Valentino Mazzola or another footballer of that legendary Torino. In this one, he is tying the shoes of his 4-year-old son Sandro.

The Olympics have always oscillated between two opposites. On the one hand, they are a celebration of peace among peoples. It is no coincidence that they have often been a means of pressure and political claim, used by both nations and individual athletes. Sport is not neutral, it is not true that the important thing is to participate, nations use sport to affirm their vision of the world. This is absolutely acceptable as long as the rights of all are respected. Our culture of Olympic sports has its roots in classical Greece for which sport was next to other forms of development of people. At the same time, for every athlete, the Olympics represent the most important opportunity to affirm their value on a global level, it is the greatest showcase to which an athlete can aspire. On the other hand, the Olympics, along with the World Cup and the Tour de France, are the world’s top sporting events. The Tokyo Olympics will represent something different from previous ones.

Meanwhile, the athletes come from a year of pandemic, a year without competitions and for some sports there have been few opportunities to qualify (table tennis for example has had in 2021 only two qualifying tournaments). In some ways the selection of participants has been unfair and many of those excluded are already preparing for the upcoming Paris 2024 which is only a little over two years away. Secondly, the restrictions imposed by Japan during the stay in Tokyo will be very strict and therefore there will be no interviews and press conferences before and after the competitions and this certainly penalizes the sports and athletes with less visibility during the quadrennium. Finally, there will be no audience and we have all experienced its absence during the soccer championship. The lack of fans will be an aspect that could negatively affect many performances, selling out the enthusiasm that the public obviously determines. In a few days we will know what will happen, however, it remains true that most of the athletes / despite these differences will be focused on providing the performance of their lives.