“We have no official psychologist in the team”

We have no official psychologists in the team, some athletes  follow them on a personal level.” This is the answer that the Italian Olimpic Committee gave Gianni Riotta, reported in his today article  on the athletes mental preparation (http://www3.lastampa.it/sport/sezioni/olimpiadi-londra-2012/articolo/lstp/ 464 554 /). In a witty words Riotta suggests that the problems of these days in the Italian team among  coaches and swimmers could be prevented by a psychologist. Also in this area we are among the last one. Sports psychologists work in the strongest nations: since 1984 the U.S.  have four of the Olympic Committee as others who work with the team, the same applies to Britain, Australia and many others. Psychologists also work with nations winning less  medals like Brazil, Cuba, Cyprus and Iran. This is not true for Italy, luckly there are the athletes who, aware of the difficulties to compete at a high level, seek the assistance of an expert to manage competitive stress more effectively .