To dream is very important for the young athletes

For many athletes the year after the Olympics is a period of transition. Often those who have achieved great successes in the four previous years use this year as a time of recovery, to be ready next year to start a new challenge. For younger athletes, however, can be an important year to prove their value in international competitions in a time when the best are not making pressure. And it is on these that I want to focus, with the question: when does a young athlete (girl or boy) begins to dream that she/he could be part of the Olympic team of her/his country? And then it makes sense to dream?

I found support for this idea in a study conducted some years ago by the U.S. Olympic Committee, it was asked this question to the athletes who have been members of the US Olympic team in the period 1984-1998. These are the results:

• The athletes began to dream of becoming Olympic athletes in the period in which they obtained their first successes at the local level (between 10, 9 and 18 years).
• After about 3,5 years they decided to pursue this dream.
• After about 1,7 years they thought that their dream was realistic at an age between 13,4 and 22,4 years.

The differential of age are due to the fact that gymnastics and swimming are sports earlier specialization compared others such as shooting, rowing and track and field athletes where the athletes reach maturity at an older age.
These findings teach us that boys and girls need to nurture their dreams and that they pass from an initial desire to one in which you decide to commit to make it last that it is considered realistic implementation. Second, another strongest trend to emerge from these data was the short period of time between the decision to become Olympian and the belief that it was possible.