Sport psychology at the Olympics: The case of a Danish sailing crew in a head wind

Abstract

Performing your best at the Olympic Games is a unique and stressful challenge for all involved, including athletes, coaches, and sport psychology practitioners. This paper provides a descriptive account and personal reflections of a sport psychology intervention aimed at helping a sailing crew perform at the ultimate event. The paper describes the specific strategies the sport psychology practitioner used to help the two sailors prepare for, and perform at, the Olympics as well as to cope with their disappointment after the Games. While the preparation went smoothly, the crew experienced a significant head wind (metaphor for adversity) during the Olympics. The present case is an example of the scientist-practitioner. The intervention was based on a clear theory, the cognitive behavioural tradition, and came from an evidence-based perspective. After the Games, the intervention was evaluated methodically. Based on this evaluation (alongside several similar ones), the sport psychology team of Team Denmark has decided to assess the integration of mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches into service delivery and to include these perspectives in the team's professional philosophy. Key components of such interventions include staying in the present moment, accepting the multitude of thoughts and feelings that arise without necessarily acting on them, and clarifying personal values alongside a commitment to act on these values. These processes are no less important for the sport psychology practitioner who is expected to remain calm and focused-and to never bend even in the strongest wind.

A Commentary and Reflections on the Field of Organizational Sport Psychology

“…Sly et al observed that sport psychologists are increasingly regarded as not only a facilitator of performance enhancement and custodian of performer well-being, but an architect of cultural excellence. With growing requests for practitioners to advise on elite sport climates (Fletcher & Wagstaff, 2009), as well as other diverse performance domains (e.g., military, performing arts, high risk occupations; Portenga, Aoyagi, & Cohen, 2017), the creation and sustainment of a high performance culture has now come to be regarded as a key function of sport psychology practice (Henriksen, 2015). As such, I urge sport psychology practitioners to prioritize the development of cultural and socio-political skills and knowledge of organizational psychology practices.…”

“It’s psychology Jim, but not as we know it!”: The changing face of applied sport psychology.

“…To further illustrate the evolving nature of ASP practice, Terry and Si (2015) reviewed a body of literature which underlines the diverse challenges associated with ASP support in the context of Olympic performance. Reflecting on his experiences of providing support to the Danish Olympic sailing team, Henriksen (2015) proposed that the challenges of service delivery are often accentuated by a multitude of unplanned events which exist beyond the scope of traditional ASP provision. This includes helping athletes to address family issues, media scrutiny and other private concerns which may be regarded as superfluous to athlete performance.…”

Team Denmark’s sport psychology professional philosophy 2.0

“…A classic CBT approach for treating performance anxiety in sports could involve for example mapping negative automatic thoughts and reframing to formulate more rational ones. However, experience gained from delivering sport psychology service at the Olympics (e.g., Henriksen, 2015;Larsen & Henriksen, 2019; see also Henriksen et al, 2019) have convinced us that athletes are rarely able to foresee and map all problematic thoughts in advance or to find their ideal performance state during the unique pressure of the most important events.…”

“…Therefore, it is important to work with the sports federation on an organizational level. It is important to work with: a) leadership, working with the coach or sports manager as a cultural leader (Henriksen, Storm & Larsen, 2018), b) culture, defining clear values and actions that are consistent with these values (Henriksen, 2015), and c) strategies, developing effective processes and strategies in areas such as team selection and support/rewards to athletes (Henriksen et al, 2018).…”

“…(5) The fifth level describes the concrete psychological services that are delivered. The philosophy is built upon the idea that good sport psychological intervention requires consistency across all five levels of which we have previously provided examples Henriksen, 2015;Henriksen, 2019;Larsen, 2017a;Larsen, 2017b;Diment, 2014).…”