Speaking at an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) summit on the subject of athlete well-being earlier this month, multiple Olympic gold medalist and Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe shared his thoughts on national-level medal goals made publicly by Olympic Committees heading into a major sporting competition such as an Olympic Games.
“I don’t think it’s beneficial when sporting organisations are talking about how many gold medals we’ll win at a competition and that will be the highest number we’ve ever won,” long-retired Thorpe said.
“It puts an immense amount of pressure on athletes around something they have no control over.” (Reuters)
The Australian Olympic Committee has set a target of a ‘top 5’ medal table finish at the last 3 Summer Games, while individual sporting federations down under also have their own targets.
And, the nation of Australia isn’t alone in setting medal-driven targets, however. Japan, host of the next Summer Olympics, has announced a medal target of 30 golds for 2020. The British Olympic Association also targeted an overall 3rd place finish in the medal table when they hosted the Olympics back in 2012, partly due to the nation’s record-breaking performance in 2008 that resulted in a 4th place finish overall.
Shortly after Thorpe voiced his opinion, AOC President John Coates issued a statement supporting the Olympic swimmer. “We actively stepped away from setting targets for the very reasons that Ian has rightly raised in recent days. In November 2016, the AOC executive fully endorsed the position that no targets be set in our programme and funding guidelines for both Tokyo 2020 Summer Games and also this year’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.”
Coates said,“Our focus should be on Australians engaging in sporting activity and seeking to fulfill themselves through sport.” (Straits Times)
When have the Aussies ever hit their medal goals? The expectations of the bureaucrats ruins this team every four years.
Who is Ian Thrope?
The edge on that blade is a bit dull.
Wasn’t there a swimmer in 2008 that had a lot of pressure to win 8 golds and rose to the occasion? I can’t quite recall his name
Then there was Katie Hoff .
She had high expectations, but was not even eligible to win 8 gold based on her line-up alone. Plus, she had minimal pressure in 2009 and completely choked at U.S. Nationals.
Jason Lezak
Phelps is beyond exceptional. But until you’ve had to perform under such immense pressure, you have no room to talk. I imagine Thorpe has a good idea of what pressure these athletes face.
Didn’t Phelps put a lot of that pressure on himself? I think it makes a difference when the pressure is initiated internally compared to external factors. I’m not saying that there weren’t external pressures but Phelps was pretty verbal about winning 8 gold medals, yeah?
He never publicly stated his goal was a certain amount of gold medals, neither before Beijing or Athens. He would just opaquely say he had goals that only he and Bob knew. The media was driving the talk of the quest to match or better Spitz both in 2004 and 2008. He did say though that he wanted to change the sport.
Completely and utterly false comment
I’m not buying this. Pressure is an internal feeling. Whether the Olympic Committee sets up some goals for medals or not is irrelevant to the pressure felt. I think the bottom line is that the Americans learn to race from a very young age though college and the pro series. If anything the pressure is on the Americans more at the Olympics because that is the only place where they are noticed and get the ability to gain sponsorships. I’ve had many conversations with folks involved in other sports and often comment on how much racing I did back in the day. The other sports simply don’t for fear of injury or just haven’t incorporated it into their training. Even… Read more »
I will also add to this that the American Olympic Trails with its winner take all attitude [I know first and second and more for the relays], which is different than Australia’s, has the most pressure of all. Finally, my comment above is informed by my work as a social psychologist working with folks in handling pressure in a different context. Teaching the body, from the mind to the eyes, to the ears, to the muscles with repetition in duplicating the stressful condition is key.
While I am far from an expert on Australia’s Olympic swimming selection rules, I’m pretty sure their trials runs fairly similarly to the US Trials. 1st or 2nd in an individual event gets you in and top four for a relay.
You might be right. Didn’t use to be this way. Also know they have moved their trails date as an attempt to improve Olympic performance.
aussie trials just moved the date – the selection process is the same, 1st and 2nd and under the QT, and I doubt the AOC is going to drop medal targets and funding based on medals.
This is what I was trying to articulate above. I don’t have hard data to go on — just a hunch.
Maybe it’s too much media attention. A lot of them had cringe worthy interviews leading up to the olympics. Campbells about how they’d react if the other won the gold, Maggie’s alpha male stuff. It’s tough because they need to get paid, but americans might have the advantage of not really being in the national media spotlight leading up to the games
Seems a bit redundant anyway. Anyone that would be identified as a gold medal in their targest, would already have that goal anyway. You don’t hear workd record hokder and reiging workd champions say they are shooting for silver at the olympics because they got a gold the year before and the want to mix it up a bit
They compete individually but I think there is pressure on the team. Athletes are not looking only through the lens of personal targets and expectations. Swimmers in top aquatic nations like the US and Australia compete at big events with a team mindset and identity. So the morale of the team is affected by the performances of others. This can increase or decrease pressure depending on the individuals and the team environment.
Americans do not realize that swimming in Australia is as big as the NFL is in the US. The media frenzy, speculation, expectations and subsequent backlash over not meeting unrealistic expectation is immense. In a loy of ways, Australian swimmers cannot get away from it. They do not have insulated areas of their country where “stars” can effectively hide like we do in the US. We also have so many stars that in some communities it is the norm to grocery shop with all of the best professional athletes. So, Australians and other countries are trying to keep up with the US and China in olympic sports, but their athletes suffer from the pressure.
I failed to make the comparison that Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett are Australia’s version of Michael Jordan. In their prime, every move they made on and out of the pool was covered by the media. Simone, Calaeb, and whatever other current big name do not have to deal with anything close to the scrutiny that Australian swimmers deal with.
Actually, you are quite INCORRECT in your comparisons. Swimming has the highest profile of any OLYMPIC sport in AUS but it is far below that of the various professional football codes or cricket/soccer amongst the summer sports. The only time that the hype really gets built up is the lead-in time to Olympics between Trials and the main event itself when those who may have snagged short term commercial deals may have saturation airplay with TV advertisements. Outside of Olympics (and once upon a time CG), swimming is rarely on the lead page of the sports section of print media OR lead items on broadcast media sports reports. In the past Olympic golds WOULD snag a lucrative commercial endorsement deal… Read more »
This reminds me of a time when an elite-level triathlete in our master’s group had to ask what a “get out swim” was. It made me realize that rehearsed, high-pressure situations are not universal in individualized sports. Do kids still do them? Or is pressure seen as a destructive force in all cases?
I would think that them not knowing what a get out swim would have more to do with not having a background specifically in swimming than anything to do with some generalization about pressure or whatever
I didn’t include a description of his reaction (“What? Are you people NUTS?”), but I get your point.
Coaches and teams are always trying to find way to mitigate feelings of pressure on their athletes, and for good reason. In theory, feelings of pressure or nervousness can provide SOME benefits, such as heightened focus/awareness, adrenaline increases, etc. However, those same benefits can be gotten through other means just the same and the benefits you theoretically can get from trying to channel feelings of pressure/nervousness don’t outweigh the negative side-effects. Being more focused and having more adrenaline pumping through your body doesn’t matter if you can’t swim because your body is too tight and tense from the feelings of pressure/nervousness you feel. Swimming is a sport where you need to be able to flow and smoothly execute physical actions.… Read more »