The summer of sport is well underway. Already we have seen penalty shootout drama at the Euros, defending champion Marketa Vondrousova exiting Wimbledon at the first hurdle and preparations getting underway for the Paris Olympic Games.
Regardless of the sport, at elite level, the stakes are high and the athletes are required to perform under considerable pressure. The sources of pressure may be internal, such as the expectations they place on themselves. They may emanate from within their camp, for example not wanting to let their coach or teammates down. Or they may come from the crowds watching both in the stadium and on TV.
In the case of the Olympics, athletes will have spent the last four years training to produce their best performance on one given day – or even in a ten second race. Physically, tactically and technically, there is little to separate them, but as former England cricketer Stuart Broad has said, psychology plays a huge part in performance. He called the sport “90% mental”.
