Australia's football team entered Paris with high hopes of winning their first Olympic medal, but those hopes were dashed. Defeat America.
Even without star striker Sam Kerr, the Matildas – who enjoyed a famous run to complete fourth on the 2023 FIFA World Cup – were considered medal favorites but didn’t progress past the group stage.
It was a devastating loss – but how will these athletes (and others who don't achieve their goals in Paris) get well from the frustration?
Performance pressure
Every 4 years, Billions of viewers Olympians and Paralympians world wide are united in awe of the skill and perseverance.
Athletes lucky enough to compete at Paris 2024 will do their best to include years of dedicated preparation into their performance.
Many would have done well and a few would have achieved their goal of getting a medal. Others, though, will end games with the sensation that they didn't fully realize their potential when it counted most.
This results in frustration for a lot of players.
Famously, legendary swimmer (and now retired) Kate Campbell experienced it after her results on the Rio Olympics, resulting in terrible abuse and Harassment of a section of the Australian public.
Research has proven. that many athletes report poor well-being after getting back from the Olympics, including feelings of isolation, frustration and lack of direction;
Part of the explanation Olympic disappointment is so difficult is the profound ways by which an athlete's identity is wrapped up of their performance.
That is, after years of being seen as “an athlete,” many individuals begin to feel that who they’re as an individual depends upon how they perform.
Athlete's mental health and the role of self-criticism
The mental health challenges faced by many athletes at the moment are well recognised. Research here in Australia. Elite athletes have been found to have similar, if not higher, rates of mental impairment than the final population. Big performance disappointments It has well-known contributors.
Perhaps adding salt to the wound, a method elite athletes cope with disappointment is self-criticism. This can include hostile ways of referring to oneself, which might result in feelings of worthlessness and inferiority.
In an effort to beat weakness and improve oneself, self-criticism is taken into account the one way forward in lots of pursuits.
nevertheless, Research shows that over and over again that the majority types of self-criticism are related to symptoms of mental disorder. Moreover, there are strict types of internal judgment. Far less effective In encouraging growth and development as much as we are able to consider.
Athletes, like the remaining of us, need to seek out other ways to cope with inevitable failures and disappointments.
A job for empathy
A growing body of research and practice suggests that self-compassion may fit the bill.
Compassion can be appreciated. As sensitivity to suffering in self and others, with a commitment to try to cut back or prevent suffering.
It could be directed at others, received from others, or directed internally (self-compassion).
For an athlete experiencing post-Olympic pain, practicing self-compassion involves turning to the pain after which identifying how you can cope with it relatively than avoiding, judging, or criticizing. Required.
It's tougher than that.
One of the explanations self-compassion is so difficult is that it goes against most of the ways by which we have now learned to motivate ourselves. In fact, many athletes will report a typical problem: that self-compassion can reduce their quality.
It just isn't. Research has proven. Self-compassion can motivate self-improvement, and athletes with high levels of self-compassion show positive performance outcomes in sports. This is the alternative of self-criticism.
Research has also shown. Athletes who engage in additional self-compassion report various advantages, including higher mental health, and more supportive responses to frustration.
For this reason, there’s a growing focus inside clinical and sport psychology to assist Build self-compassion in players. As a resource for resilience.
Building self-compassion
So, how can athletes (and the remaining of us) develop the capability for self-compassion?
There are some ways. An excellent start is using our inner wisdom to acknowledge how we might offer compassion to a different person we care about, after which channeling that inward.
Perhaps ask yourself: “How would I respond to my best friend in this situation?”
Other strategies are geared toward triggering a leisure response in our bodies that may encourage. Both our psychology and physiology. For example, we are able to actively change the tone of our inner thoughts. and facial expressions Being friendly relatively than neutral or hostile.
Additional methods include mental imagery (or visualization). Develop our “compassionate self.”, after which we are able to learn to step into it. These exercises form a number of the key ingredients for empathic mind training and compassion-focused therapy, which Shown to reduce depression and self-criticism..
In this fashion, athletes can provide themselves the support they should get through Olympic and Paralympic disappointments.
More than self-pity
Equally necessary is achieving an athlete's self-compassion sympathy from others
After his Rio disappointment, Kate Campbell said
Australians love winners — I noticed the one method to endear myself to the Australian public was to come back back with one among those shiny gold medals.
So during and after these Olympic and Paralympic Games, let's come together and support our athletes, regardless of the consequence.