Mind Games: Making Olympians Mentally Fit
A month before the Vancouver Olympics, short track speedskater Katherine Reutter was physically ready for the most important competition of her athletic life.
“As long as I’m on that day,” Reutter said of her first-ever race at the Olympics, “there’s no one that can straight-up beat me. They’re going to have to take it away from me.”
Moments later, as Reutter sat rinkside at the 2002 Olympic speedskating oval in Kearns, Utah, her confidence about physical readiness and ability was betrayed by uncertainty.
“But what if I get to the games and it turns out I really should have lifted a bit heavier? Or I should have eaten better? [Or] I should have gotten my start faster?” Reutter said. “What if I did something wrong and I’m not going to know until I get there and it’s going to be too late to fix it?”
Reutter and the other members of the U.S. Olympic speedskating team don’t have to suffer self-doubt alone. They had a “mental coach” to turn to before the Olympics. And University of Utah sports psychologist Nicole Detling Miller is with the skaters in Vancouver as they train and compete.
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