Sports Psychology and Positive Mental Attitude
In the 1976 Innsbruck winter Olympics, Austrian downhill skier Franz Klammer was odds-on favourite to win gold. Having won numerous races on the World Cup circuit, three of them in that year, he was a huge star and enormously popular with the home crowd in Innsbruck. On the day of the race, 60 000 screaming spectators lined the course to cheer on their hero. It transpired that Klammer would ski 15th out of a 15-man seeding: the crowd were audibly disappointed – surely his chance of gold was all but lost; surely the course would be a vertical skating rink by then.
If Klammer had chosen to adopt the attitude of the crowd that day, there would have been little point in competing at all. If negative thoughts had entered his head then yes, he would already have lost his chance of winning gold. Negative thoughts create negative actions. In competition, that can only result in a poor performance. So, if 60 000 people already believe you have no chance, surely it becomes impossible to remain positive? How would you react?
Defending Olympic downhill champion Bernhard Russi of Switzerland was the third skier on the course and he went into an early lead with a time of 1:46:06. Eleven more skiers followed Russi, polishing the snow off the course as they went, unable to beat his time. Then it was Klammer. The crowd watched him crouch in the starting gate. He stared straight ahead, focusing on the icy course in front of him. What thoughts were in his head? What would you be thinking? The crowd collectively thought: it’s too dangerous, he’ll break his neck.
Klammer, known as ‘The Klammer Express,’ shot out the gate and threw himself down the mountain. His split time at 1000 metres was slower than Russi but he gamely carried on – he seemed fearless. 60 000 gasps could be heard with every risk he took but as he neared the finish-line, the deafening noise of the 60 000 cheering spectators was probably heard on the moon. He crossed the line in 1:45:73, beating Russi by .33 to take the gold medal.
“I thought I was going to crash all the way. I gave myself terrible frights”
- Franz Klammer
So he wasn’t fearless after all! What gave him the inner strength to give it his all: what allowed him to remain positive in a situation full of potential negatives?
He knew he had the physical skill to win gold. When he was crouching in the starting gate, concentrating on what he physically needed to do, he also had the mental skill to allow himself to do it – and to the best of his ability. From where he was, nothing had actually changed. All of the potential negatives were out with his control; 15th skier to go – no point fretting about it, it just is; treacherously icy conditions – no point fretting about it, it just is. None of these things had actually changed who he was or changed his ability. He wasted no energy focusing on negative external factors, instead he concentrated totally on the internal factors he could control – his attitude.
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When it really mattered, his mental skills matched his physical skills. That’s why he’s an Olympic champion.
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