What is it that champions have that the rest of us don’t have? The list is long, but close to the top is a willingness to bear whatever pain it takes to win. In this column in the New York Times, Gina Kolata, a runner herself, talks to champions and champions’ shrinks about the mental toughness that makes elite athletes elite. The bad news comes from Dr. Jeroen Swart, a sports medicine physician, exercise physiologist and champion cross-country mountain biker who works at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa: even for elite athletes, he says, it never gets easier or less painful. And the good news? That’s harder to find, but one sports psychologist gives us a useful piece of advice: concentrate. Less accomplished athletes tend to dissociate, to think of something other than their running to distract themselves, he says, while elites focus intensely on how their bodies are performing.
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Lance Armstrong has always said that genetic gifts aside, he was always more willing to tolerate whatever pain was necessary to win. Aversion to pain (or the lack of it) is an interesting topic. There are studies that indicate that ability/williness to deal with pain (or the level of perception of pain) are also genetic. I have to say though that I think I’d be willing to tolerate more pain if someone was paying me to compete.
Tim,
You may well be right. We are currently conducting the first study to investigate whether elite athletes do have greater levels of concentration and whether this is directly related to their performance. If we had a candidate gene we could screen for this too. However, someone first has to nominate one. That’s how genetics works. Will keep you posted. Regards, Jeroen Swart