Olympic athletes employ a number of strategies in their attempts to gain a psychological advantage over the other competitors. Some of these may be deliberate, but in many cases they will be employing tactics they don’t fully understand. Here are 10 mind games to look out for.
1 Routines and superstitions
On the day of their event, athletes will sometimes go through the same, standardised routine from the moment they wake up. They might include superstitions about the order they put on clothing, through to the tiny preparatory actions they perform before their event begins. When Usain Bolt, for example, got down into his blocks he would raise his index finger to the heavens – presumably in the hope the almighty would look kindly on him. The established effectiveness of these routines has a lot to do with the sense of personal control they offer. Psychologists have found that when athletes are persuaded to temporarily abandon them, their performance often suffers.
2 Slow is smooth
Although sprinters are devoted to speed, they tend to saunter into the stadium at a snail’s pace, and are equally unhurried when preparing for their race. It looks like they are conserving energy, but sprinters don’t actually require a lot of energy to complete a 100 or a 200m dash. Rather, moving around slowly is their way of making themselves look bigger, relaxed and more threatening.
3 In the zone
While waiting for their race to begin, athletes will often stare straight ahead, almost as if mesmerised by something in the distance. This is an essential part of their effort to remain completely focused. But it also has a psychological angle, because by appearing to be “in the zone”, they are also showing their opponents they are fully committed, professional and invincible. It is quite unusual to see athletes smiling before their race because smiling often serves as an appeasement signal, a way of informing other people you don’t have threatening intentions. This, of course, is the exact opposite of the message that highly competitive athletes want to send their rivals.
4 Energy to spare
When sprinters and hurdlers are lining up, some will leap into the air, giving the impression they are still warming up. But there is an ulterior motive attached to this bouncing. It is very similar to what zoologists call “stotting”. For example, when gazelles spot a stalking lion and begin their escape, they often do so by stotting with exaggerated leaps and bounds. The purpose of this behaviour is to show the lion they are fit and won’t be easy to catch.
5 Psyching-up
Many of the routines athletes adopt are silent and invisible. But there are also moments just before the action begins, when they will pump themselves up by loudly exhorting themselves, slapping their bodies and almost appearing to beat themselves up. One of the most famous exponents of this frenetic activity is Karsten Warholm, the men’s 400m hurdles Olympic champion. He will often slap his face and thighs and even his chest before the gun – although the chest-thumping is less in evidence since he decided it probably wasn’t a good idea. But by far the best place to watch psyching-up is weightlifting, where the competitors’ preparatory exertions are even louder, more energetic and more theatrical.
6 No sweat
One way to gain an edge is to give the impression you find the contest easy. A classic example of this occurred during the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. The Czech athlete Emile Zatopek, who had won the 5,000m and the 10,000m but hadn’t run a marathon before, decided he wanted to enter the event. The British runner Jim Peters was widely favoured to win the marathon. Some distance into the race, Zatopek caught up with Peters, and asked if he was going fast enough. After a brief exchange, Zatopek upped his pace and disappeared into the distance. Zatopek won, Peters didn’t even finish.
7 Sandbagging
This strategy is the opposite of “No sweat”, because instead of showcasing their fitness, the athlete makes a special effort to conceal it. This can be done by looking unprepared – for example, by walking with a limp, wearing supportive bandages, or generally appearing to be out of sorts. These deceptive techniques are designed to reduce the amount of effort one’s opponents feel they need to invest to win.
8 Winning ways
Psychologists have found that when people are presented with photographs of athletes who have either won or lost competitions, they are able to spot the winners with uncanny accuracy. Research on facial “width-to-height ratio” – known as fWHR – shows that, regardless of race, people with relatively wider faces are more dominant and competitive, and in sports like mixed martial arts where physical prowess is important, they are more likely to win. It has also been found that professional fighters who remain stony-faced before a bout have a greater chance of coming out on top than those who smile before the contest.
9 Celebrations
Athletes will often stretch out their arms as they cross the finishing line, or will roar and punch the air when winning a round or achieving a vital goal. Even though they’ve expended similar amounts of energy during a race, winners will look like they still have loads of fuel in the tank, whereas losers will appear to be running on empty. Psychologically as well as physically, winning is clearly energising whereas losing is exhausting.
10 Podium displays
Research by psychologists reveals that while gold medallists are the most smiley, bronze winners often produce bigger smiles than those who take silver. Silver medallists, it seems, are more prone to what is called “counterfactual thinking”, where they become preoccupied with what-ifs – what would have happened if they made a better start, not get boxed in on the bend, or started their final sprint earlier. Gold medallists are typically overjoyed with their victory, while bronze medallists are just grateful to be among the medals.
• Dr Peter Collett is a psychologist and body language expert
