Michael Phelps prepares for the 2012 Olympic games in London on December 11, 2011 in Baltimore, Md. (Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Swimmer Michael Phelps has won 14 Olympic gold medals and is the face of his sport. The mental toughness he has shown in the pool is as important to his success as his prodigious talent. He will need every bit of that toughness as he enters his fifth Olympic Games this summer.
Excerpt from Chapter 5: Psychology – Mastering Psychology
Though the Beijing Olympics were the third for Bowman and Phelps, who attended the 2000 Games in Sydney at age 15 and won six gold medals and two bronzes at the 2004 Games in Athens, Bowman found himself wracked with nerves.
“I was just sure we weren’t prepared enough,” Bowman said. Phelps “felt like he was completely prepared. I don’t really see that [the pressure] affected him at all. He was really excited by it.”
As Phelps did in Rome when the 100 fly took on elements of a prize fight, he used perceived taunts in the lead-up to the Games to enhance his determination and focus. Before the Olympics, Don Talbot, an Australian coach, and Australian star Ian Thorpe verbalized their doubts about Phelps’s chances of winning eight gold medals.
“I don’t want to say it’s more ammunition, but it kind of is,” Phelps said. “It’s just one thing I’ve always loved, just proving somebody wrong, making them eat their own words. As a kid, I just wanted to beat everybody. I do want to win all the time, but it’s also proving other people wrong.”
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Video: Programming himself for success
Gallery: Michael Phelps has mastered the psychology of speed
Swimmer Michael Phelps poses for a portrait during the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Media Summit in Dallas, Texas May 13, 2012. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
In Profiles in Speed, Amy Shipley examines what makes an athlete fast: Technology, Physiology, Strategy, Age, Psychology, and Chemistry. Each month features an athlete preparing for the 2012 London Olympics. Check back in July as Shipley concludes the series by taking a look at Chemistry: Going to great (and illegal) lengths to get a step (or stroke) ahead.