What Pressure Does to an Athlete's Body

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/02/pressure-olympics-malinin-shiffrin/686097/

by bookofjoe • 5 months ago

58 14 5 months ago

theatlantic.com

bookofjoe• 5 months ago

https://archive.ph/qvnTM

goodmythical• 5 months ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20260226053554/https://www.theat...

djtango4• 5 months ago

This is a great article that sums up my own (much lower-stakes) life experiences. Athletes live on the frontier so they're excellent subject to study - after all the Olympics are only every 4 years.

Before my first Taekwondo fight and Muay Thai fight I had so much adrenaline and cortisol in the build up to the fights and for some reason it seems to all dump in my legs making them all heavy and unresponsive - not a helpful response when you need to kick to win!

Before my first Chemistry finals I also momentarily forgot the periodic table despite writing it out several times a day in the run up to it.

But as the article states it can be overcome and things like breathing exercises can really drive the needle. The corollary to the mind-body connection is that there is a body-mind connection! Just as the mind can influence the body, the body can influence the mind and performing physical tasks that the body associates with relaxation (breathing exercises, hot spas, forest walks etc) can settle the mind.

The other thing I came across on my journey to overcome performance anxiety for us mere mortal non-Olympians is:

1. Some of the jitteryness is a result of being unaccustomed/intolerant of adrenaline. Doing stressful (but safe) activities can build up your own resilience to stressful situations - this is why I find value in Muay Thai/boxing sparring, there aren't many things more stressful than getting punched in the face

2. Presence of mind can be trained and an easy hack I found that is taught in the military is the 3x3 Grounding Technique [1]

The general theme of sports psychology reminded me of a BBC article [2] that investigated focus in champion tennis players (and other sports) as measured by their eye movement.

[1] https://www.armyresilience.army.mil/ard/r2/Mindfulness.html

[2] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180627-is-quiet-eye-the...

iberator• 5 months ago

That would explain the centuries old folk's tale that soldiers and sports man are generally stupid.

(high cortisol).

Except water sports, running and golf etc

tpoacher• 5 months ago

I highly doubt the veracity of this claim.

djtango4• 5 months ago

Exercise helps moderate cortisol.

Competition can increase cortisol but it's usually a relative thing:

When you are world #200 playing against world #50 might be stressful. When you are world #2 playing world #50 is probably another day in the office. Etc

I imagine once you win your first Grand Slam in tennis the nerves improve a lot - you kind of saw that in Andy Murray who needed a couple of attempts to break through the psychological barrier of winning Wimbledon, including winning the Olympics.

I would posit that the old folk tale is more related to the fact that centuries ago, most people were hyper specialised and standardised widespread education was less of a thing.

You'll find plenty of intelligent people in all walks of life depending on how you choose to define intelligence.

kakacik• 5 months ago

there aren't many things more stressful than getting punched in the face

I can definitely see this happening in dangerous/adrenaline sports like climbing. Normal things and fears just don't bother me anymore, when you are continuously facing your fear of grave injury and/or death when abyss stares at you and you hold just on your finger tips. There is rope but that doesn't do much for the fear, and you can still get injured if fall is nasty. And its not just exposure to fear, but you need to semi-continuously keep overcoming it during entire session, repeat that 1..X times per week, and after few years you become somebody else in this regard (and few others).

Now-famous Alex Honnold said that his fear receptors in brain basically just don't trigger anymore - they did some MRI scans of his brain. But the thing is, there was nothing special apart from that, and he himself attributes this to 2 decades+ of daily exposure to increasingly dangerous situations (not just famous crazy free solos but a lot of wild scrambling which can, and often does turn into serious exposed solo climbing without a chance to retreat).

Brain is a muscle, and fear is one dimension of how to expose and train it. Too much too quickly and it will overwhelm anybody. Bud to it gradually and in dosed manner and things will happen.

djtango4• 5 months ago

So glad you brought up danger/adrenaline addicts - in my head there is a stereotype of the personality type, they exude a very chill energy and I've always wondered if their lifestyle meant they had become numb to normal life.

The anecdote about Alex Honnold not having fear receptors sounds on the mark

kamaal• 5 months ago

I've had this many times during interviews.

If you had a chat with me through lunch on some technical intensive questions, It would be a breeze. I could not only answer them, I could list limitations, how to address them, and I could even come with a working plan on how I could get it done.

Do the same in an interview, I will freeze.

pablopudding• 5 months ago

I feel you.

This is also exactly my problem in interviews, even going back to university, in any oral exams.

I'm often so stressed in those situations, that I forget the simplest stuff and any logical thinking is sheer impossible.

Recently I failed a time-based 5 hour homework, because I couldn't think and overcomplicated my approach.

It is really annoying and frustrating and overall, this made my life soo much harder and more stressful.

Traubenfuchs• 5 months ago

Or you just take propranolol, which will turn you into the smooth operator of your desires.

borroka• 5 months ago

Autogenic training is a practice that works wonders for your ability to control yourself under pressure, whether in specific situations, in the spotlight, or under more mundane pressures. Only after consistent training (but not gruelling! It doesn't require tedious 10-day meditation retreats) can you finally notice how much mental and physical tension, and fears, real or imagined, are present in your life.

In the same way that we practice motor skills (which are also mental skills) separately (think of preparatory running exercises as pedagogical tools for sprints) and then integrate them into performance (soccer players train with specific drills for ball control and one- or two-touch passing), we should practice mental skills first in isolation and then integrate them into performance (Dave Alred, the famous coach who was once the kicking coach for Wilkinson, the fly-half for the English national rugby team, wrote about this in his book “The Pressure Principle”).

Similarly, the autogenic training skills we develop must first be developed in isolation and then integrated (but integration begins on day one) into the performance itself. That is, it is not enough to be relaxed in bed, even if this is reflected in “real life,” but relaxation, which does not mean a state of torpor, far from it, must be part of every activity and challenge.

What Pressure Does to an Athlete's Body

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