When you get to the Olympic stage you are in a position to win a medal. The key thing is to focus on the job at hand.You’ve got 70-80,000 people in the stands, and sometimes they even know your name, you are representing the country. So you’re right there in the runway, and they’re calling your name, “Richard, hey!” You’ve got to tune that out. When you get caught up in the press clippings, if you are the leading guy or leading girl in the event, and you get caught up in that. That’s, your downfall right there. You need to clear all that stuff out, stay focused with your coach and your immediate people who are supporting you, physios, whatever have you, stay in that moment. Because once you start getting distracted, that’s when you start losing focus and that’s when the other guy is going to get you. And you’ll see a lot of times where, that star comes in. They’re expected to win. Might as well give them the gold medal. Then somebody comes in from right field, bam, they take it, or they trip over a hurdle or, or the baton doesn’t get around to that team that was destined to be the world record holders, right? It happens because there’s a, there’s that small margin. That’s small margin of error, that if you lose your focus, it’s going to catch up and come up and bite you. So, you’re in awe, but at the same time, once you start the competition, you’ve got to go back to the A, B’s and C’s. You got to sort of take a moment, right, take it down. And you know, I mean, I could look up and I could see the jumbotron and I’m on it. I’m like, Okay, let me not do that again. Right. And there’s a, there’s a clock in front of you that’s counting down. You have a minute 45 seconds to complete your jump. A lot of people realize that on the runway, there’s a clock there. You just can’t be there for 5-10 minutes.

Once you step on a runway, they hit the clock. You’ve got to complete that jump in that time. So you got to settle yourself and then you go through your checks and balances and down, you go and you’ve got the 100 meters, whatever events, you’re really going back to muscle memory, you’re really going back to, you’ve been doing this so often that it shouldn’t be like, oh, I’ve got to change something now. This is not. This moment, on the playing field, there’s no changing anything. You’re following that pattern, you’re following the training, you prepped before that maybe you’ve had a, you know, some athletes eat before some don’t, whatever your prep is to get you to what’s called ideal performance level, you’ve been doing this a number of times, hopefully through NCAA’s or your conference meets or whatever have you, that sort of prepare you for how you’re going to be when you get to the main stage. And but again, you’ve got it, you’ve got a really blank out to crowd and other things, you really have to really drill down and focus. And you’ll find that you’ll perform to the best of your ability on that day.

Sharon Zou, Longitude fellow, Boston University:

Thank you, Richard, for sharing such an incredible and inspiring perspective. As a hip-hop dancer that has participated in a number of dance competitions, the notion that “on the playing field, there’s no changing anything” especially resonated with me. Your description about the moment you step onto the Olympic stage and the clock begins counting down reminded me of the moments I got into position behind the stage curtains. Just like how you empty your mind and follow the natural pattern that your body has become accustomed to after months of training, I forget everything else and let my body take over once the music begins.

This importance of preparation can also be applied to other parts of our lives too. For students, practice is the most important thing to do when it comes to presentations, interviews, tests, and more. Only by devoting hours of practice prior to the actual events, will we be sure to really execute to the best of our ability. Practice undoubtedly leads to confidence. As someone who gets especially anxious without previous preparation, the practice goes a long way to help me feel calm and in control of the situation. Additionally, I really liked the part where you mentioned the importance of avoiding being distracted by the people around you, whether they’re your opponents or fans. The expectations of the people around us, even if they’re positive, can exaggerate the pressure we feel. It’s important to focus our attention inward during these times and trust ourselves and the process.