Psychological preparation of athletes for the olympic context: the New Zealand Summer and Winter Olympic Teams.

Abstract

The Olympic Games are an unusual sporting experience for most athletes and an alien competition context for some (Greenleaf, Gould & Diefenbach, 2001; Hodge, 1993). The Olympics are ‘unusual ’ because (i) they only occur every four years and (ii) they are a ‘multisport ’ event. Most elite athletes quickly become familiar with the annual schedule