Helping Athletes When Great Expectations Grate

Paramilitary police officers salute the Chinese flag as it is raised this morning in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. (By Greg Baker -- Associated Press)

Jin, a native of China, was among those retained as a consultant to the Chinese Olympic Committee. He now works with the country's Olympic women's soccer team and developed instructional compact discs on psychological strategies for coaching Chinese Olympians. Those lessons address cultural characteristics that Jin believes set Chinese athletes apart from their Western counterparts.

On the positive side, Jin said, Chinese Olympians have an excellent work ethic, tend to obey their coaches and aren't as independently minded as Western athletes. But on the negative side, their confidence isn't as high -- a result, Jin believes, of a coaching culture that is more quick to criticize than praise.

So Jin devised strategies to raise Chinese athletes' self-esteem. One such tactic is getting athletes to envision a desk with 20 legs rather than four. Each leg represents a perceived strength, such as "I'm very fast," "I'm very coordinated," "My reaction time is good," "I'm younger than my opponent," "Many people support me," and so on. With that image in mind, an athlete should feel as strong as the imaginary desk.

He also counsels athletes on blocking out negative thoughts, whether harsh words from a coach or a debilitating inner voice. "For example," Jin said, "the idea that, 'If I win I will have fame for my life. If I lose, I will bring shame to my parents, the coaches, the country.' "

Whether competing before passionate, sellout crowds in Beijing will help or hurt remains an open question.

Olympic history is rife with examples of home-court advantage. But there's a theory called the "home choke" that argues that caring "too much" about pleasing a crowd causes athletes to be over-cautious -- playing not to lose, as the cliche goes, rather than to win.

That was a concern of U.S. Olympic Committee officials prior to the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the first Olympics after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Recalls Kirsten Peterson, the USOC's senior sports psychologist: "There was the sense that the Olympics being on home soil was supposed to redeem our country, and there was a lot of pressure put on the athletes, who felt they had to undo some of the pain our country had felt."

As a result, USOC sports psychologists worked hard to ramp down those feelings, telling the athletes they weren't responsible for the nation's healing.

In the view of Ron Brant, national coordinator of the U.S. men's gymnastics team, the passion that will be showered on China's Olympians will be an ingredient for success or failure -- nothing in between.

"Obviously it should be to China's benefit," Brant said. "But it will depend on how well they're coached and prepared to handle the situation. Should that lack any detail and preparation, it can work against you."

Staff researcher Liu Liu contributed to this report.