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The Pressure of Nationalism on Olympic Athletes

In the 2004 Olympics an Australian rower, Sally Robbins, was overcome by anxiety and

stopped rowing midrace and doomed her team's chance of winning a medal. Pressure on a person

mentally can be described as the feeling of hundreds of eyes always watching you, making you

feel like you have to be perfect. In the Holdout, drawn by Norman Rockwell, an artist who’s

created the Saturday Evening Post for almost five decades shows, the woman in the painting

experiences pressure from the men surrounding her due to her not knowing what decision is

correct and the stress that is on her to make her final decision or holdout until the men change

their minds. Nationalism is one's strong love and passion for their country. Countries have used

the Olympics as a strategy for nationalism. Dionne Koller, a professor of law and the director of

the Center for Sport and the Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law states, before

World War two Hitler created an all-Aryan Olympic team to show supremacy and unite Germany

(Koller 97). Estonia is a country that borders Russia and the Baltic sea. In the song of freedom,

the country of Estonia uses music and dancing to bring nationalism back to their country during a

time of war and to gain independence. Estonia sought independence from the Soviet Union

during world war two and even fought a war against them and Germany because Estonians

believed that they should be independent from the soviet union due to their differences and love

for other Estonian people. A strong nationalism can be shown in many ways, anywhere from

gaining a country's independence to an individual that is experiencing pressure from their

country to succeed. Pressure from a country's strong nationalism can cause stress, but there is a

solution to solving the amount of stress and pressure put on an individual. An analysis of the

legal, mental, and physical aspects indicates that replicating Olympic events for practice is the

best way to prevent pressure on Olympic athletes.

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To begin, the governmental influence of nationalism should be eliminated from sporting

events. At the time Hitler was ruling Germany, Hitler wanted to convince Germans that Aryans

were a supremacy race, he did this by creating an olympian team made only of Aryans (Koller

98). Hitler’s attempt to show Aryans supremacy through the Olympics was not as successful due

to the medal sweep by the U.S, but it did show how passionate Germans were believing that

Aryans were a supreme race. Sporting nationalism is a term used for the success of their

country’s Olympic athletes to show supremacy on a world stage, this was used during the cold

war by countries such as the U.S (Koller). In the song of freedom people use music and dancing

to bring people together. In sporting events there is little singing and dancing although it brings

people together for one cause, it may turn out to be a catastrophe. For example, Vancouver fights

in the 2012 Olympics. When the Olympics were held in Vancouver, Canada’s hockey team

played the United States hockey team in the finals for hockey. Jayant Bhandari, who frequently

writes on cultural, political, and social issues for several publications, witnesses the streets of

Vancouver before the game and sees many drunk Canadians tearing down any American flag

they saw and were looking for blood but when they didn't find any they turned on each other

(Bhandari). On the other hand, governmental influence of nationalism during sporting events can

help bring people together. Andrew Billings, the founder of both the Communication and Sports

Division of the National Communications Association counters Bhandari’s point of view on the

people in Vancouver for the 2012 Olympics saying, during the 2012 Olympics held in Vancouver

people came from all over the world to greet the arrival of these Olympians, people waved and

carried their flag, people shouted their political entity feeling proud and chests puffed up. Streets

were full of people and some didn't even know why they went (Billings 12). On the contrary,
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there have been more negative effects like brainwashing and propaganda used by the

government.

Moving from Governmental influence, being under pressure negatively affects

performance. Not knowing how well the next opponent will be and expecting the best

performance from themselves stresses out Olympians and negatively affects their mental health.

In the painting of The Holdout, the woman is under pressure in making a critical decision that

can decide the person on trial's fate. The uneasy look on her face can inform the observer that her

vision is foggy and cannot focus under the immense pressure. Relating to the woman in the

painting The Holdout, a tennis player named Naomi Osaka quit playing after she won her first

grand slam due to all the pressure put on her since people expected her to win her next match.

She claimed to have depression and social anxiety that was worsened by the press conferences

(Tardelli 460). Stress and pressure are not only applied by others, they can be applied

unknowingly. During covid, Olympians had to train on their own without their team, trainer, or

coaches. Marta Szczypinska, a former Olympian who reported on the preparation for the Tokyo

Olympics during covid reports that, on average they did 30-60 minutes but they felt depressed

and needed motivation to maintain physical activity not knowing how well prepared their next

opponent will be (Szczypinska 421). Although some believe being under pressure helps Olympic

athletes focus, more athletes struggle when being under pressure than those who succeed. An

Olympian has to deal with stress and pressure their whole career and some get good at

controlling pressure after they have gone to the Olympics a couple of times but most crack under

pressure. A theory presented by Bemiller is the ⅓ theory which is a theory on how athletes

perform at championship competition states that ⅓ of olympian will do worse than the

performance that brought them there from the qualifying rounds, ⅓ will equal the performance
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that they qualified with and, ⅓ of Olympians will exceed performance (Bemiller 56). This is just

a theory and there has been little to no research to back up Bemiller's theory. Although training

continuously will help an athlete build muscle and improve endurance, that doesn’t matter if the

Olympian can’t compete to the best of their ability because they are too stressed. Coping

strategies can ensure an Olympian will compete to the best of their ability.

Coping strategies can better prepare an Olympian for performance rather than training

continuously. Every Olympic athlete deals with stress and pressure mentally because of the

responsibility they feel they have to win in order to feel accomplished. Szczypinska elaborates

on how important it is to apply coping strategies to help tolerance to uncertainty by stating,

applying problem focused coping strategies more often than focusing on emotions

Problem-focused coping correlated positively with fear of swine flu. The use of strategies

focused on affective states increased anxiety, while strategies focused on the problem weakened

it. Coping strategies also mediated the impact of intolerance to uncertainty related to H1N1

anxiety (Szczypinska 422). Perspective taking is an exercise that Olympians use during stressful

times at the games. An example of perspective taking is staying in contact with their family. This

can help the Olympians refocus on their goal (Haberl 38). By an analysis of the environment,

you can then see your strengths and weaknesses and then optimize the environment. Planning for

competition conditions is crucial for the athletes preparation (Blemiller 58). Analyzing the

environment to help prepare for an event is better than just preparing an athlete by training

continuously with no breaks.

One possible solution is maintaining consistency with training, coaching relationships,

and technical method training. Having consistent training can better prepare an Olympian for

their event along with muscle memory. A coaching relationship is crucial when trying to
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maintain minimal stress and pressure, much like a family member having your back. But a coach

isn’t family and when an Olympian and their team are on the road it can also be a lonely job

when one is on the road for a long time like going to an event across the country or even

traveling to a different country. The sport psychology consultant is a person who keeps the team

together by motivation, teamwork, and communication and they almost always are the only

person on the team in his or her role, so collegial support, much less consultation with another

like-minded professional on the road, can be extremely limited. The Olympian is also away from

the support of home and family, which can strain the individual as well as the family members

left to cope at home (Herbal 30). Lastly, technical method training can improve confidence due

to advancing the training process by computer based tools. Although there are many positives to

consistent training, coaching relationships, and technical method training, the side effects caused

by maintaining consistency can cause fatigue which can weaken the muscles and cause lack of

interest and purpose. Furthermore this can be very time consuming and give little breathing room

for an Olympian to catch a break to see their family or friends along with vacations or events.

To continue, a second proposition is to have repetitive exposure to competitive situations.

Having event scenarios can prepare an Olympian for a real event on the global scale. Adding on,

when a crowd is present it can add pressure on a olymican to do the best they can with no flaws.

Being used to competing in front of big crowds would minimize the amount of stress and

pressure. Peter Haberl, a sports psychologist at the U.S olympic committee states when

olympians are used to competitive situations they can tune out the crowd and opponents to focus

on their main goal (Haberl 37). When being used to competitive situations, Olympians can adapt

to the crowds and the opponents to focus.

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Repetitive exposure to competitive situations is the best way for Olympic athletes to deal

with pressure from the Nationalism of their Country. Athletes under tremendous pressure from

their country can make them feel depressed and create them to underperform. Next, being

anxious to perform in competitive situations and with a crowd can side track the Olympians main

goal. Therefore, being exposed to competitive competitions will weaken or eliminate pressure

and keep the right mindset for the olympic athlete. During covid this was very hard to do when

people couldn’t come together and compete, they had to train on their own. Continuing on, In the

future the injuries may be too common, and may get to the point when it's not worth competing

for practice till the real thing. A call for action is needed to help Olympians from being pressured

by crowds and their countries' governments.

Word Count: 1817

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