“Time for Recovery” or “Utter Uncertainty”? The Postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Through the Eyes of Olympic Athletes and Coaches. A Qualitative Study

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire globe, including the world of high-performance sports. Accordingly, it has been widely assumed that the thereby caused postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games could have negative psychological impacts for aspirants, since they were halted abruptly in the pursuit of their Olympic endeavors and their daily lives drastically altered. Considering the sudden nature of the pandemic, few researchers, if any, have yet scrutinized the individual experience of Olympic aspirants. This qualitative study examines the subjective perceptions of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games postponement among Austrian Olympic athletes and coaches. To this end, 21 Austrian athletes (13 male, 8 female; mean age = 26.67 ± 4.93 years) and six male coaches were recruited through a criterion-based purposive sampling strategy. Five athletes had already qualified for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 and 15 athletes were still in an ongoing qualification process. Data was collected by means of short written statements, elicited via open-format questions on an anonymous online survey platform. In order to infer meaning from the text, a qualitative content analysis with an interpretative focus was conducted inductively, which allowed for deriving alternative explanations of findings. The results support the notion that the Olympic postponement was experienced in myriad ways by affected participants. Three general themes comprised of several meaning units of different levels of abstraction were created from the text data. Many respondents experienced an immediate emotional reaction to the postponement characterized by confusion, disappointment and/or relief. Participants associated multiple consequences with the postponement, such as the prolongation of physical and psychological pressure, a lack of motivation, concerns about future performance, living and their occupational career, but also the opportunity for performance improvement and recovery. Respondents displayed various coping strategies, such as distancing themselves from sports, cognitive reframing, appealing for acceptance, and planning behavior. This study gleans first insights into the idiosyncratic experience of the Olympic Games 2020 postponement among Austrian aspirants. The findings could serve to assist sport psychologists in their applied practice by informing them about athletes’ and coaches’ needs in their Olympic preparation during the ongoing pandemic.

Disordered eating & body image of current and former athletes in a pandemic; a convergent mixed methods study - What can we learn from COVID-19 to support athletes through transitions?

“…Considering how much psychosocial factors contribute to DE development, COVID-19 is anticipated to have generated significant changes to athletes food-body relationship especially given the closure of gyms and training facilities, reduced access to healthcare provision including injury rehabilitation and management, limited team access including the central role of teammates and coaches, and the cancellation of competitions [37][38][39][40][41]. The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is of particular note for elite athletes as it is an event that individuals commit many years towards whereby the psychosocial preparation towards the event is significant and psychological distress has been anticipated in those this postponement has affected [37,[42][43][44]. Typically, in moments of stress, athletes have been seen to enlist in additional social support, utilise cohesive training environments and direct attention to their training and competition goals [45,46].…”

Differences in Immune Response During Competition and Preparation Phase in Elite Rowers

“…Athletes experience high psychological and physiological stress during their career, especially in competitive periods (Kellmann and Günther, 2000;Steinacker et al, 2000;Oblinger-Peters and Krenn, 2020). In detail, Steinacker and colleagues reported decreases of performance, gonadal and hypothalamic steroid hormones, and deterioration of psychological recovery during very high load training in elite rowers, thereby highlighting the interaction between mood state and metabolic stress (Steinacker et al, 2000).…”

Emotional states of athletes in the first lockdown due to Covid-19: A comparison of Polish and Spanish samples

“…Thus, we see in the current study that Polish athletes, especially women, have a stronger response to the lockdown situation, which should receive particular interest. Numerous studies show that athletes all around the world experienced a decrease in mental wellbeing, an increased level of stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and feelings of anger, confusion during the first lockdown, and women and individual sports representatives seem to have the highest costs of the problematic situation of pandemic [1,9,[19][20][21].…”

“…The Spanish athletes followed the rules and decisions on quarantine and agreed to Olympics cancellation comparing to Polish athletes. Following Oblinger-Peters and Krenn [21], Olympic sportspeople will presumably face the global health crisis because of their attitude toward the Olympic games as a symbol of lifelong dreams and visions and cultivation or culmination of their professional sports goals. Adaptation to the situation seems crucial, and the current study showed that Spanish athletes adjusted to the confinement situation better than Polish respondents.…”