Developmental biographies of Olympic Super-Elite and Elite athletes – a multidisciplinary pattern recognition analysis

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Author
Güllich, Arne
Hardy, Lew
Kuncheva, Ludmilla
Laing, Stewart
Barlow, Matthew
Evans, Lynne
Rees, Tim
Abernethy, Bruce
Côté, Jean
Warr, Chelsea
Wraith, Lizzie
Date
2019-03-01Acceptance date
2019-02-13
Type
Article
Publisher
Michigan State University
ISSN
2573-2773
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This multidisciplinary study used pattern recognition analyses to examine the developmental biographies of 16 Great British Olympic and World Champions (‘Super-Elite’) and 16 matched international athletes who had not won major medals (‘Elite’). Athlete, coach and parent interviews (260 total interview hours) combined in-depth qualitative and quantitative methods. A combination of demographics, psychosocial characteristics, coach and family relationships, practice, competition, and performance development discriminated Super-Elite from Elite athletes with > 90% accuracy. Compared to Elite athletes, Super-Elite athletes were characterized by: (1) An early critical negative life experience in close proximity to significant positive sport-related events; (2) higher relative importance of sport over other aspects of life, stronger obsessiveness/perfectionism, and sport-related ruthlessness/selfishness; (3) conjoint outcome and mastery focus, and use of counterphobic and/or ‘total preparation’ strategies to maintain/enhance performance under pressure; (4) coaches who better met their physical and psychosocial needs; (5) coming back after severe performance setbacks during adulthood, and career ‘turning points’ leading to enhanced determination to excel; (6) more pronounced diversified youth sport engagement, and prolonged extensive sport-specific practice and competitions; and (7) continued performance improvement over more years during adulthood, eventually attaining their (first) gold medal after 21 ± 6 practice years. The findings are discussed relative to potential causal interactions and theoretical implications.
Journal/conference proceeding
Journal of Expertise;
Citation
Güllich, A., Hardy, L., Kuncheva, L., Laing, S., Barlow, M., Evans, L., Rees, T., Abernethy, B., Côté, J., Warr, C. and Wraith, L. (2019) 'Developmental biographies of Olympic Super-Elite and Elite athletes–a multidisciplinary pattern recognition analysis', Journal of Expertise, 2(1), pp.23-46.
Description
Article published in Journal of Expertise in March 2019 available open access at https://www.journalofexpertise.org/articles/volume2_issue1/
Sponsorship
Cardiff Metropolitan University (Grant ID: Cardiff Metropolian (Internal))
Collections
- Sport Research Groups [1083]
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