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The few seconds before the gun

 

Where an athlete's anxiety comes from, what it does to the body and the mind, and why getting rid of it entirely would make them worse.

 

What causes it

 

Competition itself is the main source. Athletes think about the difficulty of a race for days beforehand, about a particular opponent, or about what qualifying would mean for the season they have already spent months building. But the pressure is rarely only about the result.

 

  • The race or match itself, and what it qualifies you for

  • A specific opponent who is better than you, or as good

  • Feeling that not winning will disappoint other people

  • Fear of how coaches or supporters will react

  • The size of the crowd, and knowing they expect something

  • Knowing that managers or potential sponsors are watching

  • Fear of injury — or of coming back from one

 

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“It's the period when all thoughts and tension peak, as the effort of months or even years is condensed into just a few seconds”.

     Periklis Iakovakis · 400 m hurdles

 

 

​What it does to the body

 

Excessive anxiety produces muscle tension, and a tense muscle cannot move with ease or flexibility — in a sport decided by hundredths of a second, that is the whole race. It also produces pain: stomach aches and headaches before a start are common enough that athletes expect them. And it is exhausting. An athlete who has been anxious since the night before arrives at the start line already tired, having lost the sleep that was supposed to prepare them.

 

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What it does to the mind

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Anxiety makes athletes doubt themselves and lose confidence, and it pushes them into impulsive decisions mid-race that they would never make in training. Tatiana Gusin described watching her own second jump in an Olympic final and realising it was not her jumping: “I was extremely tight, I was nervous, I was anxious. I felt it in my gut and it numbed me.”

 

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The double edge

 

And yet a healthy amount of stress before a competition helps. It focuses attention and raises alertness, and athletes rely on it. Sports psychology has described this relationship for over a century as an inverted U: performance rises with arousal up to a point, then falls away sharply past it.

 

The skill is not calm. The skill is staying on the right side of the curve.The clearest evidence in this project is a pair of numbers. Gusin's personal best is 1.94 m and she jumps 1.90 in competition; in practice, with nothing at stake, she clears 1.75 to 1.80. The nerves are worth ten centimetres to her — until they are not.

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“In sports, we do need it. In other circumstances we don't… anxiety is good in particular parts of our lives because it makes us better, but it shouldn't exist for unimportant things”.

Tatiana Gusin · high jump

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