Psychological Determinants in Biathlon Performance: A U23 National Team Case Study.

Abstract

The present investigation examined what psychological factors athletes perceived to impact their competition performance and what training strategies and focus the athletes considered to be the most important. We recruited six participants (three females, three males) from the Norwegian Biathlon Federation's national U23 and junior teams, and all participated. We used semi-structured interviews to gather the data and used thematic analyses to examine our findings. The findings centered around the intricate relationship between psychological factors, particularly self-efficacy, anxiety, attention control, and performance, in biathlon shooting. Implementing a holistic approach to biathlon training entails harmonizing physical and psychological elements with personalized psychological training regimens.