The thrill of defeat and the agony of victory: towards an understanding and transformation of athletes’ emotional experience

Abstract

Drawing upon the notion of “reflection for action”, we use the London 2012 Olympics as a mirror through which we may re-configure the image that scientists and practitioners have about athletes’ emotions. Media reports of the “Olympic Blues” among athletes have been considerable, yet our scientific understanding of athletes’ post-competitive emotional reactions has been largely neglected. Based on a stance that embeds athletes’ emotions in an altogether more interpersonal and social milieu, we present an integrative framework that bridges several disparate and hitherto largely unconnected bodies of literature. This framework (a) draws upon literature in relation to athletic identity and transition, (b) positions the “athlete” as part an interpersonal network that shapes the meaning and construction of events and (c) draws upon notions of mental time travel to place the athlete in a storied narrative that reflects both actual remembered and counterfactual pasts together with multiple hypothetical future trajectories. We illuminate this framework with quotes and experiences reported by Olympians, prior to, during, and/or after the London 2012 Olympics. By doing so, we hope to move not only toward a fuller appreciation of athletes’ emotional experience per se, but to consider the implications for enhanced athlete support for Rio 2016.