Understanding olympic champions and their achievement goal orientation, dominance and pursuit and motivational regulations: A case study.

Abstract

The goal was to compare the achievement goal profile and the motivational regulations of one world-class and two high-level athletes during their preparation for the Rio Olympic Games. Three kayakers from the Spanish Olympic team participated. One (P1) and two (P2) were high-level athletes: finalists at the World and European championships, and several national championships. Participant three (P3) was a world-class athlete: 2 Olympic medals, 7 World championship medals, 4 European championship medals, and several national championships. Before and after three training sessions and 4 international competitions (including World and European championships) all participants completed a questionnaire to assess their achievement goal orientation, dominance and pursuit, as well as their motivational regulation. Generalized estimated equations (GEE) analysis was used to assess significant differences between subjects. P3 had lower performance-approach goal orientation, stronger mastery-approach goal dominance, lower performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal pursuit, higher mastery-avoidance goal pursuit and lower controlled motivation than the other two participants. Our world-class athlete has a strong mastery-approach achievement goal dominant profile, and a low performance-oriented profile (both approach and avoidance) and controlled motivation. This profile should be confirmed in similar athletes to help coaches and their young athletes make appropriate decisions.