How does your role contribute to the overall performance and wellbeing of the athletes?
As head of psychology, I help athletes ground themselves in terms of psychological support during the Olympic cycle. Within psychology we’d have performance psychology, clinical psychology and we’ve also got a really great life-skills team, so our work really begins during the Olympic cycle itself.
What is your role within the support team, and what are your primary responsibilities?
For the Games I’m lead psychologist, so I’m making sure that all the psychology services are accessible, that we’re available to all of Team Ireland, and that we keep a strong connection with our athletes and staff not only in Paris but also back in Ireland as well.
How do you help elite athletes build mental resilience?
The first thing would be to help them be aware of the strength that they have. Many of our athletes have had difficult times already so it’s a thing of helping them focus and to be aware of the strengths they have. If an athlete has an injury setback, a bad defeat or a life event outside of sport, we help them get through that, and then they realise in that process the strengths and the skills that they’ve used to help overcome these obstacles, and to use that experience during their next difficulty or setback.
What’s your favourite Olympic memory?
I’m around for a few years so that’s a tricky one... for me it’s probably Katie Taylor’s fights at London 2012, in terms of spine-chilling nerves, excitement and atmosphere.
Can you describe a typical day of during the Olympics?
I’ll be up early to meet athletes, coaches and staff. It would be a lot of last-minute psych preparation and psych rehearsals before events. In the evenings hopefully there will be lots of athletes reflecting on success and what they’re looking forward to in the next round, but there will also be athletes whose journeys are finished because they’ve been beaten, so I’ll be providing support and space for them as well.
How do you ensure the athletes are mentally prepared?
The really important things are mental rehearsal, visualisation, to expect the best and prepare for the worst – this is to try and ensure that in an athlete’s mind there’s no self-limiting beliefs that could stop them achieving their absolute potential.
What are some of the most common mental health challenges that you see elite athletes face?
Anxiety, sometimes we see that become obsessiveness in trying to deliver the best performance. You need a certain degree of anxiety to perform and obsession to perfect, but that can easily slip into something else.
What’s something most people probably wouldn’t realise about elite athletes?
A lot of the practice and preparation in being an elite athlete is quite boring. The best elite athletes have a great ability to deal with repetition, stick-to-itiveness and not getting bored.
Paul Gaffney is the Lead Consultant in High-Performance Sport Clinical Psychology for Team Ireland and the Sport Ireland Institute. Sport Ireland Institute is the official performance support delivery partner to the Olympic Federation of Ireland.
