Abstract
We examined Olympic athletes’ goals and how they unfold over time as they prepare for, compete at, and reflect following, the Paris 2024 Olympics. Managing goals and barriers to goals can be accomplished through goal pursuit, adjustment when needed, and goal setting approaches (Bird et al., 2024; Wrosch et al., 2013). We sought to learn about Olympic athletes’ goals with two research questions: (a) What are the athletes’ main Olympic goals, and (b) What are barriers and facilitators to goal progress? We interviewed six athletes (5 women, 1 man; Mage=26.4 years, SD=2.70) 3-4 times over a five-month period, pre, during, and post-Olympic Games. The athletes competed in swimming events representing Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands. We employed a longitudinal qualitative design to investigate athletes’ goals and barriers since they can shift and change over time. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to interpret the interviews. For RQ1, two themes were created reflecting athletes’ goals: Goal type and Social goals. Goals ranged in type from outcome-focused goals (e.g., placing), process-goals (e.g., focus on technical skills), and just-in-case goals (enjoy-the-moment), and some were social in nature (for accountability, shared goals). For RQ2, four themes conveyed facilitators and/or barriers of goals: Behavioural strategies (e.g., break-into-manageable steps), Cognitive strategies (e.g., self-regulatory thinking), Need for balance (e.g., mental breaks), and Contextual factors (e.g., physical health). The findings offer current insights on athletes’ goals during their Olympic experience, as well as on various strategies used to facilitate goals, and deal with (un)anticipated and hidden barriers.
