Canada's Pan Am athletes want to thrive under home spotlight
Canadians face extra pressure with Games on home soil
As Joannie Rochette took the ice at the Vancouver Olympics just days after her mother's death, Canadian fans offered the figure skater considerable comfort.
"I really felt that support strongly in Vancouver," recalled Rochette, who captured bronze at the 2010 Games. "After I lost my mother, I got so many encouragement letters from Canadians across the country — and that was amazing."
Canada's summer athletes will compete in front of a home crowd at the upcoming Pan Am and Parapan Am Games. The host country will field its largest-ever Pan Am Games team of 700 athletes from July 10-26 in Toronto. The Parapan Am Games will be held Aug 7-15.
After competing in the 2012 London Olympics, champion para-swimmer Benoit Huot said knowing the Pan Am Games were on the horizon helped him stay connected with his sport.
"I wanted to have the opportunity in my career to swim at home in front of friends, family and Canadians, and I didn't want to miss it," he said.
Rochette acknowledged increased media attention that comes with competing at home does lead to some added pressure. But she still relished the chance to represent Canada on home ice at one of the world's biggest sporting events.
"It's going to be cool to watch the summer Pan Am Games now in Toronto to see the athletes go through the same thing — because we've been there," said Rochette, whose mother had a fatal heart attack during the 2010 Games. "We know the intensity and the pressure, but also how lucky we are to be welcoming the world here in Canada."
Hurdler Phylicia George said she is "super excited" about competing at the Pan Ams, but her approach to competition won't differ because she's at home.
"There's still 10 hurdles I have to go over, there's still a start line, there's a finish line, there's a gun, it's all the same stuff," she said. "Even when I went to the Olympics or the worlds, I never approached it like 'Oh my gosh, I'm at the Olympics."'
Huot said there is always pressure on athletes, but shared George's perspective on maintaining routines.
"We have to come back to basics and just think about it as another competition," he said. "We train hard, we work hard, we do everything to be ready ... but I have to think that it's just another competition — no different."
'Performing Under Pressure'
Canadian performance coach J.P. Pawliw-Fry, co-author of "Performing Under Pressure," said there is no denying pressure increases when athletes are vying to reach the podium in front of a partisan crowd.
"The trap," he added, comes from thinking they need to be perfect or overperform to have winning results.
"Don't create this story in your young athlete's mind like: 'Oh my gosh, we're going to have play better than we ever have before to be successful. In fact, you want to do exactly the opposite," said Pawliw-Fry, who worked with now-retired Canadian beach volleyball teammates and Olympic bronze medallists John Child and Mark Heese.
"Get the athlete to trust that they have everything they need to be successful. They don't need to do anything different. They don't need to do any better. They just need to do what they do."
Pawliw-Fry said athletes can feed off of the crowd, but shouldn't use spectators as their sole source of motivation — especially if the tide turns during competition.
"One of the things that we work with athletes around is not being so focused and especially attached to the outcome of the performance that they miss a really important part of the process — which is joy."
After hearing the raucous reception British athletes received at the London Games, George was already anticipating the possibility of cheers from fellow Canadians at the Pan Ams.
"That's what I'm looking forward to the most, getting the extra adrenalin boost from hearing, I'm at the line, 'Phylicia George from Canada,' and hearing everybody in Toronto go crazy," she said. "For me, that's the moment that I'm going to be like 'This is it, this is what I've been waiting for."'
With files from Canadian Press sports reporter Lori Ewing