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Updated: Monday October 23, 2000 10:24 AM
Australian wheelchair racer Louise SauvageLouise Sauvage, Australia's female Athlete of the Year in 1999, hasn't been beaten in a track final since 1992. These are her third Paralympics; she's trying to repeat her Atlanta triumphs in the 800 meters, 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters. (Sauvage is also considering entering the marathon, but won't decide until the day before the event). Mental preparation is an ongoing thing. I have a process to prepare both mentally and physically. I've worked in the past with a psychologist to develop some techniques. Everyone's an individual; you take away all the information, decide what works best for you, and trial it at competitions. I do visualizations of my races. I start weeks before the first race, focusing on my first event. Then when it's over, I continue with the visualizations, one race at a time. In my races, because we're not in our lanes for most of the time, there are so many interesting possibilities. We draft in and out, we want to be in a good position to finish, and we don't want to be boxed in. I visualize the different possibilities. On the day, I have a plan for what time I'm going to get there, and what time I'm going to get in my chair. I convince myself, more than anything, that I've done the hard work, the training, and there's nothing more I can do now. There are times when people try to psych you out a little bit. Some people chat away, trying to distract you. Other people just kind of stare you out. It's fair enough -- they can do whatever they want, but they're just wasting their energy. I don't tend to let it bother me. My mind's usually pretty free before a race. I'm not totally focused on a race, because I think I'd go mad if I did that. But I'm obviously there for a reason, so I am focused on the race, but not so much that nothing else is going on around me. It's not like you can't talk to me or anything. I definitely get nervous before races, though probably less than I once did. I tend to do a lot of breathing exercises to try and calm myself down. But some nerves are good; it's good to have that bit of adrenalin happening. I suppose I'd be worried if I wasn't nervous. I'm going to use the home crowd to my advantage. I definitely did that during the Olympics [in the women's 800-meter wheelchair event]. In the last 150 [meters] of the race, I could really hear them. It felt like it lifted me. There's a lot of pressure for me to perform well at these Paralympics, because of the home crowd and because I'm the favorite. But in the end, it will only be the pressure I put on myself. I can only do my best.
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