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Canadian wheelchair basketball player Chantal BenoitChantal Benoit is a member of the Canadian women's wheelchair basketball team, which has not lost in international competition since taking the bronze medal at the 1990 world championships. Not counting exhibition matches (one of which it recently lost to the U.S.), the Canadian team came to Sydney riding a 38-game winning streak spanning two Paralympics, two world championships and assorted qualifying tournaments. Our coach is very big on mental preparation. Our team is built on that. Even though we have won 38 games in a row in international competition, I do not believe that we have been playing our best. We always play at the maximum we have on the day [of a match]. But I know we were not reaching our full potential. Looking back at the game videos ... geez, a lot of fundamental errors were made. We didn't play good at all; we just won because our psychological preparation was strong. We spend a lot of time understanding where our teammates are coming from. We know each player's behavior. And we also work on our own behavior. We grow as an athlete and a teammate at the same time. We develop knowledge of each other, so when one day somebody is down, we know how to deal with that person, and that person knows how to deal with the team. Therefore we will not interact negatively with each other. Then there are the visualizations all the players go through, visualizing things like the preparation for the game and the development of the game. For example, we know when our next game is, and we know that we will play at this time, against this team. We know that this is the line-up we are going to start, or that this is the kind of play we are going to use. Everything is well-defined, step-by-step. And you also have a visualization program for yourself in particular, for how you shoot, and how you want to shoot. We do the visualizations individually rather than all together. Each player does them as often as she needs to. For some, once a day is enough. Others may do them five times a day. Just before a game, everybody has their own scenario to prepare themselves. Some like to listen to music and take their minds away from basketball. Others like to talk with people, as long as basketball is not one of the subjects. And some like to watch the other games and just be part of it from the spectator standpoint. I personally stay away from the court. I like to keep my mind busy with something else. I may work on the computer, or talk, or trade pins. Anything that can distract me. It's different every time. I used to get nervous before games, but now with experience, I understand that it doesn't matter what is going to happen. It's just a game. You have, what, billions of people in the world who don't even know that wheelchair basketball exists, or that I am playing there. It doesn't give me anything more in my life, if we win or lose. But what does matter to me is that I execute and play the best I can. Some other players may try to play mental games with us. They may pass you and not say anything even if they know you. But that is their problem; they're weak at the end. We just ignore it. Our team has always been very sociable, and we believe that wheelchair basketball brings a lot more than sport to our society, especially for people with disabilities. So it doesn't give us any rationale to do that ourselves. I'm more fair play than that. We may be the favorites, but part of our mental preparation is understanding that on any given day, any team can finish first up there. So we go in with that mentality. If we execute what we've been practicing, and if we do it very well, yet in the end we lose, we understand the other team is better than we are. So we're just going to shake their hands and say, "Congratulations, you're the best."
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