Understanding the characteristics that contributed to Québec athletes’ olympic successes moving into, during, and out of the Olympic Games

Abstract

The current study examined the characteristics that influenced four of the most successful Québec athletes’ performances moving in, during, and out of the Olympic Games. Their experiences were explored using media data (i.e., newspapers articles from the province of Québec) through an inductive thematic analysis. Seven main practical conclusions were created from this study with the first five relating to the three meta-transitions explored, and the last two relating to limitations created by the the methodology used in the study. The conclusions are: 1) Developing an empowering coach-athlete relationship in order to facilitate the athletes’ performances, 2) Starting a competition easy to finish strong, 3) Creating realistic but challenging goals for every step of the Olympic season, 4) Consciously learning form success and failures/mistakes, 5) Using mainly intrinsic motivation when competing, 6) The unmentioned importance of sport psychology services, and 7) The omission of information about provincial versus national pride.