Abstract
Every four years, athletes are presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games. Weinberg et al. (2000) quantitatively examined factors used by Olympic athletes in their goal setting strategies. Analysis revealed that all Olympic athletes used some type of goal setting, various goal attributes and found their goals to be effective. Despite the significance of these findings, more research is necessary to understand the goal setting practices of world-class elite athletes. To date, no study has qualitatively focused on how Olympic athletes (a) use goals, goal attributes and goal setting, and (2) the role each might play in performance. The purpose of this study was to explore and provide an in-depth description of goals, goal attributes and goal setting used by a segment of athletics that research tends to have a limited knowledge base: the Olympic champion. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 Olympic champions (winners of 60 Olympic medals). The transcribed interviews served as the primary source of data analysis. These participants were drawn from the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, representing various team and individual sports.
The results provided valuable insight into those factors that are perceived to contribute to their success. Participants identified the following factors: goal vision, goal support, goal proximity, goal specificity, goal difficulty, goal type and venue, goal feedback, goal commitment, goal barriers and transitional goals. These findings could assist in long-term talent development for aspiring elite athletes during their Olympic preparation and competitive phases.