- Title
- Choking under pressure : A review of current debates, literature, and interventions
- Creator
- Mesagno, Christopher; Geukes, Katharina; Larkin, Paul
- Date
- 2015
- Type
- Text; Book chapter
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/81509
- Identifier
- vital:8259
- Identifier
- https://library.federation.edu.au/record=b2158899
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780415744379
- Abstract
- Athletes who "crumble" under the pressure of competition are often defamed, embarrassed, and sometimes ostracized from the sportinf community. One Australian elite rower, Sally Robbins, was heavily shunned and vilified by the media and rowin community for a potential choking under pressure episode. Sally was a member of the Australian Women's Eight rowing team competing in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. With 500 meters to complete the race and the team in medal contention, Sally stopped rowing, collapsing in the lap of one of her teammates, with her oar dragging in the water because of intense exhaustion, with the team finishing in last place. This episode may have been exacerbated by the reported intense anxiety she was experiencing prior to the well-publicized Olympic final. In fact, this was not the first time extreme anxiety and concomitant exhaustion had befallen on Sally with reports suggesting perhaps it happened up to nine times previously (Wilkins, 2008). After that event, "Lay down Sally (as she was quickly labeled by Australian media and public) ... was derided as a quitter and labeled un-Australian.... The lay down Sally affair ended in misery, defamation lawsuits and recriminations" (Davis, 2008, p.98). This type of incidence has led to media speculation about choking so often that Davis (2008), an Australian magazine editor and newpaper reporter, wrote a book explaining many potential choking incidences from elite international competitions. Some choking incidences are more easily detectable than others. For example, tennis player Jana Novotna played Steffi Graf in the 1993 Wimbledon women's final, led the match 6-7, 6-4, and had a game point at 4-1 in the third and final set. Novotna lost the game and Steffi Graf won the final five games of the match and the Grand Slam title. Professional golfers Jean Van de Velde and Greg Norman also squandered leads to lose major championships, but in different ways. Van de Velde drastically "lost the plot" in the 1999 British Open after leading the tournament over 71 holes with a 3-shot lead going into the final hole. Off the tee, each of his shots went into the rough, hit the grandstand, in a water hazard, into the greenside bunker, on the green and finally in the hole for a triple bogey and tie for the lead. Van de Velde eventually lost in a three-person playoff. Greg Norman's 1996 U.S. Masters choking episode was similar because a large lead (i.e. six strokes) diminished, however, this occurred in a round-long (rather than an acute one-hole) collapse and eventual loss to Nick Faldo by five strokes. One reason these situations could be classified as choking episodes is they were based on the person's normal standard of play, rather than on other's success. For example, Novotna's performance deterioration was credited for the choking incident and not because Graf played exceptionally well in the last set to win the tournament. Nevertheless, some researchers (e.g. Buszard
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Relation
- Contemporary Advances in Sport Psychology : A review p. 148-174
- Rights
- Copyright © Routledge
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- Choking; Sport; Pressure; Athletes; Intra-individual standares
- Reviewed
- Hits: 1971
- Visitors: 1915
- Downloads: 4
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