Change, challenge & a quick word on COVID-19
Posted in Mentor Messages
Canada’s Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle, post race., 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. Tragically, a bomb had gone off the night before creating uncertainty if the Games would continue or not . (CP PHOTO/COA/Mike Ridewood)
Everyone seems to be talking about the COVID-19 and increasingly your Olympics are being pulled into the conversation. As your Chef de Mission, I want you to know that our priority is the health and safety of every Team Canada member. Stay focused on your preparation, the Tokyo 2020 Games are still very much on. As we all do with all the unplanned events that happen between now and the Games – we will assess and respond accordingly. Talk to your coaches and team leaders; be informed, and try not to let all the speculation distract you. The night before my Olympic final in Atlanta, a bomb went off tragically killing and injuring people. I woke not knowing if there would be delays or cancellations to my race; we didn’t know until we got to our venue what was going to happen. I’m glad we chose to stay focused and arrive ready; it was a gold medal day. The current situation is more drawn out which allows for more uncertainty and speculation. The COC is working with the IOC and our own medical team on this quickly evolving situation to protect your health and performance. We are all in this together and will do our best to keep you informed.
There are less than 150 days until the Olympics. (How did that happen?!)
What’s your goal? When you are at the Closing Ceremony – how do you want to feel?
At the Sochi Olympics I had separate but similar conversations with two different athletes from completely different sports. A few days before their competitions, both athletes remarked that after everything they had done and everything they had been through – they just wanted to come off their field-of-play happy. (Both of these athletes were medalists from Vancouver, and… spoiler alert– both would win medals again in Sochi.)
Without question a gold medal was their target, but as veterans, they knew another goal had to be to “finish happy”. In competition – all you can control is you; we hope that our performance is the best out there. But you can’t control your competitors, the conditions or the judges… winning is uncontrollable. At the end of the day, regardless of the result – you want to know you did EVERYTHING that you could do to reach your goal. No matter what happens – at least part of you should be happy with knowing you did that.
So, separately over a coffee before their competitions began, we strategized about how to make “happy” happen. How do we finish happy and why is it important? Sure, winning alone can make you happy (and/or relieved) – but you can’t walk onto your field-of-play feeling that something isn’t right and expect sport to magically make you happy. That’s your job. That’s on you to control. Odds are high that if you weren’t happy starting the competition it’s because you know something has been left undone. So… if the goal is to come off the field-of play happy– these veterans knew that it was important to go onto the field-of-play happy. They also agreed it’s easier to win that way!
How?
1. Be aware of your Done List.
Your ambition requires that you focus on your to-do list constantly. But what happens to all those checked-off tasks. They aren’t garbage. They are your tools, your weapons, your experience. Your checked-off tasks represent your “Done List” and this enormous pile is where confidence and stress management come from. (Yours, your teammates’, your coach’s, etc). Never forget about it, it’s massive and you earned it.
2. Start (and listen to) hard conversations.
With your teammates, with your coaches and with your family. Don’t wait. Is there something you want to say? Something you need to ask? Be respectful and kind, but do it. Don’t assume people know what you are thinking, want or need. And – when you are having a hard conversation – be ready to hear feedback, sometimes critical feedback, that makes you uncomfortable. Most feedback isn’t designed to be a personal attack. Almost always, it’s delivered in an effort to improve a relationship, technique or a system. Be open. Listen. Consider. Apply as you can.
3. Use change and challenge as a weapon.
Accepting change and challenge is what average performers do. Anticipating it and using it to your advantage is at the core of high performance. Someone always wins on a bad day… why not you? In training or in competition, whatever chaos comes; however the plan changes; be agile. Be the one, be the team, that is thrown-off the least because you’ve got a strategy.
4. Be the somebody you are waiting for.
Things need to get done; somebody will do it. Things need to get said; somebody will say it. Somebody is going to raise the bar. Somebody is going to step up and win. Somebody is about to become a champion. Why not you? Every day be that somebody.
The athletes I was talking to in Sochi had been doing all of these things. But it turns out both of them had one element hanging over their respective heads. One had to revisit a hard conversation before starting and the other found a moment mid-competition when remembering their Done List that allowed them to stay focused and push past a challenging result.
145 days to the Opening Ceremony means 162 days until the Closing Ceremony. (I have to say, I believe that’s a more important count down!) From now until then, make it a habit to get to the end of each day happy. Don’t let yourself get to the Closing Ceremony with thoughts like, “if only I had done X, I think things could have gone differently”.
You’ve got this. You are going to learn more, try more and do more. You are going to start the Olympic Games happy and you are going to be somebody who finishes the Olympic Games happy!
Marnie
C-A 
