By Candice Lingam-Willgoss

Introduction
In my previous posting I questioned the changing face of the Winter Games, and asked whether the competitors at Sochi were becoming closer to performance artists with the inclusion of the new more acrobatic sports such as slopestyle making up some of the Olympic programme. This weekend saw the first Snowboard Slopestyle gold medal go to the United States boarder Sage Kotsenbury, and I was glued to the screen. Firstly, without doubt the slopestyle had all the magic ingredients that would have pulled in the viewers – I actually held my breath towards the later stages of each run as the tricks got more and more extreme. However, there were more things about this sport that stood out to me following the weekends racing.

Athletes or Performance Artists
This is the first time I have actually seen the competitive version of this sport on television, and as such my appraisal that the competitors were more performance artists was based on seeing lesser versions and reading about it. Having now witnessed it first hand, my overriding thoughts on the athletes is that they have guts! and bucket loads of them. There is no doubt that this is a true adrenaline sport, with the risk taken getting greater and greater as the run progresses. They are without doubt athletes, but another thing stood out, they are “cool” they are conforming to a stereotype that sees them “fit” into the X-Games culture where they have traditionally sat. Their dress is less “uniform” more what you would see recreational boarders wearing, they also don’t look like your stereotypical athlete – in an age where sports people are trying to cut seconds off times by shaving legs and wearing the most aerodynamic kit, we see flowing locks and trendy clothing.

Subculture
The development of a sporting subculture is very closely linked to identity formation and construction – this development is illustrated very clearly by the community that makes up the snowboarding slopestylers of this Winter Olympics. Classically the most significant means of conforming and becoming part of a subculture is modeling, individuals begin to deliberately adopt mannerisms, attitudes, and styles of dress, speech, and behaviour that are perceive to be characteristic of the subculture. When snowboarding first started skiers did not accept this new sport on the slopes, the two sports contrasted in several ways including how they spoke, acted, and their fashion.
When snowboarding was introduced to the Nagano Olympics in 1998 it was described as getting the trendy vote as “Its devotees do not fit into the typical image of alpine sports” (BBC Sport, 1998). Originally viewed as a one of the most anarchic sports, many boarders opt for baggy jeans; big sweatshirts; baseball caps turned backward; pierced ears, noses, tongues and even navels, they were representative of the hip-hop culture they fitted in with. Some contrast to the rather staid image of the Olympics and what other winter sports athletes were seen to wear.

Staying True
A second observation I made was the way in which this sport has stayed true to its roots. While we live in a sporting world that is driven by technology, who has the fastest suit, equipment, the freestyle ski disciplines – and perhaps most prominently the snowboard Slopestyle sees athletes remain true to their very unique culture. While it pains me to admit it, boarders are seen as the “cool” kids on snow, from their clothing, to their attitude and this is something that is further magnified on the big screen. While the alpine ski racers wear a traditional ‘catsuit” not something you would expect the recreational skier to wear, the clothing donned by the racers on Saturday in the slopestyle was very much akin to what you see a recreational boarder wear, as Taggart said about boarding at the 1998 Olympics wearing official team uniform for the event is acceptable but she didn’t like the idea of having to fit into an image for the whole time she was in Nagano.
“It’s hard for snowboarders in general to accept the authority deal … I want to be unique and individual, and wear clothes that represent me,” she said. “I’ll fight it as long as I don’t get kicked out” (Taggart, 1998). What we are now seeing may be the top brand and ultra stylish but its baggy – hardly the most aerodynamic, and the long haired cool kid stereotype likened to that of the skateboarding subculture is still clearly illustrated.
What else has stood out watching the games, and this is not unique to slopestyle, but to a lot of the winter sports disciplines is the camaraderie that surrounds each mini subculture. At times it is easy to forget that the athletes are competing against each other, as the display of solidarity and support at the end of the runs and even reflected in the photos coming from the Olympic village are very different to that observed within other sports. This characteristic of many of the Winter Sports disciplines further supports this concept of there being very unique sporting subcultures at this years games.

Role Models
Relating back to my original posting – what is unquestionable is that the inclusion of these more acrobatic and high risk sports will increase interest in winter sports, and have already shown that they are pulling in the viewers. These competitors are also providing very positive role models for children everywhere and are showing that there are a range of “different” sporting opportunities out there for young people to try. Jenny Jones’s medal on Sunday like Williams’ medal in Vancouver 4 years ago, will further raise the profile of Winter Sports within the UK and I hope provide the next generation with a passion for more varied sports that reflect some of the best things about being involved in a sporting subculture – the friendship, support and solidarity you can find.

By Candice Lingam-Willgoss

The nature of competitive sport involves athletes putting themselves in high-pressure situations in which they are being constantly appraised, and Sochi is no different.

So it is unsurprising that the areas of stress and anxiety are two of the most popular when looking at sport from an academic perspective. While all athletes experience anxiety to some level when they perform, either at a cognitive (mental worry) or somatic (physiological symptoms) level, it is the interpretation of these emotions that can dictate the influence they will have on their performance.

The physiological symptoms associated with anxiety can range from elevated heart rate or sweaty palms, to the classic butterflies in the stomach. The key for an elite athelete is to get those butterflies to fly in formation. The cause of this anxiety is that athletes are having to perform in “appraisal”-driven environments. Will they be good enough? Will they let the team down? Will they remember the set moves? The list of criteria is extensive.

And when we look at winter sports another variable is thrown into the mix – risk.

The Luge has been described as the fastest sport on ice, skiing sees racers get up to speeds close to 100kph, and the ski jump and snowcross carry their own unique elements of risk. Which raises the question: are the performers in these sports less concerned with the appraisal issue and more concerned about staying alive?

Without doubt the psychology related to overcoming fear is an interesting area to consider, and perhaps no one is a better example of this than Chemmy Alcott. Alcott has suffered 42 broken bones thorughout her career – including her neck – and without doubt knows the risk involved in her chosen sport. The surgeon responsible for her being able to compete in the Sochi games quite bluntly told her prior to the surgery that saved her career: “There are two operations which may be necessary. Either you’ll never ski again or there’s a fraction of a chance you’ll make the Olympics.” The miracle is that Alcott made the Sochi Olympics, and finished in the top 20 in the women’s downhill skiing.

It’s true Alcott does experience anxiety or in her case something she terms fear. “I respect fear, fear is me caring about my result,” she has said. The terminology Alcott has chosen to describe her feelings regarding skiing imply she is fully aware of the risks involved but she choses to channel this to her advantage.

This concept of interpretation is further supported by half-pipe snowboarder Elena Hight who said dealing with fear is more mental than physical. “Fear is a very interesting thing,” she said. “It can be a very good motivator but can also be an inhibitor. It just depends on how you go about dealing with it, and I think in our sport you have to push yourself to be able to progress, you have to walk that fine line of using it as a motivator and not letting it inhibit you.” Like Alcott, Hight has managed to channel her emotions in a positive way.

Many will ask how Alcott found the courage to step back out onto the competitive scene after such horrendous injuries that have left her with a body so scarred that her nephews use it as a track for their toy trains. For these high-risk athletes, it has become something of an occupational hazard. As Cohen, senior sport psychologist for the US Olympic Committee has said: “That return to play after an injury requires confidence when an athlete questions whether they have what it takes to get back there.” This leads us to consider another psychological perspective, something that is a necessity for all athletes to possess – mental toughness.

Sports psychologists Peter Clough, Keith Earle and David Sewell identified four components of “mental toughness”: control, commitment, challenge and confidence. They conclude that mentally tough athletes have “a high sense of self-belief and unshakable faith that they can control their own destiny and can remain relatively unaffected by adversity”. This is how athletes can come to have such positive interpretations of fear.

While this is Chemmy Alcott’s last Olympics and she hasn’t necessarily had the race results of others, she provides an incredibly positive example to athletes everywhere of what can be achieved with a strong mind in the face of high risks and immense pressure.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.
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