Psyched for the Olympics

Physical well-being is not the only concern for athletes under intense pressure as they perform in front of a home crowd.

Cui said he realized how much home-court pressure affects young Olympians' performances after watching a gymnastics test competition earlier this year.

The gymnasts' parents were invited to watch the competition, which seemed to make the athletes unexpectedly nervous as several of them fell during their routines.

In response, Cui said a psychological consulting program has been established to help Chinese athletes deal with the pressure.

"The investment is unprecedented," Cui told China Daily.

The leader of China's Olympic psychological consulting team, Zhang Zhongqiu, also told China Daily that in April they will launch the country's first sports psychology website, specially designed for Chinese Olympians and their coaches.

It will offer multimedia materials on sports psychology and interactive communication tools between users and mental-health experts.

The system will also allow athletes and coaches to choose their own favorite psychologists to deal with their issues offline.

Athletes and coaches who have already booked their places in Beijing can now log on to the website, which has a very detailed database for each Chinese Olympian.

"In order to protect the privacy of the athletes, the website uses a very advanced security system, similar to what banks use for VIP customers," said Zhang, China's first sports psychologist.

"Any time, any place, athletes can download our materials to their mobile phones, send text messages to experts, or make reservations for consultation," he said.

The Olympic psychological consulting squad includes 22 experts from leading local institutes, including the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Department of Psychology at Beijing Normal University.

Zhang's sports psychology lab at the China Institute of Sport Science is armed with world-class equipment. It offers counseling to 17 national teams and includes techniques such as somato-sensory music regulation, a new acoustic therapy to help ease stress.

The lab also hosts lectures and workshops for coaches who play a key role in athletes' training and competition. "Coaches are the most important people for athletes and they should help athletes and their parents deal with the stress and pressure," Zhang said.

Gold-winning Chinese teams, such as diving, shooting and gymnastics, have counted on the sports psychologists for years.

Many sports celebrities, like gymnastic world champion Yang Wei and diving diva Guo Jingjing, are willing to share their innermost thoughts with their favorite psychologists in times of trouble and depression, Zhang said.

(China Daily March 7, 2008)