One factor that can help athletes perform better at the Olympics is music. But not just any kind of music. Not all the time. Not all athletes.
It is not uncommon to see an athlete arrive, just before the start of a competition, with large headphones on his ears. Most Sunday athletes also like to jog with music in their ears.
When you do artistic swimming, music is at the heart of your sport. Just before a competition, Quebecer Audrey Lamothe, 19, usually listens again to what will be the soundtrack of the routine she is about to perform in the pool. “It’s a way for me to visualize what awaits me. Just listening to the music of our routine allows me to see each of the steps, to review the list of what I would like to accomplish and to be in the present moment.”
Her duet and team partner at the Paris Olympics, Jacqueline Simoneau, also likes to go over the theme of her upcoming routine once or twice. The 27-year-old veteran, however, quickly listens to something “completely different” afterwards. “In Paris, it’ll be pretty much country. Something that helps me relax, de-stress before I get in the water, but also to get the adrenaline pumping,” she explains.
“I listen to music to help me get into my bubble,” diver Nathan Zsombor-Murray said after winning the bronze medal in the 10-metre tower duet with Rylan Wiens. “I like music that gets into it.”
Archer Virginie Chénier also likes to listen to music “that has rhythm” just before the event. “I’m the kind of person who listens to the same song over and over again. I don’t have a list of songs. Each competition has its own song.” However, last week she had not yet found the one that would accompany her during the Paris Games.
To each his own music
Music can have all sorts of effects on athletic performance, depending on the type of music, the circumstances and the athlete, experts say. When listened to during exercise, especially during training, rhythmic and syncopated music generally has the effect of increasing work capacity and duration, in addition to making the exercise less strenuous. Especially when it is accompanied by inspiring lyrics.
Conversely, a slower, more melodious tune helps reduce the heart rate while calming the body and mind.
Listening to familiar music can also have the power to bring the athlete back to a familiar and reassuring place or state of mind in the confusing and stressful atmosphere of competitions.
Also, it all depends on what the athlete needs at this stage of the event, explains Alexis Gagnon-Dolbec, sports psychologist at the Institut national du sport du Québec. “If, before a competition, he wants to seek a higher level of activation and emotion, high-tempo music can help him. But if, on the contrary, he is already quite excited and especially needs to regain control over the level of his emotions, listening to soft music could do him good.”
This advice also applies to those whose listening to certain music is simply routine, a search for comfort or superstition, says the expert. Or to those whose headphones are just a way to mask the noise and distractions around them.
Good with yourself
It is precisely because she does not want to isolate herself from the world around her that sprinter Audrey Leduc does not listen to music before a race. “I prefer to let myself be immersed in everything that is happening around me. If there is noise when I am warming up, there will be noise when I arrive on the track.” Keeping headphones on until the last moment would be even more distracting.
However, she has agreed with her coach to do the opposite during her training sessions at the Claude-Robillard sports centre in Montreal. The noise from the ventilation and other sound distractions are so “annoying” that they play music “to cover it all up and create a bit of atmosphere.”
Judoka Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard also doesn’t listen to music before a competition. “I got used to being able to communicate with my coach just before fights from a young age. I also want to get used to the ambient noise so that I’m not distracted by all that noise when I get on the mat. And I always have a lot of internal conversations with myself before a fight.”
This report was financed with the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund- The duty .