Application of Mindfulness and Acceptance Approaches before and during the Olympics: A Scandinavian Approach

Being an Olympian or winning a medal at the Olympics is often described as the ultimate goal and highlight of an athlete’s career. Athletes often emphasize Olympic Games as a unique and peak experience, however by many athletes also described as a very stressful event (Pensgaard, 2008). Experiences from delivering sport psychology service at the Olympics (Henriksen, 2015) describe that the athletes are facing a range of stressors and events that they are rarely able to foresee and plan for. The pressure of the Olympic games is unlike anything that the athletes ever tried before (and difficult to prepare for in specific details) and often evoke new and difficult feelings and thoughts. The present symposium describes four different sport psychology interventions in Olympic level based on third-wave cognitive therapy methods such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and mindfulness (Gardner & Moore, 2007). In the first contribution from Sweden there will be a closer look on principles of the performance psychology services provided by the Swedish Olympic Committee (NOC) and provide an example of Cognitive Behavioral Training. The second contribution will illustrate key aspects of service delivery of the Danish elite sport institute (Team Denmark) and in-depth describe mindfulness training, functional behavioral analyses, accept strategies, formulation of personal values, and collaboration with coaches to develop game plans for the specific sailing courses in the bay of Rio during the Olympics. The third contribution from Denmark describes the service delivery for the Danish national swimming team at the Olympics and outlines an ACT intervention with an individual swimmer. The final and fourth contribution will address sport psychology consultants who work across the blurred lines between performance enhancement and clinical issues with elite athletes from and ACT approach at the Olympics.