Emily Zitek

Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior

Emily Zitek comments on U.S. skater Ilia Malinin. On Friday, Malinin may attempt the most difficult jump in ice skating history, a quadruple axel. 

Zitek says:

“Decades of sport psychology research points to the importance of confidence.

“Malinin would not want to try a quadruple axel if he wasn't so confident. Performance accomplishments predict confidence, as does verbal praise like external validation. The key thing would be to not have his confidence in landing it waver before he starts his routine. That would make it really hard for him to land it.

“Ilia Malinin likely has a lot of confidence from landing a quadruple axel in practice, presumably many times. If he decides to try it, he will likely visualize his many successful times completing it in practice.”

Thomas Gilovich

Professor of Psychology

Thomas Gilovich, studied counterfactual thinking and its impact on the emotions of medal winners. He says that bronze medalists often appear happier than their competitors who win silver.

Gilovich says: 

“During the first week of the Winter Olympics in Italy, we’ve seen some pained expressions on the faces of a number of silver medalists. And that makes sense: they’ve endured blood, sweat, and tears to try to realize the dream of winning a gold medal, but come up just a bit short.

“But the bronze medalists also came up short, shorter in fact, and we haven’t seen as many pained expressions on their faces. Why not? While it’s easy for the silver medalist to imagine something they could have done just a little better and capture the gold, it’s harder for the bronze medalists to do so. There’s more ground to make up. What’s easier for them is to imagine being one-step down, coming in fourth, and being left off the medal stand.

“Because we evaluate what happens to us both in terms of what it was and what might have been, there are times when – emotionally –  less is more.”