What Motivates Athletes to Persevere?

Amidst the tears of joy, devastation, and the plethora of intense emotions flying high at the Tokyo Olympic Games, one has to wonder, what is it that motivates athletes from various sports to persevere through gruelling training sessions day in and day out? What gives them the willpower to push through adversity and doubt, and to invest the best years and decades of their life to such endeavours? What is so satisfying about snatching Olympic medals and breaking world records that entice athletes to choose a career of physical ‘self-torture’ over less physically demanding careers, despite the obvious slim chances of Olympic success?

Extrinsic Aspirations

Intuitively, when the topic of life pursuits is brought up, two common goals that often come to mind are money and fame. In a study that investigated “what is satisfying about satisfying events” (Sheldon et al., 2001), the researchers listed “money-luxury” and “popularity-influence” as extrinsic aspirations in life. This means that while they are commonly sought after, they are not intrinsically satisfying in the sense that they do not satisfy our fundamental psychological needs, and are more seen as means to ends. The notion that extrinsic aspirations such as the pursuit of wealth and fame are not the most salient motivational forces make sense in the Olympics context - there are clearly quicker and easier ways of accomplishing financial success or gaining popularity than becoming an athlete. There is also research suggesting that events reflecting the accomplishment of extrinsic aspirations are less immersive and satisfying to think about compared to events that reflect the fulfilment of psychological needs (Wang et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2018). So what are these psychological needs?

Psychological Needs

The fundamental psychological needs mentioned earlier refer to the need for autonomy (the need to experience oneself as the causal agent of one’s own actions, i.e., a sense of freedom), competence (the need to feel a sense of mastery and ability to control outcomes, i.e., a sense of being good at something) and relatedness (the need to experience close and meaningful relationships with others) (Sheldon et al., 2001). These three needs seem to better explain why people pursue what they pursue, such as athletic pre-eminence.

For instance, professional athletes often claim that they genuinely enjoy their sport, and that it was their choice to pursue that particular career. In contrast, anecdotal evidence abound of how so many university students have chosen their respective courses or even attend university simply because some careers are regarded as lucrative and reputable. As such, studying medicine at an elite university, say, could very well be the result of individuals following social and/or cultural norms rather than their autonomous choice.

Attaining a sense of competence could be another factor that encourages people to pursue a career in sports. While people in most jobs would, over time, develop a sense of mastery in various skills, such improvements are arguably more easily recognised in sports, given how concrete sporting achievements can be, compared to many other skills. For instance, drafting a successful business proposal requires the funder to like it subjectively, and may not reflect actual improvements in the individual who wrote the proposal. Writing a good essay in English also does not seem to have a concrete set of criteria. However, seeing an improvement in one’s 100 metre sprint personal best, or better yet, a gold medal in the Olympics, are concrete and objective indicators of improvement and competence.

Autonomy and competence aside, relatedness is likely another reason why a career in sports can be an attractive option. Athletes often train in teams, be it university teams, state teams or national teams. Comradery aside, the concrete nature of many sports could sometimes make sporting careers less political and more merit-based, and who doesn’t love a fair and harmonious work environment? For instance, in an office setting, people with different status and backgrounds may receive differential treatment by the boss, leading to rampant ‘office politics’. In sports, an individual jumping 20cm higher than the rest of the high jump team, for example, would be valued by the coach regardless of other variables. The relative social harmony and cohesion could act as key motivators to athletes’ training perseverance.

It is also important to note that beyond the sports context, the aforementioned psychological needs also underlie most endeavours in life.

Nuances

While psychological needs are deemed as universal across people of different demographics, nuances and exceptions exist in which athletes are more motivated by what. Fortunately, media coverage of the Olympic Games have never lacked unique, inspirational, and touching backstories that deviate from the majority. As the Tokyo Olympics come to a close, let us look forward to the Paris Olympics in three years’ time, where hopefully, athletes driven by psychological needs can once again amaze us with their performances.