The headlines are often dominated by the success stories of the Olympics such as Great Britain’s gold surprise in Rebecca Adlington and America’s swimming titan that is Michael Phelps but there is always a section of athlete’s who would rather not make the public eye. They are of course the underachievers, the favourites who choked and came away with significantly less than they expected.

In the recent Olympic games, most notably Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, it would seem inconceivable to think of Australia not finishing as one of the top five countries in the medal table, let alone behind their Great British rivals. However Australia appears to have come up light in the medal count in the first week of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As the Games reach the halfway point, Australia has won a modest handful of gold medals, and with their stronger events soon to be behind them they may well start to feel the pressure. Their British rivals are beginning to turn the screw in their strongest fields of cycling and rowing and have further medal hopes in the athletics and sailing. The Australian Olympic Committee were believed to be expecting a top five finish in Beijing, which would require around 15 gold medals. However after a disappointing week, that total is looking in doubt.

Another athlete feeling the pressure will be 100m sprinter Tyson Gay who finished second in his heat. Fellow gold medal hopefuls Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell strolled into the semi finals winning both of their heats at a canter. Gay however was beaten by Trinidad athlete Richard Thompson and looked very rusty, completing the race in 10.09 seconds.

Fellow American Katie Hoff has also experienced a very disappointing Olympics. Dubbed by many as the ‘female’ Michael Phelps, Hoff was expected to win up to six gold medals but has completed the Olympics with none. Following her surprisingly early exit from the 800m freestyle race Hoff refused to speak to reporters, clearly upset at choking in yet another race.

The question is what causes skilled and experienced athletes to ‘choke’ under the many pressures of competition? This question has been investigated by a team of Australian researchers, who set out to examine the role of self-consciousness and trait (or dispositional) anxiety as predictors of choking in sport.

Choking has been defined as ‘performance decrements under pressure circumstances’ and is thought to occur when a performer focuses in a conscious way on skills that have become automatic, with a detrimental effect on performance. In the Australian study, 66 student basketball players completed questionnaires designed to measure self-consciousness and sport anxiety before completing 20 free throws under two different conditions:

1. Low pressure – observed only by a research assistant with no consequences attached to performance

2. High pressure (about one hour later) – videotaped, observed by an audience and with a performance-contingent financial incentive.

The hypothesis was that performance would decline under pressure and that performers displaying high self-consciousness and/or trait anxiety would be most susceptible to choking. In fact there was an overall decline in performance from the low pressure to the high pressure condition, with a mean score (successful shots out of 20) of 13.56 under low pressure, falling to 12.53 under high pressure. Of the 66 participants, 35 had a lower score under pressure, seven scored the same and 24 scored better.

When analysing the relationship of self-consciousness and sport anxiety ratings and free throw scores, the researchers made the following findings: As expected (but contrary to some previous research) high self-conscious participants were more likely to choke than their low self-conscious counterparts; This tendency was particularly evident for the private self-consciousness sub-scale (where attention is directed inwards, to private thoughts and feelings, as opposed to public self-consciousness, where attention is directed to the self as the object of others’ awareness); In terms of trait anxiety, only somatic trait anxiety (measuring physical feelings, eg jitteriness) was a significant predictor of choking. Because a significant minority of the participants actually improved their performance under pressure, the researchers believe that a good deal could be learned by studying athletes who are ‘choking-resistant’.

‘Finally,’ they conclude, ‘intervention studies are needed to examine whether athletes can be inoculated to choking effects and to test the efficacy of choking recovery strategies. Specific techniques to ameliorate choking would most likely benefit the many athletes who experience choking and hence suffer diminished enjoyment or social anxiety.’

To read more about how psychology affects sport and how you can mentally strengthen your game read this sports psychology the will to win report.