My guest this week is 2009 World Champion in the 20km walk, Olive Loughnane. I was very much looking forward to chatting with Olive to get a view into what made her the highly successful champion that she was. So, naturally I was delighted when we connected back in February and she ‘walked’ (sorry) me though her career.

As a big sport fan, with a huge interest in performance psychology and how to get that extra 1%, listening to Olive talk about her gradual improvement over the years, having fierce determination and, of course, never giving up, was a real treat.

During the conversation, Olive shared stories that stood out during her journey and breaks down what the process is and what the key ingredients are to become a world champion. She almost makes it sound possible for the average person!

The topics covered include:

Being Originally from Cork and moved to Galway at the age of 4.
Spending school and her degree years in Galway
Earliest memories linked to the Moscow Olympics in 1980
Having a fondness and love for the outdoors
Always being very determined from a very young age
Starting out in Athletics at the age of 12
The Value of Volunteers & Influencers along the way
Cross Country was Olives first big event
Loving being part of a team
Having a draw towards the Walk as it was endurance based and technical –
Meeting Michael Lane – another volunteer and he was a big influence
Having ‘the Eye of the Tiger’, determination & tenacity
Sport is as much about the mental tenacity as it is about the underlying physical talents
Learning to set big Setting Big Goals
Setting high standards for herself & Control the controllable
For Olive, Sport Psychology was about taking a step back and relaxing and learning to go with the flow
Taking Calculated Risk taking
Being a Statistician and being very analytical in nature
Nominated Athlete of the Year in Leaving Cert marking a breakthrough point
Sacrifices didn’t seem so big and the high standards became the norm
Breaking down the steps taken to qualify for the Olympics
Logical and Planning
Breaking the Big goal into Medium goals and then smaller goals
Making it more manageable
Gradual building of confidence – short-term
SMART Goals being applied to getting to the Olympics
Where the Magic comes in with Goals – Realistic is the part that could be different!!
Plateaus in the career and dealing with these
In 2003-5 leaving some of it on the road by overtraining
Learning that her training plan needed to be managed more
Working with Sports scientists & listening to the data more
The Walk was an individual race but a team sport
Being very lucky to have a team of people around her
Overcoming from challenges and learning from these
Having to reach an Olympic standard again within 6 months the birth of her daughter or face a funding cut
10 days after having a C-Section starting to train again and full training 6 weeks later
Getting Burnt out in 2007 after training too hard too quickly
Still having the belief in 2007 that she could still do this – didn’t matter who believed it
2009 training – calming down and finishing 7thin Beijing gave her confidence
Knowing that the race in 2009 was her day in Berlin total belief this was the day for a medal
Seeing the calmness as the main difference – here to do the job! Visualization techniques – focusing on the process not the result
Sport is all about the process – and it is!
Intuition v Data & Facts
Control v Letting go with Goals
Life after retirement working with the high-performance committee of Sport Ireland
Career convergence with Analytical and Experience
1% Better tips:

The Value of Volunteers & Influencers along the way
Focusing on the process – awareness that the pain will come but being ready
Accepting there would be challenges, expecting them and overcoming them
Having positive mantras – my last 5km is always my strongest
Developing a calmness in competition – building awareness
Controlling the controllable
Developing a Goal System – using SMART & Heart!
Setting big long term goals, then medium term goals, then smaller shorter goals
Follow Olive on Twitter - https://twitter.com/OliveLoughnane

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