How cool that the New York Times has “imagery’ as its feature article in the Sunday sports section today! Mental conditioning–imagery and other skills–is becoming more mainstream here in the U.S. (has a long history in Canada and Europe). We hear and literally see (Mikaela Shiffrin shown practicing her routine slopeside on TV) athletes succeed based on these skills. When it comes to hundredths of seconds and other slight differentiators between a gold medal or sliver/bronze/no medal, and Olympic athletes pretty much in the same physical shape, it usually comes down to the mental edge as to who will walk away with the gold.
For anyone who in interested in peak performance, I highly recommend you read this apropos article, Olympians Use Imagery as Mental Training:
