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How Olympians view success and failure, and what we can learn from them

Published: 12 Jan. 2026, 15:04 Updated: 12 Jan. 2026, 16:10

Olympic rings are seen in the snow at the Stelvio Pass, the venue for the alpine ski and ski mountaineering disciplines at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Bormio, Italy, on Jan. 16. [AP/YONHAP]

If winning gold medals were the only standard, almost all Olympic athletes would be considered failures.

As a clinical psychologist with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), Emily Clark's job when the Winter Olympics open in Italy on Feb. 6 is to help athletes interpret what it means to be successful.

Should gold medals be the only measure?

Part of a 15-member staff providing psychological services, Clark nurtures athletes accustomed to triumph but who invariably risk failure.

The staff deals with matters termed “mental health and mental performance.” They include topics such as motivation, anger management, anxiety, eating disorders, family issues, trauma, depression, sleep, handling pressure, travel and so forth.

Clark's area includes stress management, the importance of sleep and getting high achievers to perform at their best and avoid the temptation of looking only at results.

“A lot of athletes these days are aware of the mental health component — not just sports but of life,” Clark said in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is an area where athletes can develop skills that can extend a career or make it more enjoyable.”

The United States is expected to take about 235 athletes to the Winter Olympics and about 70 more to the Paralympics. But here's the truth.

“Most of the athletes who come through Team USA will not win a gold medal,” Clark said. “That’s the reality of elite sport.”

A drone view of a road running through a snow-covered valley surrounded by mountains, ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Livigno, Italy on Jan. 9. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Here are the numbers. The United States won gold medals in nine events in the last Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. According to Dr. Bill Mallon, an esteemed shoulder surgeon and Olympic historian, 70.8 percent of Winter and Summer Olympic athletes go to only one Olympics.

Few are famous and successful like swimmer Michael Phelps or skiers Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn.

Clark said she often delivers the following message to Olympians and Paralympians: This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Focus on the process. Savor the moment.

“Your job is not to win a gold medal. Your job is to do the thing, and the gold medal is [sometimes] what happens when you do your job,” she said.

“Some of this might be realigning what success looks like,” she added. “And some of this is developing resilience in the face of setbacks and failure.”

Clark preaches staying on task under pressure and improving through defeat.

“We get stronger by pushing ourselves to a limit where we're at our maximum capacity — and then recovering,” she said. “When we get stressed, it impacts our [ability to pay attention and focus]. Staying on task or staying in line with what’s important is what we try to train for.”

Kendall Gretsch has won four gold medals at the Summer and Winter Paralympics. She credits some of her success to the USOPC's mental health services, and she described the value this way.

“We have a sports psychologist who travels with us for most of our season,” she said. “Just being able to touch base with them […] and getting that reminder of 'Why are you here? What is that experience you’re looking for?'”

American figure skater Alysa Liu is the 2025 world champion and ranked sixth in the 2022 Olympics. She’s a big believer in sports psychology.

“I work with a sports psychologist,” she said without giving a name. “She’s incredible — like the MVP.”

Of course, MVP stands not for Most Valuable Person or Player but for “Most Valuable Psychologist.”

The statue of the Virgin Mary on the top of the Duomo di Milano, or Milan Cathedral, is seen through neon Olympic rings ahead of the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan on Jan. 9. [AP/YONHAP]

“She’s very helpful,” Liu added.

American downhill skier Vonn will race in Italy in her sixth Olympics. At 41, she's coming off nearly six years in retirement and will be racing on a knee made of titanium.

Two-time Olympic champion Michaela Dorfmeister has suggested in jest that Vonn “should see a psychologist” for attempting such a thing in a very dangerous sport where downhill skiers reach speeds of 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour).

Vonn shrugged off the comments and joked a few months ago that she didn’t grow up using a sports psychologist. She said her counseling came from taping messages on the tips of her skis that read, “Stay forward, or hands up.”

“I just did it myself,” she said. “I do a lot of self-talk in the starting gate.”

“Sleep is an area where athletes tend to struggle for a number of reasons,” Clark said, listing issues such as travel schedules, late practices, injuries and life-related stress.

“We have a lot of athletes who are parents, and a lot of sleep is going to be disrupted in the early stages of parenting,” she said. “We approach sleep as a real part of performance. But it can be something that gets deprioritized when days get busy.”

Clark suggests the following for her athletes, as well as the rest of us: No caffeine after 3 p.m., mitigate stress before bedtime, schedule sleep at about the same time every day, sleep in a dark room and get 7 to 9 hours.

Adela Merkova of the Czech Republic jumps during the women's aerials qualifiers in the FIS Freestyle World Cup at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, New York, on Jan. 11. [AFP/YONHAP]

Dani Aravich is a two-time Paralympian — she’s participated in both the Summer and Winter Games — and will be skiing in the upcoming Paralympics. She said in a recent interview that she avails herself of many psychological services provided by the USOPC.

“I’ve started tracking my sleep,” she said, naming Clark as a counselor. “Especially being an athlete who has multiple jobs, sleep is going to be your No. 1 savior at all times. It’s the thing that […] helps mental clarity.”

Clark said the same.

“Sleep is the cornerstone of healthy performance,” she added.

AP