Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Amro El Geziry, Team USA Modern Pentathlete, Olympian, US Army Sergeant, and a true sport athlete. Today, I want to talk to you about performance and anxiety. There are three things I would like you to know. First, the feeling of losing control is central to all anxiety. Second, performance and anxiety is normal, so do not judge it. And third, anxiety may manifest in different ways for each athlete.
At the age of 13, I started competing in modern pentathlon, a sport comprised of five different disciplines, fencing, free style swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting and cross-country running. From the beginning, I saw the sport as an opportunity for unique experiences like traveling, making friends, exploring different cultures. As I aged and progressed in the sport, I began to experience new pressures from my coaches while in competition at the World Cup, World Championship and Olympic games.
My sporting experience quickly transformed from one focused on making the most of unique experiences to one solely focused on winning. The better I performed, the more external pressure I felt. The more external pressure I experienced, the more I began to internalize the need to win. When I entered the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I was one of the top contenders for a medal. There were broad expectations for me to reach the podium, and in the end, the pressure to perform became overwhelming.
After having the best year of my career, being the most physically prepared and planning for the competition, I experienced my worst finish in more than four years. It was a difficult lesson for me to learn, but I now credit it for reminding me to trust my training, the process, myself during each competition. Now, when I can be even in a massive global stage, I avoid focusing on placement and where I will finish. Instead, I focus on doing my personal best and finishing a competition both satisfied and proud of the process rather than the outcome.
Learning to recognize the triggers of my performance and anxiety and figure out how to manage it was instrumental to my continual performance. Performance and anxiety is normal and is unique to the person experiencing it. Take a deep breath, attempt small steps to confront the situation that cause you to be anxious and know you can always ask for help.
