Norman — VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Racing down a ski hill or chasing a hockey puck is demanding enough, but the emergence of social media has created huge distractions that Olympians have never faced before.
“In Turin (the 2006 Winter Games) we were dealing mostly with e-mail,” said sports psychologist Barbara Meyer, a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. “In 2002, it was mostly phones, like land lines.”
But the popularity of Facebook, Twitter and texting can put an Olympic athlete just a few keystrokes from distractions that can hurt his or her performance, Meyer said from Vancouver, where she is working with eight Olympic athletes.
Her advice to several of them: Shut down the social media.
But coaches, even old school types who were around long before the Internet, realize that clamping down on social media is an uphill battle.
More than 80 U.S. athletes have Twitter accounts, with the highest numbers in speedskating, skiing, snowboarding and figure skating, according to the U.S. Olympic Committee.
“Tweeter? I’m still trying to figure that out,” said Mark Johnson, coach of the U.S. women’s hockey team and member of the men’s “Miracle on Ice” team at the 1980 Winter Games. “It’s a new world.”
Johnson said coaches have to know their athletes and be willing to adapt to their needs.
“The athletes coming through our locker room now are much different than they were even 10 years ago,” he said. “So are we equipped as coaches to be able to deal with it both on and off the ice, being in their world? We have to be willing to adapt.”
