Olympic coaching excellence: A quantitative study of psychological aspects of Olympic swimming coaches

• Published in: Psychology of sport and exercise Vol. 53; p. 101876
• Main Authors: Cook, Gillian M., Fletcher, David, Peyrebrune, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2021
• Subjects: Coach; Elite; High performance; Psychosocial; Sport; High performance; Psychosocial; Sport; Elite; Coach
• ISSN: 1469-0292; 1878-5476
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101876

Researchers investigating the psychological aspects of Olympic coaching have studied coaches as a homogenous group, and the effect of coaches' psychological characteristics on performance-related outcomes remains unclear. The objective of this research, therefore, was to examine whether psychological factors discriminate between world-leading (i.e., Olympic gold medal winning) and world-class (i.e., Olympic non-gold medal winning) coaches. Self-reported psychometric questionnaires were completed by 36 Olympic coaches who had collectively coached 169 swimmers to win 352 Olympic medals, of which 155 were gold medals. The questionnaires assessed 12 variables within the Big Five personality traits, the dark triad, and emotional intelligence, and the data was analyzed using three one-way multivariate analysis of variance and follow-up univariate F-tests. The results showed that the 21 world-leading coaches were significantly more agreeable, had greater perception of emotion, were better at managing their own emotion, and were less Machiavellian and narcissistic than the 15 world-class coaches. The groups of coaches showed no differences in levels of conscientiousness, openness to experience, extraversion, neuroticism, psychopathy, managing other emotion, or utilization of emotion. Psychological factors discriminate between world-leading and world-class coaches. The implications of these differences are discussed for psychology researchers and practitioners operating in Olympic sport. •Psychological factors found to discriminate world-leading from world-class coaches.•Participants had coached swimmers to win 352 Olympic medals, of which 155 were gold.•Significant differences between coaches across Big Five traits and dark triad.•Significant differences between coaches across emotional intelligence.•These factors may be advantageous for coaching swimmers to win Olympic gold medals.