Team Spirit Austria

Hey folks,

Yesterday, I wrote about the many different things that the people in Team Austria (and I am convinced in other teams as well!) have learned from each other, even outside the CEP's guiding frame. Today, I was looking through some questionnaires we gave our athletes and coaches on the flight back home. We had asked them to share their experience and also to be so kind as to give us permission to use their statements.

The questionnaire had six different phrases that people should complete, e.g. "My favorite moment of the Games was...". And one thing is rather interesting and remarkable about this very question. As you might know, we only had so-called individual sports, i.e. people not competing as a team, in our delegation. However, nearly everybody, both coaches and athletes, completed the phrase as follows:

"My favorite moment of the Games was...supporting and being supported by Team Austria!"

When we were in Singapore, everybody of course had a tight schedule: Going to venues, practicing, going back to the YOV, doing CEP activities, competing...Nonetheless, people would always ask me for tickets to go watch other sports. And although we only had 16 athletes, it was quite often that 10 or even more of us would be at a venue, screaming our lungs out (or maybe that was only me? Anyways!) for our guys. This led to some really memorable situations, like when we handed out Austrian flags to Singaporean school kids and suddenly, the whole block was branded in red-white-red. Or when we went to cheer for our table tennis player, who would later say that being cheered on by us was one of his favorite moments of the Games.

In psychology, there is often a differentiation between intrinsic (from within) and extrinsic (from the outside) motivation. Needless to say, all the athletes going to Singapore are very motivated from within - otherwise they would not be that good. However, I think for every young athlete, it's a very good feeling to know that your talent and achievements are also appreciated by other people. And that your team mates, no matter how busy their schedule is, take a one hour bus ride just to watch you compete.

When I think back of our time in Singapore (which I still do a lot), this is one of the first things that comes to my mind. And it will also be one of the first things we will work on for our Youth Olympic Team Austria in Innsbruck 2012!