THE SHARP EDGE TONI SHARPLESS
The psyche of the elite athlete
I
find the psyche of an elite athlete both intriguing and inspiring. Intriguing to observe the mental toughness and fortitude required to overcome the failures that come with winning and inspiring to see it done with resiliency, poise under stress and humility. Marc Marquez is a current example of an elite athlete’s mental toughness and fortitude. After a nine-month rehabilitation period due to a broken humerus bone in his right arm at Jerez in July 2020, the 28-yearold MotoGP superstar returned to the Repsol Honda team for the 2021 season. Prior to that there was a failed return to action a few days after his initial surgery that only proved to prolong his recovery by promoting an infection. His comeback finishes were far from the podium until Marquez won round 8 on June 20 at the German Grand Prix. “This victory makes up for the suffering,” Marquez said after the race. “This victory arrived in a very important moment because we were in a very deep situation.” Marquez went on to say he is still in rehabilitation, “One is the physical side, and the other is the mental side.” Working on the mental side to get back
into the game at full strength is one that I always found harder than the physical. Broken bones have a healing process of usually six weeks whereas a broken confidence can take longer with an uncertain process. I know this to a much lesser degree than Marquez, with a much lower injury severity and contractual stakes. I broke a collarbone at a CSBK event in Westwood, BC when I was slated to race a FIM World Endurance event at 24-hour Bol d’Or in France on the Paul Ricard circuit within two weeks. The clavicle was stabilized with a lot of tape and injections of pain-numbing anesthetic, but tape and shots were not going to treat my mental side. That came from within and with the encouragement from the right people around me. According to several online sources, Marquez found the boost he needed to his mental side within a 30-minute phone chat with MotoGP legend Mick Doohan who shared his parallel story. Like Marquez, Doohan had a fracture that became infected at the pinnacle of his career. Doohan missed only four races after the serious crash at Assen in 1992 that resulted in him in having his legs fused together to help with the blood supply to the injured leg. The doctors told Doohan he almost lost his leg. Fortitude and toughness prevailed as he stunned his doctors and fans by returning after missing only four rounds to finish the championship in second with a four-point loss behind Wayne Rainey. Doohan made up for it by going on to win five championship titles from 1994 to 1998. Curiously, at the time of writing Marquez just had a horrendous Marc Marquez returned to the top of the MotoGP podium in Germany. high side crash in free PHOTO COURTESY OF HONDA RACING CORPORATION 16 Inside Motorcycles
practice at Assen, the same track that was Doohan’s nemesis and on a Honda, apparently because of the RC213V’s electronics going awry. I can only imagine what kind of setback this has on Marquez’s mental side of his rehabilitation. To add to this, Honda has not been able to solve the mysterious right-hand slides that result in the bone breaking high sides. Luckily Marquez walked away from the Assen crash, but although he is poised and resolute you can feel the heavy stress he must be under by looking at his face in the media posts. Another warrior displaying poise under stress and resiliency is 24-year-old Ana Carrasco, the 2018 Supersport 300 World Champion. In 2020, while studying to get her law degree, Carrasco sustained two fractured vertebrae in a crash during a test session at Estoril, Portugal. The injury site was within a couple of millimetres from causing permanent damage. After two surgeries and eight months of recovery Carrasco says, “it was for sure a long recovery, but for me nothing change, I want to recover and to be fast again. I will take all this experience to try to be better.” Like Marquez and Doohan, Carrasco rehabilitated her mindset to return to the team and the sport she loves. It wasn’t long until she won a race, WSS round 2 at Misano, Italy in June 2021. George Mumford, a leading expert in sports psychology says simply, “Elite athletes are comfortable with being uncomfortable.” Marquez, Doohan and Carrasco are examples of this by pushing the limits on the track to amazing accomplishments after serious injury. Even though they have all admitted there were some low points in their rehabilitation Marquez said, “I was always optimistic, and this is the key point.” This proves the saying ‘to achieve you have to believe’ but I don’t believe that it only takes optimism, hope or belief in one’s ability to pull through a crisis or stressful situation, it also takes a resilient psyche to bounce back even stronger. IM
