ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the context and professional philosophy and share some insight about gaining entry into high-performance environments. It considers the case in three stages: a bumpy road to the Olympics; the Olympic Games and; after the Games. The chapter provides a description of Marie’s triumph at the Olympics, but also a story about a swimmer who struggled with her identity as a swimmer, lost motivation, stopped her career, came back a different person, went on a voyage of self-discovery and ended up performing her very best at the Olympic Games. She worked hard to clarify her values, commit to actions aligned with these values and trained her ability to return to the present moment after noticing and accepting difficult thoughts and emotions. To be of true utility for the athletes, functional analysis, clarifying values and defusing from doubts must be an iterative and self-correcting process.
