Given the highly dangerous nature of alpine ski racing, with the possibility of crashes, injury, and in rare cases death, a World Cup or Olympic ski race can be viewed as a threat to personal safety. Smith and Lazarus (1993) conceptualize fear as an emotional response to circumstances where an individual feels threat or danger. Risk-taking to achieve performance goals, in an already dangerous situation, results in the potential for elite alpine ski racers to experience fear ( ESPNW, 2018). Pursuing this goal often involves risk taking and pushing personal limits, which, in the speed discipline of alpine ski racing (i.e., downhill, super-G) means athletes are in very dangerous situations, due to extreme speeds (e.g., exceeding 120 km/h) on steep and icy courses. Olympic and World Cup alpine ski racers all push out of the start gate in pursuit of the same goal: to be the fastest person down the hill, and win the race. As a result of the discrepancy created between training and racing, there are several implications for how the national team environment and training is structured, and we present recommendations for how these findings can be applied to training. There currently exists a discrepancy between the athletes' approaches to training and racing, making it difficult to master fear management strategies. The findings indicate one's experience and management of fear may be influenced by contextual factors (e.g., weather, course profile) and confidence, and that confidence is influenced by the same situational factors that influence fear as well as athlete preparation. Three themes emerged: contextual influences, preparation and process, and risk vs. This study uses an interpretive phenomenological analysis, conducted with five male members of the Canadian national ski team. The purpose of this study was to explore Canadian national team men's experience and management of fear in World Cup alpine ski racing. Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, CanadaĪlpine ski racers, specifically in the discipline of downhill, may experience fear competing in such a high-risk environment.
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