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Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Arts, Science, Performing Arts, Social Sciences

4.6 • 40.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The pressure. The expectations. The anxiety. If there's one thing that connects the athletes gathering for the Olympic games with the rest of us, it's the stress that can come from performing in front of others. In this week’s episode, we talk with cognitive scientist Sian Beilock about why so many of us crumble under pressure –– and what we can do about it. If you like our work, please consider supporting it! See how you can help at support.hiddenbrain.org. And to learn more about human behavior and ideas that can improve your life, subscribe to our newsletter at news.hiddenbrain.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.
0:03.1	In the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro,
0:05.9	the women's 100-meter freestyle race had a favorite.
0:10.4	Australia's Kate Campbell.
0:12.9	The swimmer had won two bronze medals at the 2008 Olympics
0:17.0	and a gold medal at the 2012 Games.
0:20.1	One month before Rio, she broke the world record in the 100-meter freestyle.
0:25.4	After that race, she confessed she didn't really know how she did it.
0:29.4	I think the best swims you've done from Bethos.
0:32.3	I don't remember a whole lot of it.
0:33.8	I just remember getting on the blocks and being like,
0:35.6	stealing good stuff.
0:36.6	Once you got a good start, it's all downhill from there.
0:38.8	So I think that's pretty much what I did.
0:41.6	And then, came Rio.
0:49.1	At first, it looked like she was going to win.
0:51.1	Kate's start was a little bit slower than everybody else.
0:54.1	Point eight of a second was the reaction time.
0:56.8	But once she hit the water, look at the world record line on her waist.
1:01.2	A great first 50, 24.77.
1:05.8	Kate had a commanding lead.
1:08.2	But after the 50-meter turn, something happened.
	...

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