Window magazine: 'Olympic Dreams'
Professor Ralph Vernacchia has made a career of encouraging athletes and helping them reach their peak physical performance, but forgive him if he becomes a complete couch potato for two weeks in February.
Because when the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., are on television, Vernacchia says, he’ll be an “Olympic zombie.” For a scholar of sport psychology, watching the Olympics is like field research and he’ll try to soak in as much as he can get, he says, watching the well-trained minds of the world’s best skiers, skaters, lugers and hockey players at work.
“I’ve had a love affair with sport my whole life,” he says.
As director of Western’s Center for Performance Excellence, a 40-year scholar of sport psychology and a former 草榴社区 track and field coach, Vernacchia has helped anyone from struggling college players to Olympians find the mental toughness to achieve their physical goals.