What is it really like to compete for an Olympic medal?

The pressure, the possibilities, the hope.

A Canadian Olympian is revealing what it is really like to compete for a medal on the world’s biggest sporting stage.

Brit Townsend is a former track and field athlete who ran in the finals of the 1500 metre event at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, competed in every other major championship, and held seven Canadian records.

She has also spent decades coaching the track and field program at Simon Fraser University, helping send a number of other athletes to the Olympic level.

Townsend knows competition, but describes the Olympic experience as something special.

“It’s ‘dreams come true’, it’s all of that, but it is also a time where there is a lot of expectation on the athlete — the possibility, the hope, and what they can achieve. What is possible for these athletes?” Townsend tells 1130 News Radio.

“It is the biggest stage, and it can be overwhelming. There are many athletes who get into that village and they just say it’s overwhelming. How do we harness that and use the excitement of that environment to perform at our best?”

Townsend says an athlete can train and be ready to compete at their highest level physically, but there’s something else that sets the highest performers apart.

“It’s all mental … it’s the person who can keep composed, who can have that focus on the day. Everybody has discipline who is training at that level, so we’re not looking at those kinds of things or motivation. We’re looking at how we can keep our composure, how we can get everything out of ourselves that day, and a lot of that is self-belief.”

She believes mental performance can make or break an athlete.

“I remember walking into that stadium in Los Angeles — I had prepared myself beforehand for a full stadium with close to 100,000 people in those stands when I walked through that tunnel,” she said.

“You have to take in some of the environment, you have to enjoy the experience and the opportunity, but you have to bring yourself back down and ask yourself what you are there for.”

And that is to perform, on-demand, at what could be the pinnacle of your career as an athlete.

Her advice to Canada’s athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympics?

“Keep it simple. You know you have the tools to perform, so how do you use those tools most effectively?”

–With files from Dean Recksiedler