Scholarship Essay Entry – Gayle M.

Some people will say that Canada has been a divided country for almost as long as it has been in existence. They will tell you there have always been tensions between the East and the West, a rift between the Anglo-Canadians and the Franco-Canadians, and general disunity. This past year all that rivalry was forgotten and a united Canada stood proud under the maple leaf when Vancouver played host to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.
 
At the beginning of the Games it seemed like any other Olympic Games. Yes, Canadians were anxiously hopeful and filled with anticipation to see how our Canadian athletes performed. Canadians were proud of our contingent, but there was nothing that really set this Olympics apart from any other Olympics. That is until the medals started coming in. As the Games went on and the number of medals Canadians were winning was increasing, national pride also began to increase. By the end of the Games Canadians were doing something rarely seen before: breaking out in the singing of our national anthem in the middle of anywhere. During the Games it was publicized many times that Canada has not seen such an over-riding uniting event in many years. And I want to help ensure that something like happens again.
 
I am currently entering my third year of Kinesiology: Mind Sciences. This is the program that many sport psychologists begin their career in. The field of sport psychology is a growing field, with many athletes beginning to utilize sport psychologists in their box of tools for athletic excellence. Many of the athletes that performed exceptionally and helped to unite Canada last February had sport psychologists there with them. At this point in time, becoming a sport psychologist is one of two options I have chosen for my future occupation. The other option I have is high performance speed skating coach.
 
At the Olympic Games there are many events that Canadians excel in. However, because of the number of events offered and the fact that many Canadians can compete individually in each event, speed skating tends to be the richest in regards to the medal count. In the last three Winter Olympics prior to Vancouver speed skating brought in half of Canada’s total medals, while in Vancouver just under half of the medals were from speed skating.
 
One of my professors said that the physical body takes awhile to change. It takes many months of training to form the body for the sport and it takes weeks of not training for the body to regress. However, it takes seconds for the mind to either gain or lose focus, and the mind is the reason behind many successes or failures in sport. It is my dream that, through the use of sport psychology as either a sport psychologist or speed skating coach, I can help athletes better control their mind in order to become the best they can be, achieve their goals, and make Canada proud.