How did Justin Gatlin cope with a hostile crowd?

Last nights athletics admirers from around the world tuned in to watch Usain Bolt's last competitive solo 100m race. It was a track filled with a mixture of athletes at the beginning and end of their athletics careers. The race finished with America's Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman taking a 1st and 2nd place finish with Usain Bolt taking the bronze. An unpopular result as Gatlin was greeted with a chorus of boos throughout the competition. The boo's were relating to Gatlin's previous drug bans, which many believe deserved a life-time ban. 

As many people looked on with disgust and bafflement at the result, I had a fascination with Gatlin's performance. How could such an unpopular athlete turn a stadiums negativity into such a positive performance? How was he turning hostility into fuel? 

Justin Gatlin silencing the British crowd at the World Championships last night. 

Although Gatlin was semi-expecting a unsympathetic reception at the World Championships, the magnitude of criticism could've had sufficient damage on his performance. It could've pushed Gatlin to succumb to high levels of stress, increased pressure and decreased confidence.

 A similar situation arose in the Rio Olympics in 2016 where French pole-vaulter Renaud Lavillenie publicly broke down in tears after losing his battle for gold with Brazilian home favorite Thiago Braz De Silva. Lavillenie was understandably upset at the jeering from the crowd, particularly during the medal ceremony and later spoke about how the crowds actions had a negative impact on his performance. This is an example of an athlete who wasn't necessarily psychologically prepared to deal with crowd hostility, where as Gatlin had time to prepare. 

Gatlin knew that in such a high intensity and high pressure environment, he had to be focused and composed. He knew he would have to overcome the crowd as well as his competition. But how did Gatlin block out the external distractions that wanted him to fail? 

Some psychologists believe that it comes down to a matter of choice of whether to let these external circumstances affect his performance or not, accompanied by a competitive mindset.

Renaud Lavillenie in tears receiving his silver medal after being subject to
booes and jeers throughout his pole volting event/

Other psychologists believe that the most common and effective method for preparing for hostile crowds is something called desensitisation. This is basically a way of decreasing a person's anxiety by gradually getting them used to the situation that they are going to entering. It allows the individual to be exposed to situations which they previously feared with a series of steps. This allows the athletes to get used to hostile environments such as the one that Justin Gatlin was exposed to last night. The more an athlete inoculates themselves against the effects of a volatile crowd, then the better prepared they can be. A good example of this could be athlete training to the noise of a booing crowd or getting training partners to jeer the athlete as they train. In fact, Tiger Woods notoriously got his father to drop clubs or cough as he was about to swing during training in order to block out any crowd noises he may receive. 

Performing in front of a audiences can bring out changes in a persons physiological and psychological states. It's plausible that Gatlin could've used the crowds negativity as motivation last night. It's also possible that a super-positive crowd can have a negative impact on a crowd-favourites performance which may or may have not been the case with Usain Bolt. Sometimes the pressure of performing at a event of such significance can cause an athlete panic and "choke". That effect of audience on the athletes last night is open to interpretation. 

I've really enjoyed writing this blog and I would love to know your thoughts!

Thanks for reading

ChippKG