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For Lori Dithurbide, one of the highlights from the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris was the sheer excitement of first getting off the bus and entering the Olympic Village.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 when it really hits you 鈥� when you see the village and you think, 鈥極K, this is what we鈥檝e been preparing for.鈥�

She says it was especially rewarding to experience the sights and sounds of the Olympics through the eyes of athletes and coaches who hadn鈥檛 been there before.

Dr. Dithurbide, an Associate Professor in Kinesiology, is a certified mental performance consultant (CMPC) and has worked for years with Canada鈥檚 Olympic teams. CMPCs are sports and performance psychology professionals specifically trained to help athletes manage the mental aspects of elite sport.

In addition to the psychological aspects of sport and performance, her research interests include the interaction between humans and technology and the group dynamics of sport. She is a CMPC with the Association of Applied Sport Psychology and the Canadian Sport Psychology Association and holds the High-Performance Certification (Mental Performance) with Sport Scientist Canada.听 听

Dr. Dithurbide has been a mental performance consultant since she left grad school, a role she says is challenging but incredibly rewarding. In 2016 she started working with the Gymnastics Canada Women's Artistic program and attended the games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. She鈥檚 been working with that group of athletes and others since then, supporting them from afar through the Tokyo games due to the pandemic.

A fantastic show

鈥淓very Olympics is different,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen I went to Brazil, I was just starting with the team, didn't know a lot of people so it was kind of brand new. Tokyo had its challenges obviously because of the pandemic. So being there this year and watching the athletes prepare live and in person was exciting. Paris put on a fantastic show.鈥�

The work she did with the athletes included things like team dynamics and communication, getting athletes ready to compete together as a team which she says the Canadian Women鈥檚 Gymnastics team did beautifully.

鈥淲e were lucky in that we had a group of athletes who had been training together for a long time; some of whom been at the Olympics together previously.鈥�

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After the Paris Olympics, Dr. Dithurbide stayed in Europe on sabbatical and finished her European trip by supporting a Kinesiology graduate on her own personal journey of excellence.

With her support, Kelsey Hogan (MSC HAHP Kinesiology 23) trained for and completed the UTMB Mont-Blanc.听The 170-kilometre race with a total elevation gain higher than Mount Everest is regarded as one of the most challenging trail runs on the planet, winding its way through three countries.

鈥淜elsey did incredibly well, finishing as the 25^th female. So, I went to the Olympics, did some sabbatical work and was able to do some mental performance work with Kelsey in preparation for her race, so that was really cool.鈥�