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Building and sustaining highperformance environments: the ‘road’from London 2012 to Rio 2016Luciana De Martin-Silvaa, Mariana Calábria-Lopesb & JacquelineMartins Patatasc

a UWE Hartpury, Gloucester , UKb University of Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazilc Brazilian Paralympic Committee, Sports Department, BrazilPublished online: 11 Sep 2013.

To cite this article: Luciana De Martin-Silva, Mariana Calábria-Lopes & Jacqueline Martins Patatas(2013) Building and sustaining high performance environments: the ‘road’ from London 2012 toRio 2016, Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 14:5, 600-608, DOI:10.1080/14623943.2013.835723

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2013.835723

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Building and sustaining high performance environments: the‘road’ from London 2012 to Rio 2016

Luciana De Martin-Silvaa*, Mariana Calábria-Lopesb andJacqueline Martins Patatasc

aUWE Hartpury, Gloucester, UK; bUniversity of Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil; cBrazilianParalympic Committee, Sports Department, Brazil

(Received 9 July 2013; final version received 9 August 2013)

The aim of this paper is to explore the lessons learned from London 2012 aboutthe nature of the performance environment, how it is created and sustained toenable individuals, teams and squads to reach their optimal performance andachieve success. More specifically, in the light of ‘hope theory’ and through areflective conversation with Andrew Parsons, the President of the BrazilianParalympic Committee, we focus on the goals and pathways established, agencythoughts and challenges faced in London 2012. Complementing these reflections,we analyze the aspects guiding the Brazilian Paralympic team’s preparation andexpectations ‘for Rio 2016’. We hope that the experiences shared by AndrewParsons inspire you to consider the complex dynamics of high performanceenvironments whilst providing opportunities for the deconstruction of taken forgranted practices.

Keywords: high performance; hope; goals; pathways; agency; challenges

Identifying high performance environment factors in London 2012

The development and sustainment of high levels of performance can be highly influ-enced by various factors such as the establishment of performance goals and theability to overcome challenges (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993). A focus on identifyingand successfully dealing with these factors can contribute to the production of highlevels of performance over long periods of time (Moorhouse & Jones, 2004). In areflexive conversation with Andy Banks, Great Britain’s Olympic diving coach,Dixon, Lee, & Ghaye (2012, p. 339) argued that ‘the higher up the performancechain you get, the more complex the process becomes as a result of multifacetedcompetitive environments’. Within this complex process, the ability to identify andfoster key factors to produce and maintain high performance environments is notjust confined to coaches and sport coordinators, but also to the organizations, suchas the Paralympic Committees. Throughout this paper, we refer to Andy Banks’experiences in order to parallel the views of two stakeholders (Andy Banks andAndrew Parsons) who have contributed to creating and sustaining high performanceenvironments for London 2012 and, more specifically, for a home Olympics(London 2012 and Rio 2016, respectively).

*Corresponding author. Email: luciana.silva@hartpury.ac.uk

© 2013 Taylor & Francis

Reflective Practice, 2013Vol. 14, No. 5, 600–608, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2013.835723

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On his reflection on London 2012, Andrew Parsons, President of the BrazilianParalympic team (CPB), highlighted how attitudes and beliefs were crucial for thecreation and sustainment of personal, team and organizational performance. Accord-ing to Andrew, the Brazilian delegation was ‘one team’ instead of 18 teams within abig squad. This illustrates how the people involved in the Games (e.g. internalemployees, partners, coaches and athletes) were committed to the organizationalgoals: ‘We tried to create an environment where all the modalities felt they were partof their achievement – seventh place in the London Games, even those who werenot so close to directly contributing to achieving the medals’. (Figure 1).

As many would expect, ‘planning’ in high performance environments is one ofthe main prerequisites for attaining successful performances. Moreover, flexibilityand perseverance within this process is deemed essential if a ‘hopeful’ environmentis to be cultivated (Brown, 2010). In this regard, a key aspect cited by Andrew isthe need to be flexible due to the uncertainties frequently encountered in such envi-ronments. A good example was the uncertainty regarding the financial resourcesavailable for London 2012:

Our financial resources increased year by year, during the last cycle. In 2010 they weregreater than in 2009, in 2011 they were greater than in 2010 and in 2012 they weregreater than in 2011. It [the investment] wasn’t completely homogeneous. We won itthroughout the cycle [2009‒2012].

The financial investment, although many times seen as in the backstage by those notdirectly involved in capturing the investments, can make or break an athlete. In thisrespect, the Brazilian Committee invested in becoming a trustworthy partner whichAndrew believed to be a requirement in order to attract more investments from part-ners and from the Brazilian government. This resonates with Andy Banks’ com-ments: ‘if we’re successful as a sport then funding stays, the job stays, everybodywins’ (Dixon et al., 2012, p. 343).

Figure 1. Brazilian Paralympic team – London Paralympic Games (29/08/2012).Source: Buda Mendes /CPB. Copyright: CPB 2012.

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The leadership of the Brazilian Paralympic President was also demonstratedthrough his responsibility for the administrative process – all centralized by theParalympic Committee under the guidance of the Sports Associations.

We were partners to the Sports Associations, dialoguing with them since the start. Weestablished the rules and showed them that we were there constantly open to making acontribution. If they needed us to search for more resources, we would do, if weneeded to work harder, to stretch a bit further we would do.

This centralized approach was seen by Andrew as having both positive and negativeeffects. The positive relates to facilitating the planning and development stages,whereas the negative impact involves inhibiting what Andrew called the Associa-tions’ ‘organic growth’. This growth was described by Andrew as the growth thatoriginates within the Associations, a concept similar to empowering them to makeand control their own decisions.

Despite the importance of financial and administrative resources for the optimumfunctioning of high performance environments, it is very often the case that thestrongest form of incentive comes from within, and as such it is important that ath-letes are self-motivated to perform to high levels. An example of such a ‘mindset’was experienced by the Brazilian team in London and resulted in an initially unex-pected medal being achieved by the team: ‘We were not expecting a medal, perhapsa good result, but not a medal, especially a gold medal!’ Despite the unexpectedresult, Andrew argued that ‘it was not by chance and it wasn’t because Jovane waslucky. He trained a lot, trained well, he was in an excellent frame of mind, focused.He kind of told us in Manchester: I’m going for a medal’. This example resonateswith Snyder’s (2002) claim that the thoughts of athletes play an important role intheir performances (Figure 2). Moreover, it could be argued that Jovane’s motivation

Figure 2. Jovane Guissone after winning a gold medal for Brazil in the Wheelchair Fencing(category B) in the London 2012 Paralympic Games.Source: Luciana Vermell/CPB. Copyright: Luciana Vermell Fotografia www.lucianavermell.com

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and belief on his ability to win a medal may have been positively affected by work-ing in a hopeful environment. As suggested by Paloutzian, Emmons & Keortge(2007), hopeful working environments lead the employees to be hopeful and, conse-quently, more productive.

In the next sections we focus on key themes originated from our reflective con-versation (Ashraf & Rarieya, 2008) with Andrew Parsons. Amongst those, the“capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agencythinking to use those pathways” (definition for ‘hope’ provided by Snyder, 2002,p. 249) played a key role in creating and sustaining the Brazilian Paralympic team'ssuccess at London 2012. Based on the insights shared by Andrew, we provide a dis-cussion in the light of ‘hope theory’ (Snyder, 2002) as a way to better understandhow important aspects (goals, pathways, agency and barriers) may contribute toachieving and sustaining (or not) successful performances.

Goal achievements: route and emotions in London 2012

There are different pathways, in other words, routes that one can take to reach anindividual′s or organization’s desired goal. According to Snyder, Cheavens &Michael (2005), the higher an individual’s level of hope, the more confident andcommitted they are likely to be in finding routes that can lead to the achievement oftheir goals. Confidence and commitment were aspects shown throughout Andrew’sreflection ‘on’ London 2012 and ‘for’ Rio 2016. Andrew argued that the BrazilianParalympic team had a clear focus and engaged in activities in order to achieve theirgoals, of which the main one was finishing the London Paralympic Games inseventh place. In the preparation phase for London 2012, the CPB organized manyactivities such as training camps and sport exchanges aiming to offer the bestpreparation possible for the Paralympic team. A similar approach is being appliedtowards Rio 2016, with the Paralympic Committee showing confidence that theycan overcome some of the obstacles previously encountered (e.g. lack of a nationaltraining centre).

According to Andrew, the successful achievement of the seventh place in theLondon 2012 Games was a result of good planning and hard work. Not surprisingly,effective planning seems to be a key requirement in creating and sustaining success-ful performance environments. For example, this relates to Andy Banks’s claim that‘everything was planned’ in their experience in Beijing (2008) which served as aneye-opener regarding preparation for London 2012 (Dixon et al., 2012, p. 352).

Moreover, particular emotions experienced by the Brazilian Paralympic team asa result of their achievements in London were key factors influencing their percep-tions regarding goal pursuit (Snyder, 2002). The best example from such affirmationwas the victory by Alan Fonteles against Oscar Pistorius in the Athletics 200 m(Figure 3). Along the same lines, ‘hope theory’ postulates that if an individualmakes good progress towards their goals, hopeful cognition should receive a boost(Feldman, Rand & Kahle-Wrobleski, 2009). This ‘boost’ in one's sense of agency islikely to not only have affected the results in London but also has the potential toinfluence achievements in Rio 2016. This can be shown by the new target that wasset for the next Olympics, which is to finish in fifth place.

Andrew claimed that ‘Brazilians arrived at the Paralympic Games to let peopleknow that we were one of the party holders’. Feeling like they were the gameprotagonists in London, the Brazilian athletes achieved more gold medals than

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Germany and, consequently, the seventh place. Although they were satisfied withthe positive results, the Brazilian Paralympic team did not achieve all their goals.However, Andrew had enduring, self-referential thoughts about their capacities toproduce routes to goals, and to find the requisite motivations for those goal pursuits.

It was made clear by Andrew that prioritizing reputation over short-term incomewas a key aspect in his focused approach: ‘We never tried to kill a fly with a cannonball, that is, we never asked for more resources than what we could administer’.This was the strategy used by the Brazilian Paralympic Committee which involvedgaining trust from the partners before aiming for higher amounts of investments.Therefore, knowing those directly or indirectly involved in the high performanceenvironment was crucial for the attainment of satisfactory conditions for successfulperformances.

Establishing goals and being active in order to achieve them needs a very clearfocus. Indeed, awareness and focus were the two key words that, according toAndrew, underpinned their vision: ‘we have total awareness regarding where wewant to be, how we want to get there – the journey to get there – and regardingwhat we need to fight against in order to achieve our aims’. The interesting use ofthe expression ‘fight against’ shows Andrew’s motivations sustained by the applica-tion of effective pathways agency thoughts. These characteristics presented byAndrew relate to what Snyder (2002) described as a full high hope person, whichrefers to someone who is confident and ‘will have iterative pathway and agenticthought that is fluid and fast throughout the goal pursuit’ (Snyder, 2002, p. 252).

Barriers: overcoming challenges from London 2012

Apparent in Andrew’s interview was the notion of barriers as challenges to over-come. Andrew discussed in depth his analysis of the factors that were likely to haveaffected their performance in London, such as unexpected injuries. However, his

Figure 3. Alan Fonteles beating Oscar Pistorius to win gold in the Athletics 200 m T44 inthe London 2012 Paralympics Games.Source: Fernando Maia/CPB. Copyright:MPIX Producoes.

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reflection focused on not only ‘reflecting on action’ but more importantly it wasfilled with inspiring thoughts that included focusing on specific aspects that couldallow the team to move forward. This echoes the idea that stressors, defined as ‘anyimpediment of sufficient magnitude to jeopardize hopeful thought’ (Snyder, 2002,p. 254) are shadowed in the light of effective pathway agency thoughts, whichcharacterizes a high-hope person. In other words, high-hopers look for alternateroutes when faced with ‘blockages’ (Snyder et al., 2005).

However, this positive ‘mindset’ is not something people are simply born with.On the contrary, many would suggest that hope is learned (e.g. Snyder, 2002). Hopein this context is defined as ‘the perceived capability to derive pathways to desiredgoals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways’ (Snyder,2002, p. 249). Andrew showed evidence of being a high-hope person throughoutour reflective conversation. However, this does not mean that it was a straightfor-ward process. On the contrary, he made it clear as to how the ability to deal withuncertainties is a key requirement for those working in a high performance environ-ment. Andrew described this as being able to ‘change the cart’s wheel whilst it ismoving’. The key challenge for the Brazilian Paralympic team was the uncertaintyregarding the amount of resources they would have available, which was previouslyintroduced in the first section of this paper.

According to Andrew, there will always be aspects of the Paralympic Games thatwill be out of their control. The ability to deal with these unexpected challenges istherefore a key part of being involved in a high performance team. ‘The Games arenot in our hands, not in our control. So, we have to ‘dance to the beat’ … and thisis a bit hard for those who have not experienced the Games previously’. Lookingforward, Andrew thought they could do more regarding the preparation of coachesand sports coordinators, such as sending them to the hosting cities for specific visitsmore frequently. However, this is a challenge that he thinks can be overcome forRio 2016 as ‘we will be at home … it will be easier due to the cost, the language,and because we are the organizing committee’.

Reflecting on the results obtained in London, Andrew enthusiasticallymentioned his contentment with the results achieved in individual sports. However,Andrew also highlighted that there needs to be a more structured approach regard-ing their partnership with Sports Associations, with the aim to provide team sportswith the conditions to perform better. A contributing factor is the lack of a ‘home’for the Paralympic athletes, in other words, a national training centre. Andrewclaimed that having a centralized hub would allow the Paralympics Committee tooversee what athletes are doing, their day-to-day lives and the quality of theirtraining and injury treatment. In this context, however, rather than seeing the lackof a training centre as an excuse, it was rather an opportunity to find solutions thatwould assist the creation and sustainment of a high performance centralizedenvironment.

Not surprisingly, the strategy adopted by the Paralympic Committee’s staffmembers, of working to their limit, could result in ‘some parts failing, wearingpeople out … ’. Andrew recognized that with this approach he was prepared totake risks, which seemed unavoidable in the situation they were in. Andrew’sphilosophy is that they had to do the best with what they had, meaning the lack offull-time staff members was a challenge to overcome but not a barrier to stop themfrom fighting.

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Reflection for action – Rio 2016

Despite the uncertainties experienced in the high performance environment, the chal-lenge established for Rio 2016 is to finish fifth in the medals table. This representsan extension of their outcome in London 2012 where they finished in seventh place.Once again, Andrew showed signs of being a high-hope person, which according tohope theory, is ‘likely to select stretch goals that represent extensions of their previ-ous outcomes on similar tasks’ (Snyder, 2002, p. 253). According to Andrew thisshows how much they want it and are prepared to work for it. The objective set isvery optimistic and ‘aggressive’ (according to Andrew) in nature, which means thateach sport modality is being pushed to the limit in order to do their best. The invest-ment in the strategic planning for 2016 is approximately 300 million reais (£100million).

When comparing to the structure offered in London, Andrew said he thought thatthe experience in Brazil will be very different as the transport systems are not asdeveloped and the venues will not be concentrated in one place as they were inLondon. Attendance is therefore seen as a challenge, but this initial worry seemed todisappear when Andrew reminded himself that ‘… Brazilian people are enthusiasticabout sport, so, I can’t see attendance as something we will not succeed at’.

Andrew also argued for the need to use the goal established wisely, ‘it is impor-tant not to use this as a guillotine towards our heads’, meaning that the goal shouldnot be seen as a threat that makes them fear the future, but rather as a motivatingfactor that will push them forward. The support from partners and sponsors is alsoseen as essential. According to Andrew they were on their side saying ‘we will dothis! We will provide more support, we will give you the necessary conditions’. Thisresonates with the importance of developing positive attitudes, beliefs, engagementand team behaviours in a high performance environment.

Despite this hopeful and positive approach, the CPB knows that they are farfrom the top six countries and that many questions are still unanswered. Thisinvolves potential changes to disability classification and to the current financialinvestment levels. But more importantly, despite many uncertainties, the team isconfident that their hopes will be achieved by overcoming their challenges.

One of the main challenges that was faced in the preparation for London 2012(i.e. the lack of a centralized training centre) has been reflected upon, and as a resultthe Brazilian Paralympic Committee are building a Training Centre in São Paulowith the aim to facilitate their preparation for Rio 2016: ‘I think having a trainingcentre is very important and our rivals all have one. So, we are likely to launch ourcentre next year …’. It is clear in this context that in high performance environ-ments, perceived needs are not only established as a result of a desire to improve ateam’s performance (e.g. by better monitoring athletes in the training centre) but arealso very often related to benchmarking results (and what may have contributed tothem) against other organizations.

In this paper we showed how Andrew’s high-hope attributes served to influencenot only his behaviours but more importantly, to act as ‘a prism that sent shards ofmulticolored light in various directions’ (Snyder, 2002, p. 269). As a result, the highperformance team can share attitudes and beliefs that make them think of what ispossible! Living with uncertainties seems to be unavoidable but it certainly makesthe journey from London to Rio easier when there is someone like Andrew, a ‘high-hope pilot in that cockpit’ (Snyder, 2002, p. 268) (Figure 4).

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Notes on contributorLuciana De Martin-Silva is currently a programme manager and lecturer in Sports Coachingat the University of the West of England (UWE Hartpury). She is undertaking her PhD atCardiff Metropolitan University (UWIC), exploring learning experiences and identity devel-opment of sports coaching students. Luciana is a UEFA licenced football coach and has expe-rience coaching and playing at elite level. Luciana’s interests evolve around the theoreticaland practical facets of sports coaching, mainly focusing on coach education, social interactionin coaching and the development and sustainment of high performance within team sports.

Mariana Calábria Lopes is currently a lecturer in Physical Education at the University ofViçosa (Minas Gerais, Brazil). She completed her PhD in Sport Sciences at the University ofHeidelberg, in Germany in 2011. Mariana has a background in sports psychology, more spe-cifically investigating leadership styles of elite coaches. Other research and teaching interestsfocus on cognition and action in sport, skill acquisition and teaching-learning methods inteam sports. She has previously worked for the Brazilian Paralympic Committee, where shewas responsible for developing educational programmes and scientific projects.

Jacqueline Martins Patatas is currently the administrative coordinator of the BrazilianParalympic Academy within the Brazilian Paralympic Committee. She coordinates the imple-mentation and development of educational programmes and scientific projects regardingParalympic sports in Brazil. Jaqueline completed her Master’s degree in Adapted PhysicalEducation at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), in Campinas, Brazil. Herresearch interests focus on adapted physical education and Paralympic Sports.

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Figure 4. Alan Fonteles and Andrew Parsons celebrating a gold medal against OscarPistorious in the 200 m T44.Source: Mike Ronchi /CPB.

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