7 performance-boosting habits top Olympic athletes have in common

Chloe Kim

Olympic athletes are the best in the world at what they do.

They dedicate their lives to reaching the top levels of their chosen sport, knowing that they'll have just a few moments to put their years of work to the test.

Right now, we're seeing athletes like Mikaela Shiffrin put their training to work at the Winter Olympics. Two years ago, we got see some of the world's greatest athletes — like Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps — put their skills on display at the summer games.

These athletes have cultivated habits that are essential for reaching peak performance in sports — or really, any aspect of life.

Most of us may not have the combination of genetic gifts, motivation, talent, and training needed to become Olympians. But we can still learn from these habits.

These are some of the most important performance-related habits that top Olympians have in common.

They're comfortable with being uncomfortable.

On the most basic level, the top performers in any sport are going to have to push themselves harder than anyone else if they're going to win out. And that's going to hurt.

As Alex Hutchinson writes in his new book "Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance," researcher Samuele Marcora's definition of effort is also one of the best ways to understand endurance. It's "the struggle to continue against a mounting desire to stop."

For athletes at the Olympics, that's the key. But that ability is even more important for the years of training that get people to the top levels.

That sheer toughness is particularly on display when you look at athletes like Lindsay Vonn, who has recovered from injuries and gotten back into competition shape. Vonn suffered through multiple ACL tears, broken bones, and more, all to go on and become one of the most decorated skiers of all time.

They eat enough to fuel what they need to do.

Forget the idea of limiting calories to try to develop an Olympic body. Top athletes know they can't build muscle and sustain the performance they have to if they don't eat enough.

Most athletes try to eat at least a healthy diet — despite stories about competitors like Usain Bolt subsisting purely on McDonald's during the games.

But they eat plenty.

Even as he improved the nutritional content of his meals from the 2008 Olympics to the 2012 games, Michael Phelps continued to at least pack on the calories, giving himself enough fuel to add to his medal count. Athletes like Mikaela Shiffrin consume 3,000 calories a day, making sure they get enough carbs in every meal to provide steady fuel.

Balance and moderation are key, according to Shiffrin. But so is pasta.

They sleep well and then take a nap.

Athletes take the opposite approach from the "sleep when you're dead" crowd.

They know that if they're actually going to perform at a top level, they need to get enough rest to build stronger muscles and have their brains convert new skills from short-term memory to long-term memory — so those skills can eventually become instincts.

"Rest isn't lazily slothing around; it's an active process in which physical and psychological growth occurs," Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness write in their recent book "Peak Performance."

US Ski Team star Mikaela Shiffrin, who is on track to become the most decorated skier in history, tries to get in an hourlong nap every day even though she gets an average of nine hours of sleep every night.

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