U.S. athletes, eyes on the prize ahead of this year’s Summer Games in Brazil, have their own ways of enduring arduous training sessions or getting in the zone before a competition.
Music is a source of inspiration and motivation for athletes from swimmers to gymnasts, fencers to sitting volleyball players. Country music, hip-hop, R&B or hard rock – tastes are as varied as the Olympic sports they practice.
“I just tell myself: work the plan, work the plan until the bitter, bitter end,” says hurdler Dawn Harper-Nelson of her training. “God in Me” by Mary Mary is a song that plays over and over in her head, she says.
Silence is golden for others as they aim for the peak of their sporting form.
“I really like 90s hip-hop but I actually don’t listen to music when I train or before a race,” says swimmer Natalie Coughlin. “I like the quiet in my own head.”
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Swimmer Missy Franklin poses for a portrait at the U.S. Olympic Committee Media Summit in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California March 7, 2016. Franklin said she likes to listen to country music, and to worship music on the way to practice. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson SEARCH "THE WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES.