The art of visualization: What is it, and how does it help athletes at the Winter Olympics?

BORMIO, Italy — Lindsey Vonn would be in another world. Standing on the slope before she races, ski goggles on like a virtual headset, she’d take her arms to the left, then curve her hands to the right; they’d dip and rise as her head tilted slightly back.

She is not alone in this imaginary world. Eileen Gu is up high, flying with a drone, seeing herself somersault in the air below. Then she is back in her body, listening for the “whoosh” of different tricks and feeling the cold wind on her face.

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While a race or run can take just seconds, athletes practice hundreds of repetitions in their mind, doing what U.S. skier Sam Morse calls the “zombie dance” as they visualize their performance — the potential pitfalls, the turns, the tricks, the glory.

“I’m a big believer that if you can see it in your head, you can do it in your body,” American halfpipe snowboarder Maddie Mastro said.

But what is visualization, and how is it helping athletes at the Winter Olympics? Can it also help in everyday life?

Visualization, in its broadest terms, is the ability to form an image in your head. It could be a memory, an object or a task. In sport, it is the psychological practice of performing movements.

Although the practice of visualization has become more common over the past 70 years, Dr. Alexander Cohen, senior sport psychologist for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, believes the technique has existed for as long as humans have been able to hold images i