Understanding olympic champions and their achievement goal orientation, dominance and pursuit and motivational regulations: A case study

espanolAntecedentes: el objetivo fue comparar el perfil de meta y las motivaciones regulaciones de atletas durante su preparacion para los Juegos Olimpicos de Rio. Metodo: tres kayakistas del equipo olimpico espanol participaron. Uno (P1) y dos (P2) eran deportistas de alto nivel: diploma en campeonatos del mundo y de Europa, campeones nacionales. Tres (P3) era un deportista de clase mundial: dos medallas olimpicas, once medallas en campeonatos del mundo y de Europa, varios campeonatos nacionales. Antes y despues de tres entrenamientos y cuatro competiciones internacionales (campeonatos del mundo y de Europa) cumplimentaron un cuestionario para evaluar su orientacion de meta, dominancia y busqueda, asi como sus motivaciones regulacionales. Se uso un analisis de ecuaciones estimadas generalizadas para analizar los datos. Resultados: P3 tuvo una orientacion de aproximacion-rendimiento mas baja, dominancia de aproximacion-maestria mas fuerte, busqueda mas baja de metas de aproximacion-rendimiento y evitacion-rendimiento y motivacion controlada mas baja. Conclusiones: nuestro deportista de nivel mundial tiene un fuerte perfi l de meta de logro de dominancia de aproximacion-maestria y un perfi l bajo de orientacion al rendimiento (aproximacion y evitacion) y de motivacion controlada. Este perfil deberia ser confirmado en deportistas similares para ayudar a entrenadores y jovenes deportivas a tomar decisiones apropiadas EnglishBackground: The goal was to compare the achievement goal profi le and the motivational regulations of one world-class and two high-level athletes during their preparation for the Rio Olympic Games. Method: Three kayakers from the Spanish Olympic team participated. One (P1) and two (P2) were high-level athletes: fi nalists at the World and European championships, and several national championships. Participant three (P3) was a world-class athlete: 2 Olympic medals, 7 World championship medals, 4 European championship medals, and several national championships. Before and after three training sessions and 4 international competitions (including World and European championships) all participants completed a questionnaire to assess their achievement goal orientation, dominance and pursuit, as well as their motivational regulation. Generalized estimated equations (GEE) analysis was used to assess signifi cant differences between subjects. Results: P3 had lower performance-approach goal orientation, stronger mastery-approach goal dominance, lower performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal pursuit, higher mastery-avoidance goal pursuit and lower controlled motivation than the other two participants. Conclusion: Our world-class athlete has a strong mastery-approach achievement goal dominant profi le, and a low performance-oriented profi le (both approach and avoidance) and controlled motivation. This profi le should be confi rmed in similar athletes to help coaches and their young athletes make appropriate decisions.