Window magazine: 'Olympic Dreams'

Professor Ralph Vernacchia has made a career of encouraging athletes and helping them reach their peak physical performance, but forgive him if he becomes a complete couch potato for two weeks in February.

Because when the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., are on television, Vernacchia says, he’ll be an “Olympic zombie.” For a scholar of sport psychology, watching the Olympics is like field research and he’ll try to soak in as much as he can get, he says, watching the well-trained minds of the world’s best skiers, skaters, lugers and hockey players at work.

“I’ve had a love affair with sport my whole life,” he says.

As director of Western’s Center for Performance Excellence, a 40-year scholar of sport psychology and a former WWU track and field coach, Vernacchia has helped anyone from struggling college players to Olympians find the mental toughness to achieve their physical goals.

Read the rest of the story on the Web site for Window magazine.