‘I Can. I Will. I Must:’ Mantras and Affirmations That Propel Olympic Athletes to Victory

These motivating words from Olympians—and the stories behind them—can help you get through any tough run.

For all the drama it contained—including a fall by defending Olympic champion Athing Mu—the final of the women’s 800 meters at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials was over in less than 2 minutes.

But for Allie Wilson, time stood still. “Everything, any mantra I’ve ever talked about, was rapid-fire flying through my brain,” she told Runner’s World. “‘Try to get top three.’ ‘Pass one more person.’ ‘1 percent.’ I was so calm, cool, and collected, like I’ve never felt before.”

Buoyed by these confidence-boosting claims, Wilson placed second in a personal best 1:58.32 to earn a spot on Team USA.

She credits this flow state to her work with Bianca Martin, a mindset coach currently studying for her master’s degree in sport and performance psychology. Since meeting three years ago, the two have worked on many psychological aspects of performance. One of the most important, Wilson says, has been replacing negative thoughts with neutral or positive ones.

She’s far from the only track and field Olympian to use this approach to performance psychology. Many use spoken or written affirmations—statements that challenge negative thoughts and reinforce positive emotions—as well as mantras, a few words that might be repeated during a workout or race.

Here are the powerful phrases that got Wilson, 1500-meter champion Nikki Hiltz, and champion heptathlete Anna Hall to their first Olympics in Paris this summer. While mantras and affirmations tend to work best when they’re personal, you might find inspiration from their examples for your own big goals.

Looking for inspiration?

Swipe through the deck to find a mantra that resonates with you today!

Looking for inspiration?

Swipe through the deck to find a mantra that resonates with you today!

Allie Wilson’s Mantras“Just another race.”

Yes, the stakes at the Trials—and, before that, at the 2024 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Albuquerque in February—were higher than at most meets. But Wilson realized the more she kept her mindset and routine consistent, the better she performed.

“I’m running two laps around the track—that’s what I do every weekend,” says Wilson, a Nike athlete. “Why am I going to go berserk over it and start doing things all differently than I would, or freaking out? It’s the same thing at the end of the day; I’ve done it a million times.”

“I can win.”

In the days before the indoor championships, Wilson found herself nervously telling Martin she knew what was going to happen. Just like at every other major competition, she’d likely give it her all but come up just short. Martin stopped her and ordered her to say the opposite instead: “I can win.”

Wilson hesitated, but Martin insisted. “I would sit there and I wouldn’t speak for 10 seconds. And eventually, I would say it,” Wilson says.

Thanks to all that practice, it didn’t take nearly as long for the thought to surface during the race itself. “When it got really hard, all of a sudden, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can win it,’” Wilson says—and she did, in 2:00.63.

“1 percent.”

With competition like Mu, who’s also the American record holder, in the race at the team trials, Wilson knew winning would take a fast time. And she wasn’t sure she could keep the pace—though her personal best was 1:58.09, in 2022, she’d only run one race faster than 2 minutes since that summer.

Martin had her calculate what time would result if she ran just 1 percent faster than her best time this season. Wilson figured out it was 1:59 with a few milliseconds. “That struck a chord with me. I was like, ‘Wow, 1 percent is so little, but it makes such a big difference,’” she says. After that, she told herself: “Even when you think you’re trying your hardest, try 1 percent harder.”

“Why not you?”

Thanks to all the work she’d done in the lead-up, Wilson says she had fewer negative thoughts during the Trials than she used to. But she still couldn’t help but express a few doubts. When she did, Martin reminded her that any three women in the final could go to the Olympics. “Why not you?” she asked Wilson.

“That was probably the one I was using on the starting line the most,” Wilson says. “I told myself, it could be any combination of three. I only have to beat six people and then I could be one of them.”

Allie Wilson’s Mantras

“Just another race.”

“I can win.”

Wilson hesitated, but Martin insisted. “I would sit there and I wouldn’t speak for 10 seconds. And eventually, I would say it,” Wilson says.

“1 percent.”

“Why not you?”

Anna Hall’s Mantras“You’re one of the best athletes in the world—act like it.”

Hall has a history of winning. She’s claimed two NCAA titles and two previous national championships in the heptathlon, which involves seven different running, throwing, and jumping events.

But she broke her foot during the 2021 Trials, taking her out of contention for the Tokyo Games. And then, just this past January, she had knee surgery. The tight timeline for her return made it challenging to stay confident, and the first few weeks she was back at practice post-surgery, she would feel frustrated and cry frequently.

One night, she went home and took a step back. She asked herself: “How would the person who is where I am in sport act throughout this injury? How would they show up every day motivated and ready to go?” Her coaches noticed her mindset was more positive and even her body language improved, says Hall.

“I can, I will, I must.”

Hall has kept a journal ever since 2022, when she was returning from her foot injury. She typically writes in it a few times a week. Sometimes, she jots down technical cues that help her remember how she wants to feel when she’s tossing a shot put (“slide, twist, lift, HIT”) or leaping over hurdles (“tall tight shoulders down”).

But she also includes affirmations like this one, taken from her jumps coach in Florida, Nic Peterson. Hall uses it during every meet to remind herself not only of her own determination, but also the team behind her. The day of her last event the Trials, the 800 meters, it’s written three times on the top of a page of her journal, followed by the statement: “Today I will become an Olympian.”

“Prove them wrong.”

For all her winning, Hall prefers an underdog mentality. “No matter how much I’m favored to win something, in my head, I’m like, ‘Somebody thinks I’m not supposed to win this,’” she says.

This time, she had a concrete example: Early in the season, as she was regaining her post-injury footing, a prominent track and field competition ranked Hall third in early predictions for the Trials. Hall understands why they’d do that, but she still used it as fuel to outperform their projections.

“We are so back.”

The day after the Trials, Hall immediately picked up her journal again to acknowledge all she’d accomplished. In addition to a gold medal and a trip to Paris, the victory had given her a powerful mindset shift.

No longer was she questioning whether she was ready to compete after surgery—she’d done so, successfully. She’ll keep that feeling and phrase in mind, and in her journal, at the Games, where she hopes to be in contention for the win.

Anna Hall’s Mantras

“You’re one of the best athletes in the world—act like it.”

Hall has a history of winning. She’s claimed two NCAA titles and two previous national championships in the heptathlon, which involves seven different running, throwing, and jumping events.

“I can, I will, I must.”

“Prove them wrong.”

“We are so back.”

Nikki Hiltz’s Mantras

“I am capable.”

Hiltz, the Lululemon-sponsored runner who won the women’s 1500 meters in a meet-record 3:55.33, began journaling in 2023 as part of a New Year’s resolution. One part of that has been writing down affirmations like this one, followed by specific workouts and races that offer data points to back them up.

For example, Hiltz won their semifinal with the fastest time of all the heats, 4:01.40. Although that was their personal best time less than a year ago, at the Trials, “it felt like 6/10,” they wrote—far from an all-out effort. And a month before, they ran 3:59 at the Prefontaine Classic, despite doing a hard double-threshold workout the same week.

“You’re going to perform how you practice.”

In addition to a written journal, Hiltz uses the Notes app to jot down motivating, calming, or confidence-boosting sentiments. Inspiration can come from anywhere—sometimes it’s a coach or sport psychologist, but in this case, it’s from Netflix’s docuseries America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

Hearing the coach say it to the cheerleaders before a performance—reminding them to “just go out there and do what you’ve already been doing”—caused Hiltz to think about how all their hard work in training would translate into success when it mattered.

“I have all the tools.”

Hiltz headed into the finals particularly confident of their ability not only to run fast, but to shift gears and kick hard. In their journal, they wrote that they thought they were now capable of accelerating off a 3:57 pace.

And that’s exactly what happened—after Elle St. Pierre led for the first three laps in 3:08.77, Hiltz swung wide and surged in the final 100 meters to take the win. “Every time I’ve written something like that in my journal, it kind of comes true,” Hiltz says. “That’s the power of putting it out to the world.”

“Respect everybody, fear nobody.”

Hiltz knew the field in the 1500 meters was deep, and that multiple athletes could run faster than 4 minutes. But they didn’t let that rattle them.

They’ll carry that approach over to the Games, too. Exactly a week after the Trials, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon broke her own world record in the event, running 3:49.04—and Australia’s Jess Hull stuck with her, finishing in a new national record of 3:50.83.

While it would be easy to find this intimidating—and in moments, Hiltz does—their mental work allows them to quickly see the flip side. “We’ve all beat Jess Hull at some point or another,” they say. “Jess doing that was badass and impressive, and she’s inspiring me to go out at a faster pace than I ever have before.”

That ability to reframe is exactly why Hiltz—along with Hall and Wilson—say they’ll keep using affirmations and mantras as they head into their big races in Paris.

“When you’re on the starting line of the Olympic final, no one’s doing anything more or less than anyone else. We all have incredible coaches, and we’ve done incredible training,” Hiltz says. “What’s going to separate us from each other is the belief and the mental stuff.”