Olympic success - it's in the expectation of a nation

One of my favourite sporting events is currently dominating my time schedule and the television, my home office temporarily moved to the living room to keep up-to-date with the Olympics and the various successes of athletes of all nations.
Having grown up in Belgium, a small nation with 11 million people and now living in a country with even less inhabitants Ireland (4.5 million), I have been watching the various responses to Olympians with increasing frustration.
Sports has always been part of my live and with my dad as a sports journalist, this often dominated family life. I played basketball, I now run marathons and sail competitively and if I ever was giving half a chance (and a bucket load of talent), I would cherish the opportunity of representing my country at an Olympic event. For most of the athletes it is their dream come true to perform on such an international scale and to be part of the top of their specific sport, with years of preparation and training leading up to this, which in my view is absolutely admirable and fantastic.
With a selection for an Olympic team, immediately comes a level of media attention and your performances are nokw scrutinised by knowledgeable people in your field, but also by a whole load of sideline critics and this is where some of my frustration stems from. I think nations are often the culprit of setting their athletes up for mediocre results or writing them off before they have even reached the starting line. I believe Olympic selection should come hand in hand with positive mental attitude coaching especially when you come from a nation where success is not the first expectation, so that athletes can manage their own mental game despite the negative support from their home country.
I was watching some of the Olympic coverage on RTE, the Irish national broadcaster and to my astonishment achievements were talked down and if an athlete did reach the next round it was nearly a big surprise as opposed to an expectation. Criticism was actively invited and guess what after half an hour of this carry on, I had to change channels and I have tried every day to give them a second chance, but unfortunately negativity prevails. I spoke to a friend of mine about my frustration and his comments were along the lines of 'we would rather have a surprise medal, than the set expectations so high that they can't be reached and then we don't have to slate the athlete after for not hitting the high scores.' Obviously I am not on the same frequency of what seems to be coming from national media and including some of my Irish friends. I don't get it! These athletes are training to be the best and the country media makes us believe that it's a surprise and they are lucky to get through??? Surely reaching the Olympic standard gives you a chance to compete for a medal, I think mentally the carry on from joe public and the media can be something to look at when your nation doesn't perform at the Games.
I changed to BBC to watch the games and thankfully and very refreshingly the reporters are all in favour of the athletes and setting very clear success expectations. Yes, there is analysis but the tone is positive, supportive, empathic in defeat, unlike slating and negative which I perceived on Irish tv.
More and more we agree that sports is played as much in the mind as it is played out on physical ability and tactics, so why not encourage our athletes and expect success as opposed to selling them short.
Obviously larger countries have bigger budgets and will spend more on their athletes than a small country can ever afford, yet each nation can develop a specialist area and focus on this as a development programme for a nation. How come Jamaica is cleaning up in sprint medals, they are small and yet they are doing it!
Ireland as an island nation is ideally positioned to be excellent at all things watersport: sailing, surfing, canoe etc, because of the virtue of being surrounded by ocean and wind. There is a tradition in boxing and athletics and yet again we are only expecting mediocre results whilst the athletes are potentially capable of way more and if they do set a world record it isn't celebrated or noted in the same fashion as their counterparts in the UK or USA. Why? Are we afraid to be successful? Is there something wrong with going after a life-time goal and actually hitting it?
I truly take my hat off to the likes of Padraig Harrington, who have proven themselves more than once that they can go out and do this once, twice and potentially more when they keep their mind on the game.
The mental game of sports is something that fascinates me and an area that I work with for successful entrepreneurs. I would love the opportunity to be part of the positive mental attitude coaching team for the Olympics, to make sure more talented athletes actually perform to the best of their ability. It will then only be a matter of time before one success story will follow another.
My question to everyone athlete, entrepreneur, business person, are you nurturing your success potential, are you setting yourself up for success or are you letting luck, surprise, mediocrity and chance rule your daily life?
What is it that you really want to achieve in this lifetime? What do you need to do to become the best you that you can be? or even how can you become the best in your field?