At the Olympic Games or World Championship level, most elite athletes have a shared goal of becoming the best in their discipline. Athletes who are able to consistently rise to the occasion, set world records, or medal at a major games may be viewed as super-elite (great) athletes. Inspired by the work of Jim Collins (2001) who explored good to great in companies, this study sought to understand how an athlete who has been good over an extended period of time makes the transition to become great. The purpose of this study was to explore: (a) What, if any, are the mental factors and psychosocial-emotional changes associated with athletes who are able to make the shift from good to great? and (b) Are there mental factors and psychosocial-emotional changes that distinguish good-to-great athletes from comparison athletes? Twelve Olympic track and field athletes (6 = good-to-great athletes, and 6 = direct-comparison athletes) representing five different countries were interviewed. The "direct comparison" athletes are athletes who had competed in at least two Olympic Games, but failed to medal at a major championship and were unable to achieve a performance score of 1,200 points on the IAAF Scoring Table of Athletics. The "good-to-great" athletes had competed in at least two Olympic Games, demonstrated a pattern of good performances over a minimum of 5 years, punctuated by a transition point after which they medaled on three separate occasions at a World Championship or Olympic Games and had a performance score greater than 1,200 points on the IAAF Scoring Table of Athletics, over a 5 year period. The results revealed five dimensions (performance enhancement skills and characteristics, support and resources, motivational issues and orientation, skill mastery and quality of training, and accumulated training time) as influencing the initial shift from good to great in good-to-great athletes, of which three of these dimensions (accumulated training time, performance enhancement skills and characteristics, and motivation issues and orientation) were described as also contributing to sustaining this transition. Both groups of athletes reported implementing similar strategies; however, the direct comparison athletes were less successful in their use of strategies. Additionally, the results provide support for the mental toughness framework in good-to-great athletes.
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