Elite athletes have many things in common, but one may be the most terrifying of all: The feat of performing live in front of tens of thousands of people sitting in the stands surrounding them – not to mention the thousands, even millions, more people watching from home. The effects of such a large crowd watching as athletes perform is a conversation that was evident during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina – but it isn’t just relevant for Olympians, nor is it an experience limited to athletes.
Here’s how Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and Olympians like Ilia Malinin all approach a terrifying experience which may actually serve to benefit them.
Ilia Malinin Has Advocated For The Challenges of Performing in Front of a Full Stadium
GettyHow did Olympic figure skater Ilia Malinin get his “Quad God” nickname? Let’s get into the story behind the skater.
Anyone who performs live knows the feelings of stage fright and anxiety which come with putting on the best show possible while fearing any sort of mishap or mistake occurring. Team USA figure skater Ilia Malinin spoke openly about how it isn’t easy to perform live at the Olympics after he failed to medal in the men’s individual figure skating event. He was exceptionally outspoken about the pressure not only of the fans in the arena, but of the weight added onto his shoulders by the media and the attention of the world turned exclusively on him prior to his performance on the global stage.
Ilia Malinin remarked after his performance that he should have been sent to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing merely for the experience of performing in front of such a large crowd. Why would the experience have been so valuable? Nathan Chen, 2018 Winter Olympian in figure skating, elaborated in his commentary for Yahoo! Sports following Malinin’s performance, saying, “One of the hardest parts about performing for a huge sold out crowd is that you really can viscerally feel the reaction from the crowd. I remember when I went for my first jump and fell, the whole crowd goes ‘Ooooh!’ and that just hurts you to your gut, and you get up and you mentally have to refresh and you have to figure out what went wrong and how can I regroup for the next element.”
“But also, this whole – the energy, changes in the arena and you can feel there’s tension now. Everyone’s kind of lifted into their seats, and you feel that as a skater and you’re trying to calm yourself back down – resettle – but every mistake that you do compounds and compounds and compounds. Man, I can’t express how challenging that situation was,” continued Chen.
Travis Kelce Speaks Out About Performing in Front of Thousands of Fans
GettyTight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs.
On his podcast which he co-hosts with his brother Jason Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce spoke out about his experience performing in front of tens of thousands of fans each time he steps foot on the game day field. However, unlike Ilia Malinin, he described the experience differently – perhaps because he’s had numerous moments each season to perform in front of thousands of people.
Recalling what he believes he’ll miss the most once he eventually retires from the NFL, the tight end reflected on the experience of performing in front of a stadium of people in a way that shows his experience with thousands of eyes on him. On the New Heights podcast, Travis Kelce described his experience, saying, “The feeling of having to rise to the occasion, be there for, you know, 70,000 [fans], that are all counting on you out there, outside of just the guys that you go to war with, you guys go to battle with, man.”
He continued, saying, “Those moments of rising to the occasion in the heat of the battle, you know, in the playoffs and all the big games out there, man that’s a feeling that I know I’ll never get again. And those are the things that you cherish the most. And especially, you know, if you’re fortunate enough to be in the playoffs and make runs at it, man, the satisfaction that you get and the successful feeling you get of all the hard work that you put in is finally paying off, and I think that’ll be on eo fhte things I miss the most, man, for sure.”
Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift May Have The Correct Approach When Performing Live
GettyTaylor Swift remains the Kansas City Chiefs’ most famous fan.
A recent study from Johns Hopkins University has found that performing live in front of an audience can actually better one’s performance rather than leading to increased mistakes. Findings of the study say that, “When people know they are being observed, parts of the brain associated with social awareness and reward invigorate a part of the brain that controls motor skills, improving their performance at skilled tasks.”
While Travis Kelce says that he takes to the field and performs to 70,000 people, so does his fiancee Taylor Swift. During The Eras Tour, Swift regularly performed to audiences averaging 68,000 to 72,000 attendees. As many fans noted, her performance on stage was always professional and sophisticated – thus, the Johns Hopkins study aligns with the findings that those who perform live for large audiences have better results. This is not to say that Ilia Malinin experienced significant wrongdoing of any kind other an unfortunate final routine during the men’s individual event in Milan. Instead, the findings of the study are encouraging as made apparent by Travis Kelce’s comments on New Heights and Taylor Swift’s practically flawless Eras reputation.
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