Finding Your Balance: What Olympic Figure Skaters Can Teach Us About Behavioral Finance

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina provided the world with breathtaking athleticism, historic triumphs, and intense competition. But as a financial planner who deeply believes in the principles of behavioral finance, I found myself watching the figure skating events through a completely different lens. The ice rink, much like the global stock market, is a high stakes environment where human psychology is pushed to its absolute limits. Success in both arenas is rarely dictated solely by technical proficiency or fundamental health. Instead, it is deeply contingent upon cognitive resilience, emotional regulation, and the underlying motivational frameworks that guide our decision making.

The field of behavioral finance has long established that human beings are not purely rational actors who simply calculate the best mathematical outcome. We are emotional creatures prone to cognitive biases, mental shortcuts, and the physiological effects of stress. By examining the psychological phenomena that govern elite athletic performance, we can derive profound insights into our own investor behavior. This is particularly true when we look at the mechanisms behind catastrophic financial errors made by individuals who otherwise enjoy excellent financial stability.

The recent performances of elite American athletes such as Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, and Alysa Liu provide a vivid spectrum of behavioral responses to extreme pressure. Their experiences on the ice offer incredible lessons for anyone trying to navigate the complexities of wealth management, retirement planning, and long term investing.

The Heavy Burden of Expectations and "Mental" Mistakes

Entering the 2026 Winter Olympics, twenty-one year old American figure skater Ilia Malinin was widely considered an invincible force. Dubbed the "Quad God," he arrived at the Games as the reigning two time world champion and was unbeaten in international competition since late 2023. After securing a commanding lead following the short program, his victory was viewed by commentators as a procedural inevitability. He possessed a technical ceiling that had fundamentally recalibrated the sport.

However, the reality of high stakes environments often defies mathematical probability. During his four minute free skate, the fundamental metrics of his past success disintegrated. Malinin struggled with his jumps, fell twice, and ultimately finished in eighth place.

The underlying cause of this performance deficit was not a sudden loss of physical capability. Following the event, reporter Andrea Joyce asked Malinin if his struggles out on the ice were physical or mental. His response was remarkably candid: "It was definitely mental". Malinin revealed that he was overwhelmed by negative thoughts and felt he had no control over his performance, noting that traumatic moments from his life started flooding his head right before taking his starting pose. The emotional weight resulted in an inevitable crash, proving that even those who appear the strongest may be fighting invisible internal battles.

We saw a similar psychological trap affect United States figure skater Amber Glenn. Competing in the women’s short program, Glenn successfully executed a triple axel, which is a remarkably difficult jump achieved by only one other skater in that segment. Yet shortly after this elite technical achievement, during a routine flying sit spin, she uncharacteristically tapped her foot on the ice. This minor disruption unbalanced her core. Consequently, when entering her subsequent, much easier triple loop jump, she popped the jump and completed only two revolutions.

Glenn’s post routine reflections highlight the profound psychological weight of such errors. She described the mistake as "soul crushing" because she had flawlessly executed the hardest element, only to falter on her favorite jump that she considered the easiest component of the routine. Both athletes were in peak physical condition. Both had completed thousands of hours of rigorous training. Yet, when the pressure peaked, their highly automated routines were derailed by mental interference.

The Trap of "Relative Health" for High Income Earners

The Olympic experiences of Malinin and Glenn serve as an immaculate metaphor for a highly specific demographic in wealth management: the high income professional. Specialized physicians, corporate executives, and successful entrepreneurs possess incredible earning power. When evaluating their financial situation, these individuals exhibit excellent "relative health". By all conventional metrics, their fundamental financial foundation is incredibly robust. They have successfully executed the "triple axel" of personal finance by navigating rigorous educational pathways and generating substantial cash flow.

Yet, much like an elite skater missing a routine jump after landing a historic one, these individuals frequently make catastrophic errors on the simplest mechanical aspects of wealth accumulation. Common, yet devastating, mistakes among high earners include maintaining a sub optimal savings rate due to lifestyle creep, failing to automate their investments, and neglecting to build a cohesive tax planning strategy.

The cognitive dissonance arises from the disparity between their professional competence and their financial negligence. Because they have mastered the most difficult variable of earning potential, they subconsciously devalue the routine elements of financial hygiene. The failure to automate investments means they miss the magic of compounding interest and dollar cost averaging. The failure to integrate their advisory team means they miss opportunities for tax loss harvesting.

Just like the skaters, these financial errors are rarely due to a lack of resources or intelligence. They are mental mistakes. Behavioral finance teaches us about decision fatigue. High income earners who fail to automate their savings are forcing themselves to make active choices about investing every single month. Inevitably, decision fatigue sets in, and the brain prioritizes immediate gratification through consumption over the delayed rewards of investing. When a minor financial shock occurs, or when market volatility spikes, their lack of foundational structure causes their financial plan to become unbalanced. They panic sell or abandon their strategies, driven by the exact same mental overload that causes an Olympic athlete to stumble on the ice.

Alysa Liu and the Creation of Art on the Ice

In stark contrast to the pressure induced collapse of absolute favorites, the psychological posture of American skater Alysa Liu offers a masterclass in resilient performance optimization. Despite possessing the pedigree of a prodigy, Liu explicitly rejects the conventional paradigms of elite competition.

When questioned about Olympic pressure, Liu barely suppresses a laugh. She demonstrates a complete psychological detachment from extrinsic rewards, reasoning that medals do not translate to her self worth. She states that winning does not make her feel greater than she is, nor does it make her feel better about her programs.

Instead, Liu frames her existence on the ice not as an athlete seeking a score, but as an individual focused entirely on the creation of art. She views her skating routines as a living portfolio, using her choreography to share her life story and connect with the audience. Because her motivation is completely internal, she is authentically happy on the ice, skating without jealousy or competitive anxiety.

This mindset produces an authentic joy that shields her from the mental mistakes that plague other competitors. She views mistakes as fun challenges rather than crushing defeats. By defining the rink as her happy place and focusing entirely on self expression, Liu operates with a calm resilience that translates into devastatingly consistent, high level technical performance. Because she places no value on the external validation of the medal, the threat of losing the medal cannot trigger a fear response in her brain. She is immune to choking under pressure because she is playing an entirely different game.

Applying the "Art" to Your Wealth Management Strategy

Alysa Liu’s mindset is a perfect real world application of values based financial planning. In the financial sector, we see a massive disparity between outcome focused anxiety and process focused resilience. If your primary financial goal is purely numeric, like hitting an arbitrary net worth metric or beating a specific stock market index, you are highly susceptible to mental mistakes. When market volatility occurs, the number is explicitly threatened, and panic inevitably sets in. You will feel the exact same overwhelming pressure that causes an athlete to freeze.

To immunize yourself against the behavioral traps of panic and mechanical fragility, you must adopt the mindset of an intrinsically motivated artist. This means shifting your focus from the external "score" of the market to the internal "creation of art" within your own life.

The first step is a profound psychological inquiry. You need to drill down past superficial desires to uncover your core, unshakeable values. What is genuinely important about money to you? Is it achieving total peace of mind? Is it ensuring educational freedom for your children? Is it funding a charitable legacy that will outlast you? By creating a financial roadmap anchored to these deeply held values, your perspective fundamentally shifts. You transition from an outcome oriented mindset, where you stress over daily portfolio fluctuations, to a process oriented mindset.

When you evaluate your financial success based on whether your actions align with your family’s core values, the noise of the financial markets becomes completely irrelevant. Just as Liu evaluates her success based on whether she adequately expressed her artistry, the values based investor evaluates their success based on whether they maintained their savings rate and protected their family's future.

Furthermore, you must architect your financial life around unbreakable routines. The most potent defense against financial mistakes is automating the execution of your plan. High earners should not actively decide to transfer funds into investment accounts each month. By automating direct deposits into savings and establishing scheduled dollar cost averaging into diversified portfolios, you remove your own emotional volatility from the equation. The routine becomes the savior, operating seamlessly in the background without requiring cognitive effort.

You also need an aligned team of professionals. A resilient financial structure requires a wealth manager, a tax professional, and an estate planning attorney who all function collaboratively. This structural cohesion acts as a safety net, ensuring that minor technical errors do not cascade into catastrophic wealth destruction.

Conclusion: Skating Toward Financial Peace

The pursuit of excellence, whether on the Olympic ice or in the accumulation and preservation of generational wealth, is fundamentally a psychological endeavor. The struggle of heavily favored athletes illustrates the catastrophic toll of external pressure and the reality of choking when outcomes eclipse the process. The heartbreak caused by minor technical flaws demonstrates the fragility of operating without a margin for error, highlighting how high earning potential cannot compensate for sudden disruptions to foundational balance.

True financial health requires acknowledging our psychological vulnerabilities and constructing a robust, automated ecosystem that protects us from our own cognitive biases. By transitioning from an outcome obsessed mindset to a values based framework, we can navigate the inevitable volatility of the global markets with the same serene, unstoppable grace of an elite athlete operating at the pinnacle of their art. Let your wealth be the tool that allows you to create your masterpiece, and the financial success will naturally follow.

Works cited

1. Anatomy of an upset: how Ilia Malinin lost Olympic figure skating gold, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/feb/14/ilia-malinin-analyis-figure-skating-upset-scoring 2. U.S. Figure Skater Ilia Malinin Addresses Mental Health After Olympics Meltdown, https://athlonsports.com/olympics/u-s-figure-skater-ilia-malinin-addresses-mental-health-olympics-meltdown 3. Skater Amber Glenn Was 'Devastated' in Olympic Short Program ..., https://time.com/7379540/amber-glenn-olympics-figure-skating-short-program-mistake/ 4. Five Common Financial Mistakes High Earners Often Make - Riverside Wealth Advisors, https://riversidewa.com/5-common-mistakes-high-earners-make/ 5. Liu Rejects Conventional Wisdom While Embracing Artistry - U.S. ..., https://usfigureskating.org/news/2026/1/30/national-team-figure-skating-liu-rejects-conventional-wisdom-while-embracing-artistry.aspx 6. Question: What sets Alysa Liu apart from everyone else? : r/FigureSkating - Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/FigureSkating/comments/1q7k2t1/question_what_sets_alysa_liu_apart_from_everyone/ 7. 'This is a good life': Alysa Liu embracing joy and creativity in figure skating, https://figureskatersonline.com/news/2025/11/13/this-is-a-good-life-alysa-liu-embracing-joy-and-creativity-in-figure-skating/ 8. Skating rink now a happy place for Alysa Liu - NBC Olympics, https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/skating-rink-now-happy-place-alysa-liu 9. Recommended Books | Financial Management, Inc, https://www.fmiwealth.com/recommended-books/