The relationship between perfectionism, excellencism, and track and field performance

Previous studies found that perfectionism has a positive relationship with performance in sport, leading to suggestions that it may be trait beneficial for athletes (e.g., Stoeber, 2011). However, researchers have recently stressed the importance of separating pursing perfection from excellence as performance benefits associated with perfectionism is observed only when the effect of pursuing perfection and excellence are conflated. According to a recent theory, Excellencism (Gaudreau, 2019), it posits that pursuing perfection alone would not confer the performance enhancing effect when the pursuing excellence are controlled for. In support of this idea, it has recently been found that pursuit of perfection negatively predicted academic achievement and pursuit of excellence positively predicted (e.g., Gaudreau et al., 2022). However, to date, no study has tested whether excellencism predicts performance in sport and it remains unknown whether perfectionistic strivings, the main source of any apparent performance benefits, would still be related to better performance once pursuit of excellence is controlled for. Therefore, the present study will provide the first test of excellencism in context of sport performance and the first attempt to disentangle the relationships between pursuit of excellence, perfectionistic strivings, and sport performance.