Olympic Lessons for CFA Candidates: What can we learn?

March 19, 2020 became a new target date for CFA candidates. That day the study process stopped as the June exams were postponed. Study plans that had become finely tuned efficient machines were derailed, left on their sides with wheels running and nowhere to go.

Candidates are left with the question – what do I do now? Finding an answer to that question is pure guesswork. There is no precedent to harken back to, to glean lessons from what worked in past situations. There aren’t any past situations. Well the SARS outbreak in 2003 shut down test sites in Beijing and Shanghai. But it’s not a big enough sample to inform today’s candidates of strategies that will lead to success after this examus interruptus.

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Questions descend on candidates. What will the exams be like? What day will they be held on? Will exams even be held at all in 2020 or might I have to plan for this way in advance in 2021? How do I prepare now with more time and an uncertain target date? We’re all left hanging without even predictive modeling we’re getting from the WHO.

Learning from Athletes?

Perhaps there is a comparison to draw from to get some guidance on recharging CFA study schedules. CFA candidates train with the same intensity as Olympic athletes and the Olympics have been not only postponed but even cancelled several times in history. 

With those cancellations, elite athletes saw their years of sacrifice and single-minded actions toward the goal twirl down the drain. All experienced the disappointment at needing to find the emotional and physical resources to keep up the training and the conditioning for another year. And sometimes Olympians found themselves at the end of the line, too old or too busy to proceed to the same goal.

And now, exactly like the elite financial students pursuing the CFA designation, Olympians hit a brick wall in their race to the summer 2020 games in Tokyo. Their games are postponed to July 24, 2021. Athletes tuning their training and diet and dedication to hit their peak performance condition in June this year got slammed. Sound familiar? So how do they keep going?

Unlike CFA candidates, postponement is not a first for elite athletes. The 13,000 Olympic athletes prepping for 2020 games in Tokyo have some historical experience to draw on. Five times the IOC has had to outright cancel the games. The many stories of perseverance of their predecessors and role models sustain today’s athletes in the face of their current delays.

Take the 1916 Summer Olympics, which had been awarded to Berlin, Germany. The IOC of that time faced a tough decision.  The city was ready, having built a cutting-edge stadium that was christened in a lavish ceremony overseen by Emperor Wilhelm II and culminating with the release of 10,000 doves.

Despite the raging war, just one year before the games the head of the IOC was still confident that the Games would go on as planned. They even tried to move the games to the U.S. but that proved impossible. As the war showed no sign of ending, and hostility toward the invading forces by world powers grew, the choice had to be made. The Sixth Olympiad was never held.  

The 2,622 athletes from 29 countries who showed up eight years later for the games in Antwerp Belgium had had to retool their training programs and hold hopes open for a long time. One of those was Oscar Swahn from Sweden who kept the dream alive during the hiatus to win a silver medal in the shooting disciplines at age 72.

The 1940 and 1944 Winter and Summer Olympics were called off due to World War II which marked the last cancellation of games.

Athletes from single countries have endured the delays several times as their countries were restricted from competing.

Many athletes from banned countries still competed on their own dime and under a neutral, country-less flag. But not all. Not all had the financial or emotional support to mount a competition on their own.

The dates for the 2020 Olympic games and the CFA exams were in question from the time of the rampant original outbreak in the middle of China. Both the Tokyo Olympics and the CFA exams have close relationships to the affected region. China represents 30% of the total CFA candidates. Japan has more flights to and from China than any other country. Could walling off participation from just a part of the world save the dates? By mid-March the answer for both was “no”. The coronavirus pandemic would delay both for everyone; this was a global crisis.

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Candidates Deal with Delay

Some candidates reacted like they were captains of aircraft carriers; plans once in motion were hard to stop or turn around. Others panicked as plans for later 2020 depended on completing the CFA prep and exam by June 6. And yes, there were what are now seen as the lucky few who were behind in their plans who cheered the extra time. Everyone eventually shared the same concern. A training schedule is set up to be at peak condition on a certain date. Not the day before or the day after. Now all schedules have to be re-tuned.

I have both gained the CFA charter and competed in body building contest and found the prep for CFA both to be somewhat similar in terms of the focus and discipline. For three years running I sat indoors with my CFA program books for a disciplined 2 hours each day and 5 on the weekend while the weather warmed and flowers bloomed and people began their outdoor season-only exercise in Chicago; in those days the exams were always held on the first Saturday of June. For 16 weeks leading up to the body building competitions I followed a disciplined regimen of eating specific foods measured to the ounce at exact times of the day. I performed specific exercises in increasing numbers of reps and increasing lengths of cardio progressing toward that certain date of the contest. My entire life was organized around the eating and the training. Both prep programs progressed along a timeline to deliver peak performance by performance day. Fortunately for me, neither were delayed or I would have been completely upset and it would feel like all the hard work was wasted. I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself with the pressure off. I for sure immediately would have downed a one pint of rich Baccio Italiano gelato.

So what are the Olympians doing to respond to their own disruptions?  Those athletes have their predecessors to learn from, to draw examples from. They might reflect back on what Oscar Swahn did when they cancelled his dreams for the 1916 games. Swahn earned his first gold medal at age 60 competing in events like the running deer and single-shot. He came back and competed in 1908 and 1912. He trained and was ready for the games in 1916 but just before the games was told to stand down.

Shooter Swahn lived through the the delay of games that streteched his prep out a full eight years between games. But prepare he did and in the 1920 games he became the oldest medalist ever, taking the silver in the team double-shot running deer at age 72.

Of the 13,000 Olympians with training schedules now delayed until summer 2021, two reactions probably form the opposite extremes. Michael Phelps the swimmer from the USA fears potentially dire consequences. Phelps has been competing since the age of 15 and holds more gold medals than any other Olympian. Phelps has been public about his own mental health issues and the treatment he has sought to stay healthy. He warns athletes who are depressed to reach out for help; he worries that the postponed games could lead to athlete suicides.

Another Olympian reflected the widespread concern among her colleagues prior to the postponement. Her initial response was relief.

Lolo Jones won statewide honors as early as high school, broke records and brought home trophies in college, and is now 37 years old.  The hurdler and bobsledder who specializes in the 60-meter and 100-meter hurdles is right now in peak condition.  She’s at the decision point for many elite athletes of when to quit because of age.

With the games postponed another year, she’ll turn 38 and be one year closer to the downhill of athletic prowess.

Lolo’s final response? Humor. With the pressure off for a June competition, she hit her candy stash.

Most of her social media posts after the shock wore off are her trying to find the new workout schedule that keeps her in shape and doesn’t burn out before the games next year. (For some more humor see her full quarantine workout click here.)

CFA candidates have it a little worse than Olympians in that we still don’t have an exact exam date. “Sometime in December” is the only target we have now; we won’t have that firm date until May 8th. Like Lolo, the question most are still answering is how to get back on track for peak conditioning on exam day.

After a period of letting those emotions run, you’ll have to sketch out your new plan of attack. The goals are the same – pass the exam this year. But there’s so much more time and studying this year is burdened by distractions and even some resentment at the delays that can eat away at motivation.

What to Do Now

There is no one-size-fits-all replacement plan. For some, a couple of visits to a counselor might be quite useful. For others, a good long break might be most productive; keeping up with business and keeping family healthy are the most important activities at the moment.

Driven and disciplined people like CFA candidates and elite athletes have a hard time when target dates change. One strategy that could work for all:

• Do whatever you want with no deadline in mind until May 8th

• Maybe relax

• Take a class online on a hobby long ago put on the shelf, or maybe learn Python or R.

After May 8 you will have more time than the usual prep cycle. You will be able to start fresh, study in a new way, and be on top of your game by that yet-to-be announced date in December. You’ll start again, not as an extension of the old phase but a new cycle altogether.

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