North Carolina Champions Playlist

The sounds scattered through Greensboro Coliseum were fairly typical of a state wrestling tournament. You could hear coaches yelling from the corners, non-stop whistles from the officials on the mats, the public address announcer mentioning wrestlers by name as fans cheering wildly for their athletes.

What you didn’t hear, though, were the sounds pulsing into the ears of the finalists.

Athletes, no matter the sport, use music to help prepare for their event. It can hype them up or calm them down, but it does more than that. It also activates amygdala — the part of the brain that processes emotions.

“When the amygdala is active it increases our ability to consolidate memories,” said Corianne Rogalsky, in an interview with Arizona State University’s Global Sports Institute. Rogalsky is a professor of speech and hearing science at ASU. “When we hear that emotional song before the big game, you sort of trigger emotionally that part of your brain,” said Rogalsky, who noted that this is why athletes tend to stick to a routine before competition: same food, same exercise, same playlist.

We asked 2022’s North Carolina State Champions to tell us what they were listening to just before heading onto the mat. This is what we got:

Click Graphic for YouTube Playlist