What wealth managers can take away from Olympic athletes

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy, officially begins with the opening ceremony on Friday, February 6, 2026, and runs through February 22, 2026. During that span, the world will be watching the globe’s greatest athletes perform feats of strength and skill under the fiercest and most crushing pressure imaginable.

Members of the financial world - who also know a thing or two about operating under pressure - will surely be tuning in as well.

One of those Wall Streeters will be Cohen Taylor, a behavioral wealth specialist at Mission Wealth helping oversee $14.1 billion in AUM. Prior to joining the wealth management industry in 2019, she spent over 21 years as a figure skating coach, mentoring and training elite athletes. Prior to becoming a coach, she competed in the sport at the highest levels.

InvestmentNews sat down with Taylor to learn how her training for individual competition instilled work habits that still guide her today in the financial advisory business, such as managing emotions under pressure and resetting quickly after a bad outcome rather than overreacting in the moment.  

InvestmentNews: You spent years as a competitive figure skater, where performance depends on routine, repetition, and competing alone under pressure. How does that background influence the way you work with clients today?

Cohen Taylor: During my time as a competitive athlete, I learned that my toughest opponent wasn’t another competitor — it was the pull to abandon a sound process when pressure and doubt crept in. When a strategy gets tested, it’s easy to start believing your doubts and doubting your beliefs. Learning to stay committed to preparation and process under pressure shaped how I support clients today. Financial decisions can feel just as high-stakes as competition, especially during market volatility or major life transitions. I focus on helping clients stay grounded in their long-term plan and make decisions that reflect their long-term goals, rather than the emotions they feel in the moment.

InvestmentNews: In figure skating, there’s no opportunity to stop or start over once a program begins. What did competing in that environment teach you about managing emotions when the stakes are high?

Taylor: Competing in an environment where there’s no pause or reset taught me that you can’t control when emotions arise, but you can control how you respond to them. I learned to treat emotions as feedback rather than as a warning signal. When you interpret emotion as information instead of a threat, it becomes easier to regulate and use it constructively. That ability to work with emotion, rather than being driven by it, is what allows you to stay steady, make sound decisions, and perform well when the stakes are high.

InvestmentNews: Mistakes are inevitable in skating, but dwelling on them can derail an entire performance. How did that experience shape your ability to reset quickly, and how do you see that play out with clients during market volatility?

Taylor: In sports, the biggest risk isn’t making a mistake, it’s making a second mistake because you’re still focused on the first one!  When you lose discipline after a setback, errors can compound quickly. The same dynamic shows up in investing. During periods of market volatility, clients can feel an urgent need to ‘fix’ losses, and that emotional momentum can lead to decisions that create more harm than the original downturn. Interrupting that reactive cycle by slowing the moment down and reminding clients that a single market event doesn’t have to define their long-term outcome can help to restore perspective.

InvestmentNews: Training for solo competition requires trusting the process even when things feel uncomfortable. How do you help clients lean on structure and consistency instead of reacting in the moment during periods of uncertainty?

Taylor: We know that uncertainty tends to activate fear, loss aversion, and short-term thinking, which can pull people away from their long-term goals. That’s why having a plan in place before uncertainty shows up is so important. Helping clients build a clear decision framework in advance, where their priorities are defined, their financial strategy is aligned with their values, and expectations are set for how to respond when markets feel uncomfortable, helps to reduce emotional decision-making.

InvestmentNews: Looking back, which lesson from your skating career has been most relevant in helping clients avoid overreacting when markets don’t go as planned?

Taylor: The most relevant lesson from my skating career was learning to train for excellence and prepare for volatility. In competition, even great preparation doesn’t guarantee perfect outcomes, and performance naturally includes some variance. What matters most is the meaning that you make of the volatility or uncertainty, because that interpretation can either support or undermine your goals. Paying attention to the stories we tell ourselves when we face discomfort, staying grounded in a plan, and focusing on what is within our control are powerful ways to stay anchored to strategy, even when outcomes feel unpredictable.