Social cognitive theories of achievement motivation (for a review, see Roberts, 2001) suggest that an athlete's tendency to perceive success a particular way (i.e., goal orientation) is related to his or her tendency to be anxious (i.e., competitive trait anxiety). Although the notion that an athlete's goal orientation may relate to competitive anxiety is not a new proposition (cf. Roberts, 1986), empirical evidence is limited. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of task and ego goal orientations on indices of sport competition trait anxiety in adult athletes. An athlete with a task orientation bases subjective success on personal improvement, whereas an athlete with an ego orientation bases success on comparison of ones' ability with others. Given that ego-oriented athletes tend to create a criterion of success that is largely dependent on the performance of others, it was hypothesized that heightened anxiety would be associated with this goal orientation. The study sample (N = 329) consisted of male (n = 200) and female (n = 129) sport participants with an average age of 19. A self-report, cross-sectional design was employed. The proneness to task or ego orientation was assessed by the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda, 1989). Cognitive and somatic components of competitive trait anxiety were measured using the Sport Anxiety Scale (Smith et al., 1990). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relations between the predictors of task and ego orientation with the criterions of cognitive and somatic anxiety. The hypothesized model exhibited adequate fit to the data with no observed gender differences. Task orientation was weakly predictive of heightened somatic anxiety (Beta = .19, p < .05), whereas ego orientation was predictive of heightened cognitive anxiety (Beta = .18, p < .05). The percent of variability in the anxiety constructs accounted for by task and ego orientation, however, was less than five percent. The results suggest that competitive trait anxiety may occur when important goals—be they “to do one's best” (i.e., task orientation) or “to defeat others” (i.e., ego orientation)—are perceived as endangered. The subjective standards for success vary based on goal orientation, but in either instance the possibility of failure exists. The equivocalness of the present study, as well as that of previous research, indicates a need for further research and theory development in this area. Keyword(s): active participation, exercise/fitness/physical activity, health education college/univ