High-performance athletes’ transition out of sport: developing corporate social responsibility

ABSTRACT

This study investigates high-performance athletes’ experiences of transitioning out of sport and the support provided to them and describes how the findings suggest Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives which may inform the development of sport policies addressing issues surrounding sport career transitions. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data exploring athletes’ lived experiences of adapting to life after sport. Purposive sampling was applied to 20 retired high-performance athletes (10 male; 10 female), from six different countries, representing 11 Olympic sports. The causes of career termination are found to be multifaceted, with the findings indicating different factors such as ‘feelings of reaching saturation point’, shifts in priorities, decreased self-awareness of performance, policy changes (e.g. reductions in funding, changes in coaching personnel), and significant singular events such as crucial losses to key rivals. Lost goals and identity and a lack of pre-retirement planning were considered as major challenges post-retirement. Refocusing and developing new priorities in life and the importance of seeking support were highlighted in discussions on coping with life post-transition. The findings demonstrate that high-performance athletes require support and care from sport governing bodies and social support providers in adapting to post-athletic life. The implications of these findings for CSR initiatives and their relevance to the policymaking process are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Career transitions in sport
• corporate social responsibility
• high-performance athletes
• organisational support
• social support

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all our participants who gave up their time to share their experiences and insights for the project. We very much appreciate their support and help throughout the process. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study is available on request from the corresponding author. The data is not publicly available due to the fact that it contains information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.