Supporting para-athletes to adapt to life after sport

With this year's UK Disability History Month (14 November – 20 December) seeking to highlight how the employment of disabled people can be made more equitable, this piece explores what can be done to help retiring para-athletes with new challenges they might face, which could include finding another career.

One guarantee in sport is that every career will eventually come to an end. Regardless of whether an athlete was expecting this transition or it was involuntarily imposed on them, they can experience a range of challenges in the aftermath of retirement, which can be physical (e.g. increased risk of osteoarthritis), emotional (e.g. loss of athletic identity), social (e.g. isolation), and/or economic (e.g. difficulties gaining employment). An athlete's ability to navigate these can influence their adaptation to life beyond sport. 

Athletes retire for many different reasons, including loss of motivation, decrease in performance, financial pressures, injury, and deselection. Para-athletes retire for many of the same reasons as able-bodied athletes, yet they also face additional factors that deserve recognition. These include changes in classification or elimination of their class from the Paralympic programme. 

Danielle (pictured above competing in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India), who experienced an involuntary transition from Paralympic archery due to reclassification, describes her experiences:

"I have Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Though pain is not classifiable, the poor balance and neurological and muscular symptoms I experience meant I comfortably classified as a para-athlete. A year into the four-year Paralympic cycle, training for Rio 2016, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) changed the classification rules. Under the new criteria, I was told I was no longer eligible to compete in para-sport. 

"I had no exit plan or clear path for a new career. My life had been built around competing and winning and I struggled to find an identity outside of being an 'elite athlete'. It was also difficult to be a disabled person who was deemed 'not disabled enough', especially when I found many day-to-day activities hard. 

"My greatest regret is not preparing myself for retirement while I was competing. It took me almost seven years after I retired before I considered myself to have successfully transitioned out of sport. In those early years, I received no support to help me understand how to position myself properly for employment opportunities and I did not know how and where to access these."  

Supporting para-athletes in transitioning out of sport

To support para-athletes with their transitions from sport, stakeholders should implement both crisis prevention interventions and crisis coping interventions: 

1. Advance retirement planning. Athletes who plan for retirement in advance can have more positive retirement experiences. Practitioners operating within high-performance sports (e.g. sport psychologists, performance lifestyle advisors) should initiate early conversations with athletes throughout their career about planning for life after sport, and provide comprehensive employment training programmes to prepare them for this transition. 

2. Promote a dual-career development environment. Athletes with a strong unidimensional athletic identity can find transitioning out of sport difficult,  yet, para-athletes face additional challenges when attempting to pursue dual-careers. For example, stereotypes and stigma around disability can lead to low expectations about their ability to be high achievers. The physical nature of disability also adds another layer of challenge when attempting to manage a career or education and their sport. 

   These factors may contribute to the statistic that disabled individuals are less likely to have a degree than their able-bodied counterparts. Some para-athletes have also faced resistance from their sports organisations when attempting to pursue dual-careers. Developing an environment that encourages a balance between sport and education or employment, and breaks down barriers associated with dual-careers for para-athletes (e.g. stereotypes around disability), can support athletes with developing a multifaceted identity, making the transition into retirement smoother. Establishing dual-career support teams within sports organisations can facilitate this.

3. Mentorship programmes. Para-athletes showcase their abilities through sport, but some fear that their disability makes accessing a career outside this arena more difficult. Disabled people make 60 per cent more job applications than non-disabled people highlighting this challenge. Connecting para-athletes with mentors who are experienced in disability-specific barriers and highlighting visible role models of retired para-athletes who are now in employment could alleviate some of these concerns and demonstrate available pathways to gain meaningful employment beyond sport.  
4. Raise awareness of classification systems in para sport. There is a general lack of understanding about para-sport classification systems among stakeholders and the general public. This can lead to athletes having a perception that others will think they have cheated or intentionally misrepresented their impairment, leading to them feeling isolated and shamed. Sport psychologists should raise awareness around classification systems (e.g. via workshops, infographics, and social media platforms) to enhance understanding of these systems and foster a supportive environment for athletes.
5. Transition programmes. Support should be provided during an athlete's career and beyond it. Sports organisations could collaborate with independent bodies experienced in para-athlete transitions to support them with navigating the transition from para sport, such as ACT Community. Providing access to crisis coping interventions, such as counselling and therapy, and ensuring social support mechanisms are in place for retired athletes is also vital, as for some athletes, the transition out of sport can be traumatic.

By implementing these strategies, stakeholders can help para-athletes navigate the complexities of retirement, ensuring they receive the support they need in preparation for and during this transition.

About the authors

• Dr Helen J. Heaviside-Brown is a chartered psychologist and a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Trinity University. Helen's principal area of work focuses on the formation and consequences of interpersonal expectancies within high-performance settings, which has included para-sport.
• Dr Danielle Brown MBE is a double Paralympic gold medallist and the first disabled person to represent England as an able-bodied athlete at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, winning a gold medal in the team event. She is now a keynote speaker, award-winning children's author and marketing manager.