Retirement a balancing act for amateur athletes

Some amateur athletes are put on an elite pathway from a young age but when their career comes to an end, they struggle just as much as their professional counterparts. By Zoe¨ George.

Everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. It is no different in sport. But for those who dedicate their childhoods to a sport, amateur athletes suffer from the loss of identity just as badly as professional and elite level counterparts.

But there is a big difference – professional sports are far more likely to recognise their former athletes need help with transition, compared with the financially strapped lower profile amateur sports.

Gymnasts, for example, as young as 9 are being put on to elite pathways, dedicating at times upwards of 30 hours a week to training. Some athletes have to choose between sport and education. Being in an amateur sport does not make retiring less difficult, said former Commonwealth Games gymnast turned leading gymnastics academic Dr Georgia Cervin.

Being a ‘‘gymnast’’ defines your identity, not only as an athlete but as a person. When athletes leave there is a ‘‘great loss of identity’’, and mourning ‘‘your old self’’, she said.

Following Stuff’s investigation into the ‘‘insidious culture’’ of gymnastics, she has become an advocate for more than 100 club and elite athletes, coaches and judges, who share similar experiences following retirement.

There is also a loss of status – from a high performing athlete to a ‘‘nobody’’. Many worked through retirement alone, with ‘‘the repercussions of dealing with this lasting for years’’.

‘‘The grief – it is not just sadness, it is intense loss for something you can’t have again no matter how much you want to,’’ Cervin said. ‘‘[Gymnastics] is your everything. It is your lifestyle ... your whole life revolves around gymnastics. It is partly identity but it is a whole way of life you lead. It never really goes away but after some time you learn to deal with it.’’

Former All Blacks recently shared their journeys in retirement during the popular Match Fit television show, while netball has a new initiative to help athletes adapt smoothly to retirement.

It is the same in cricket. The NZ Cricket Players Association recognised the struggles many cricketers faced after retiring.

A decade ago, cricket established a personal development programme which focuses on offfield engagement, ensuring past and present athletes have balance in their lives through avenues such as education, career development, music, family or

Former international gymnast Dr Georgia Cervin, left, says ‘‘there needs to be full support for the retirement process’’, and Professor Holly Thorpe, below, of the University of Waikato, says ‘‘all the evidence shows us it is a really difficult process’’.

religion. Unlike gymnastics – for example – cricket has five fulltime personal development managers working with athletes.

‘‘They don’t care if [athletes] score runs, take wickets or their team wins, that is irrelevant.

‘‘Their job is to make sure they are well and they are developing … outside the sport,’’ Cricket Players Association chief executive Heath Mills said.

Athletes are put in the programme as soon as they become an association member. Some are as young as 17. They are then supported through their lives, including into retirement.

‘‘The key to our success ... is having independent people who are not directly involved with teams or sporting environments that the players are operating in, working with the players to ensure they are developing a career outside the sport whilst they are playing,’’ he said.

Cervin contrasted her experience with gymnasts, saying there had been a lack of support from coaches, clubs and Gymnastics NZ for those moving from active athlete to out of the sport.

Education – for athletes, administrators and coaches – and a clear pathway into other areas of the sport, including governance, coaching and judging, would be a good start, she said.

‘‘There absolutely needs to be full support for the retirement process, before athletes retire.

‘‘There needs to be more psychological support for teenage athletes. That is a crucial time for formulating identity,’’ she said.

‘‘We need tools to make sure identity is not solely gymnastics.

‘‘That your lifestyle is not solely gymnastics.

‘‘There is a huge gap that needs to be filled and opportunities to help the transition. Making use of the expertise athletes have; they have an excellent technical knowledge … it would be good if that knowledge could be nurtured.’’

Current and former athletes needed to help develop initiatives if they were actually going to work. ‘‘That is what our group is here for,’’ Cervin said.

Gymnastics NZ does not have any ‘‘fully funded programmes specific to helping athletes into retirement’’, chief executive Tony Compier said. ‘‘This is not a perspective that has been raised with me before. Now that it has, I will be sure to include it within our wider brief of athlete welfare considerations.’’

Professor Holly Thorpe, of University of Waikato, said ‘‘carded’’ athletes in the High Performance Sport NZ system did receive support when leaving sport, however lots of young athletes ‘‘fall through the gaps’’.

Foremost among those were the pre-elite athletes who trained like professionals but were amateur, said psychologist and sociologist Thorpe.

‘‘With retirement, it makes us think of a career … but if you are dropping out of a sport at 15, and have given your whole life to that from age 4 or 5, it is no wonder these young athletes are experiencing all those symptoms that we know very well in terms of the psychology of elite sport retirement.

‘‘All the evidence shows us it is a really difficult process.

‘‘Depending on how and when athletes retire, and the support structure around them, athletes can and do experience considerable loss of identity.’’

Retirement is also a lot harder for those who have experienced ‘‘trauma’’ during their sporting years. That trauma often comes from power imbalances, she said.

‘‘As soon as that relationship [with the sport] is over, that

sports organisation, that team, that coach, they are very rarely looking back, which can make athletes feel used and abused,’’ Thorpe said. A more ‘‘holistic’’ approach was needed to athlete welfare, which also included valuing ‘‘meaningful’’ interests outside of sport to help develop ‘‘multidimensional’’ people.

‘‘The culture of high performance sport is problematic. Sports organisations like Gymnastics NZ need to have a holistic view of an athlete. It is not just about the next medal or the next competition, it is about valuing them as a human being before, during and after sport,’’ she said.

‘‘Research shows athletes are happier and tend to perform better and be healthier when they have more holistic lives beyond that full tunnel vision ... only focused on their sport.’’

Mills, from the Cricket Players Association, said a mindset shift in the sport had helped cricketers. ‘‘If I was to compare where we have got to with some of the other sports, the key ingredient they miss completely is having an independent organisation which is solely focused on the wellbeing of the athlete, as opposed to the performance in the sport.

‘‘If you have that in your sport environment then the athletes’ wellbeing interests are going to be advocated for and protected.’’

Regardless of whether an athlete was professional or amateur, and regardless of age, retirement from sport would come, so it was important for sports bodies and athletes to be prepared for retirement, Mills said.