Athletes and the tough road after retirement
Retirement is a difficult time for anyone; to go from an active work life to suddenly doing nothing is hard for a lot of people. It is more so for athletes because a lot of them retire at a very young age compared to the average
working person. Most professional athletes will retire after the age of thirty while most workers will end their careers after the age of sixty. During that thirty year gap athletes have to find something to do. A lot of them find careers in the sport they
left behind but a large number of them suffer from moderate to severe depression and need counselling. Work should be done to help athletes adjust to their lives once they leave the sport they play.
The average professional athlete has a great career, they play the sport they love for a living, make a lot of money and achieve worldwide fame and celebrity status; a lot of that ends once an athlete retires. Most athletes retire
in their thirties because research has shown that after the age of thirty an athlete’s abilities and physical strength significantly decreases from that point on. A lot of athletes struggle to retire from playing and many of them continue to try and hold onto
their dominance over the sport for as long as they can.
The average athlete suffers from similar symptoms after they retire as many ordinary working people do once their careers come to an end. Studies have been conducted into the mental health of athletes once they end their careers
and the findings have shown that a large number of them suffer from moderate to severe depression. A lot of athletes find it very difficult to adjust to life after sports for a number of reasons. For some it is financial, a lot of them make poor financial
decisions while playing and once the paycheques stop coming by they still have payments to make. For a lot of athletes, they spend their entire playing career in the spotlight under constant media attention, and once they retire they find it hard to live life
as a normal person. For some sports stars their whole lives revolve around the sport and they do not have anything else that interests them as much as the sport that consumed their lives for so many years.
Over the years a lot of athletes have taken on a number of projects and businesses after their retirement. Many former sports stars get into commentating; it is a very popular profession to do after retiring. Sports broadcasting
companies rely on the expertise and knowledge that former athletes have to commentate on programmes. Another very popular profession is coaching. Again, the knowledge and experience in a sport can lead to a very valuable coaching job after retirement.
Some former athletes have set up their own businesses and are doing very well with them. An example is George Forman, who set up the George Foreman Grill company. The former boxer has been doing very well with his grills and the
company is reaching new heights. Another athlete who has done phenomenally well in business is the former footballer Tony O’Reilly who went from playing football to setting up his own media company and then becoming boss of food giant Heinz, thus becoming
Ireland’s first billionaire businessman. Not all athletes are that talented and lucky but as these two examples show, businesses can be set up by former players.
Some athletes find God after retirement and become very religious in their lives. It is a good way for them to deal with the problems that affect people after retirement. A spiritual path for some is the way to avoid a depressive
state.
In the years to come, more assistance should be provided to athletes during their careers to help them cope with life once they retire. Medical help should also be given to former athletes to help them deal with post-sport depression.
It seems to be that the media, governments and sports governing bodies tend to focus on current sports stars but more emphasis should be given to former athletes as well. They should not be forgotten and should be assisted in dealing with life after sports.
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