Jogging not running: A narrative approach to exploring ‘exercise as leisure’ after a life in elite football (2025)

“After the Dust Settles”: Foucauldian Narratives of Retired Athletes' “Re-orientation” to Exercise

Frontiers in Sports and Active Living

One aspect of sports retirement that has been overlooked until recently is the manner in which retired athletes relate to, and seek to redefine, the meaning of exercise in their post-sport lives. In this article, three Foucauldian scholars present and analyze a series of vignettes concerning their own sense-making and meaning-making about exercise following their long-term involvement in high-performance soccer (authors one and two) and distance running (author three). In doing so, this paper aims to underline the problematic legacy of high-performance sport for retiring athletes' relationship to movement and exercise, and to highlight how social theory, and Foucauldian theorization in particular, can serve to open new spaces and possibilities for thinking about sports retirement.

A life of a former athlete after their elite career – a pilot study

Studia sportiva, 2017

This paper reports on a pilot study of the Faculty of Sports Studies Masaryk University (FSpS) whose objective was to investigate psychosocial variables related to a managed, and/or unmanaged invo- lution at the end of the athlete’s sport career, and their transfer into an ordinary life after their elite sport’s engagement period. Consequently, this study aims to propose a theoretical frame providing typologies of approaches to the solutions dealing with their career’s ends, and the transition into their life after the career. The theory of transition, i.e., the theory of transitional stages in the development of an athlete’s motivational structure is a starting point for our research. An unmanaged or unmanageable involution brings about personal problems of a different character making up for the athlete’s loss of a social economic, psychosocial, and economic capital including loss of sport environment experience for the next generations. The observed pilot group consists of sixtee...

The Complexity of Sport-as-Leisure in Later Life (Book Chapter)

Positive Sociology of Leisure, 2020

In this chapter, we review research on sport participation in later life, and posit the concept of sport-as-leisure. A sport-as-leisure conceptualization posits that sport is a form of leisure that contributes to later life growth and meaning but not to the exclusion of other forms of leisure that also provide meaning and fulfillment. Topics discussed include the privileged nature of sport participation, the multifold meanings of sport across the lifespan-including gendered perspectives, the paradox of older adult sports, societal and policy implications of sport, and future directions in later life sports. An exploration of sport-as-leisure in later life provides fertile ground to examine the value of sport in the context of a positive sociology of leisure and aging.

The Career Continues: The Perception of Former Athletes Regarding Life After Competitions

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022

The objective of this study was to understand how the career transition process of high-performance athletes occurs. A career in sport is seen as the occupation in sports activities carried out in a practical and constant way, reaching high levels of performance. The retirement of athletes is understood as a time of change and transition. The research corpus was based on the transcription of interviews with former team sports athletes, explored using the content analysis technique. The posttransition moment is seen as new possibilities to continue working professionally and dedicating themselves to sport in different ways.

Athlete Retirement: A Qualitative Inquiry and Comparison

2002

Adaptation to Athletic Retirement and Perceptions About Aging: A Qualitative Study of Retired Olympic Athletes

Journal of Aging and Physical Activity

Self-perceptions about aging have implications for health and well-being; however, less is known about how these perceptions influence adaptation to major life transitions. The goal of this study was to examine how high-performance athletes’ perceptions about aging influenced their adaptation to athletic retirement. In-depth interviews conducted with 24 retired Olympic athletes using thematic analysis yielded three key themes: (a) perceptions about aging influenced participants’ postretirement exercise habits, (b) perceptions about aging motivated participants to engage in civic activities, and (c) participants who lacked formative perceptions about aging associated their athletic retirement with their own lost sense of purpose. These findings provide evidence that perceptions about aging influence athletes’ adaptation to retirement by directing their subsequent engagement in postretirement activities. Furthermore, this research highlights theoretical implications for the literature...

Mid-life nuances and negotiations: narrative maps and the social construction of mid-life in sport and physical activity

Sport, Education and Society, 2005

Career transitions and identity: a discursive psychological approach to exploring athlete identity in retirement and the transition back into elite sport

Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 2013

Sporting bodies, ageing, narrative mapping and young team athletes: an analysis of possible selves

Sport, Education and Society, 2007

Drawing on life history data generated from interviews with young athletes at an English university, this paper explores the narrative maps provided to them by older team members and the ways in which these influence perceptions of self-ageing. Three possible selves associated with mid-life emerged from the analysis for detailed focus. These are the preferred self 'Almost past it', the feared self 'Hanging on' and the reluctant self 'Stepping aside'. The implications of each of these selves for the ageing experience are considered. Finally, some suggestions are made as to how the narrative resources of young athletes might be expanded. Key words: Possible selves, ageing, narrative, young athletes

Restoring Harmony in the Lifeworld? Identity, Learning, and Leaving Preelite Sport

Sport Psychologist, 2020

Sport provides many youth participants with a central life project, and yet very few eventually fulfil their athletic dreams, which may lead them to disengage from sport entirely. Many studies have explored the processes of athletic retirement, but little is known about how youth athletes actually reconstruct their relationship with sport and embodiment postretirement. We explored these issues in the story of 'Pilvi', a Finnish alpine skier who disengaged from sport in her late adolescence. Employing an existential-phenomenological approach, we conducted six low-structured interviews with Pilvi, combined with visual methods, and identified key themes relating to the body, space, culture and time. Our findings highlight the difficulty of building a new relationship with sport and the often restrictive cultural horizons of sport and exercise culture that limit the 'possible selves'. We discuss the significant implications for applied practitioners helping youth athletes and effectively supporting them in leaving their sport.