Restoring the balance: Women's experiences of retiring from elite sport

Being an elite athlete requires single-minded determination, commitment, and focus on sport. These can have a detrimental effect on long-term career plans, with decisions and preparations for life after sport being put on hold for a time, or being given a lower priority. In order to assist athletes take a longer-term and more holistic view of their life goals, the Athlete Career and Education (ACE) program was developed through the Australian Institute of Sport. This paper presents a brief overview of a 5-year longitudinal study which was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the ACE program and looks specifically at the sport and retirement experiences of four female elite-level athletes: three netballers, and a gymnast. While their experiences may not be seen as representative of elite athletes in general, this paper provides an interesting insight into the retirement experiences of these four women.