What becomes of top-level athletes after their sporting careers end?

During the summer of 2024, all eyes will be on the top-level athletes (TLAs) competing in the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. The focus will be on their sporting achievements and the number of Olympic medals they win. But what becomes of all these people when their sporting careers come to an end?

This issue, which has received little attention in the French social sciences, is at the heart of a major research project being conducted by the Sports Science team at Université Gustave Eiffel. While many studies have analysed sporting careers (see here, on Moroccan runners in French athletics, and here, on French female tennis players), few have examined career paths after a sporting career.

The transitional period between the end of a sporting career and professional integration (which do not necessarily occur at different times) is the period which, from a sociological perspective, has definitely given rise to the largest body of scientific output.

The quality of this transition will be influenced by a number of factors, such as the cause of the end of a sporting career, individual adaptation (someone with a one-dimensional identity linked to a sport will face the threat of losing their identity), and the available resources (including the planning of retirement from sport).

A dearth of knowledge about this population

To qualify for top-level-athlete status, a sportsperson must be registered on the ministerial lists proposed by sports federations on the basis of the performances they have achieved. The top-level athletes registered on the list drawn up by the Ministry of Sport are divided into four categories: up-and-coming, senior, elite and end-of-career. Top-level athlete status provides a number of benefits, particularly in terms of supervision, monitoring, access to training and competitions, and so on. For example, these athletes’ studies can be adapted by their university courses or by adapting their timetables

How many people benefit from this status? This question remained unanswered for a long time, including during the parliamentary debates on the reform of top-level athletes' pensions, because some of the lists were not digitised and, above all, because the same person may be registered on these lists for “x” number of years, which complicates the calculations.

The first phase of the ANR PROPA project lifted the veil on this figure: 51,565 top-level athletes (TLAs) were registered between 1982 and 2016 (the date chosen after an Olympiad, enabling former TLAs to benefit from professional integration and career paths), in 61 sports federations, 31% of whom were women.

This research project sets out to analyse the characteristics of jobs held by former TLAs in order to shed light on different forms of inequality (according to gender, sporting discipline or media exposure) in relation to the resources available to these people (family, social, economic and sporting). To answer these questions, the project involves interviews and a quantitative questionnaire survey.

The binary perspective of the media

In the run-up to the Olympic Games, the media put the spotlight on TLAs from a variety of angles. The issues raised include insecurity, the reconciliation of sporting careers and career plans, and their professional integration in a somewhat binary and undifferentiated manner, as shown by Sébastien Fleuriel and Manuel Schotté.

This often leads to articles about successful career changes or, on the contrary, about professional failures or difficulties in finding a job.

The findings of the first qualitative phase of the ANR PROPA project involving 61 French former TLAs temper this binary vision by showing that professional integration is neither ideal nor chaotic, but rather lies somewhere in between. The findings of this first stage are presented here.

A supported but severely constrained training pathway

The choice of studies marks an important biographical crossroads, which has a significant influence on career paths and constitutes a pivotal moment. This choice depends on a number of individual, social and structural parameters and can be more or less voluntary or constrained; it remains quite singular, although trends may emerge, as we shall see below.

The organisation of top-level sport is subject to severe time constraints, with athletes having little time for studies, and it involves an intense personal commitment that often comes at the expense of studies and may be a source of considerable stress.

In addition to training for their sports, TLAs devote their time to other follow-up activities, such as physical recuperation. As a result, athletes have a limited amount of time to devote to their studies.

Support is fundamental to the implementation of a dual project, which involves combining training and studies with top-level sporting activities.

The dual project has become a key objective of sports policy and federal policies, which have been structured in relation to this objective, especially since the 2010s. Since the 2015 reform, the agreement linking TLAs and federations has had to include a number of important provisions designed to secure the status of athletes and their career paths.

The rare studies on the professional integration of former TLAs show that they are more highly qualified than the general population and that they often benefit from upward social mobility.

However, the opportunities to provide such support are limited, and depend on the agreements that sports training organisations have signed with study programme providers. Sports training programmes are largely represented in the opportunities offered to former TLAs.

As Sébastien Fleuriel and Manuel Schotté state, “sports resources are mainly recycled in the world that produced them”.

We observed this restriction of choice in the interviews we conducted:

“It was decided out of necessity and because I had no other option if I wanted to keep practising my sport professionally; I was obliged to choose studies [...] that allowed me to reconcile the two [...] I chose STAPS by default and at the time, I told myself that I had been advised to do it because it was the only course I could take and still have enough time to train, whereas I really wanted to be a history teacher or literature teacher.” (Bruno, 26, a former member of the French athletics team, now a club communications manager.)

Bruno's testimony highlights the links between choice (“I chose...”) and constraint (“I had been advised...”, “It was the only course I could take”).

Opportunities and social differences

Many of the former TLAs we interviewed work in sport-related occupations: the most commonly represented professions are those involved in face-to-face teaching. These sportsmen and women often work as trainers, physical education or sports teachers, sports coaches and so on.

Measures have been taken to facilitate access to certain competitive examinations, such as those for sports teaching careers, and athletes are often advised to obtain professional sports coaching qualifications. These courses enable sportspeople to combine their studies with intensive sport, even if they have struggled at school:

“Yes, I struggled academically; let's just say that I left school when I was 15 [...]. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to take a state diploma as a sports educator during my period as a top-level sportsman, which helped me find a job as a sports director at the end of my career.” (Denis, 52, cyclist, a six-time participant in the Tour de France, now working at Disneyland).

The world of sport also offers opportunities for former TLAs, who often take up a variety of posts as coaches, sports directors or managers in federations.

However, these integration pathways also depend on the athletes' personal resources. Their families' social and economic capital is an important factor, influencing both the opportunities to finance studies and the aspirations and support of young people.

Numerous studies have shown the difficulties faced by people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Yasmine, for example, was unable to continue her studies and entered precarious employment. In her case, the problem arose due to a lack of family resources combined with insufficient support from sporting institutions, despite her participation in the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.

“I arrived in France at the age of 10 in my family cocoon [...] and was unable to obtain a proper education. As I told you, my family are illiterate so they couldn't do anything for me. […] I put an end to my career in 2016, due to injury […]. So I found a job as a cleaner at a local swimming pool [...]. It's always tricky for people like me who have been involved in top-level sport, who have travelled, who have done all kinds of things, who have represented France for years and then find themselves at the bottom of the ladder, trying to earn a living.” (Yasmine, aged 49, European cross-country champion, runner-up in the world championships, now a cleaner at a swimming pool.)

These trends from the initial interviews will be refined by the quantitative survey, which will link situations and trajectories to the various parameters that influence them by cross-referencing contextual elements and personal dimensions: the sport practised, length of career, reasons for stopping, support, personal and social resources, gender, etc.

The ANR PROPA project is supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR), which funds project-based research in France. Its mission is to support and promote the development of fundamental and applied research in all disciplines, and to reinforce the dialogue between science and society. To find out more, visit the ANR WEBSITE.