“If I stop playing, I lose that status. I become… I don’t know, nobody? Just some tall guy with no real skills outside of volleyball?”
A volleyball professional in Poland said this in one of the interviews for our research report. The report found identity to be a significant barrier in its own right: if sport is who I am, who am I when it stops?
When everyone around you confirms one role
For athletes with a strong athletic identity, family, fans and the media all confirm the same thing: you are what you achieve in sport. The report found that this can make a move into business feel less like a new chapter and more like losing yourself. Athletes described it in different ways.
“In business, there are no referees. There are no clear rules like in sport. And honestly, that kind of freedom is terrifying to me.”
That was a survey respondent in Poland. A basketball player in Türkiye talked about the people at home:
“My family, they expect me to get a government job after sport. They think entrepreneurship is basically gambling. So there’s that pressure too.”
And a cross-country skier in Norway talked about the team:
“The ski team has been my family for years. The idea of business… it just feels lonely compared to that.”
In the survey, athletes in Poland had the strongest athletic identity of the four countries, 4.1 out of 5, and in the report’s data that went together with a stronger fear of failure.
Three phases
The report describes leaving sport in three phases. First comes separation: the label of athlete goes, and with it the recognition that came with it. Then comes an in-between phase, where the question “Who am I without my sport?” sits. Finally, a new identity takes shape, as an entrepreneur, a coach, a commentator or something else entirely. The middle phase is a phase, not the end of the story.
Build the second identity early
The report’s advice to athletes is to start exploring other careers during your peak years, not when retirement is close. Start small, and look for mentors among athletes who have already made the move.
Two of the athletes featured in our training kit show what that looks like. Anna Lewandowska finished two university diplomas, in sports management and in nutrition, while she was still competing in karate. Birgit Skarstein, a Paralympic champion and six-time world champion in rowing, took on public roles alongside her sporting career, from Oslo City Council to the International Paralympic Committee’s Athletes’ Council, and she names the skills she carries into that work herself: radical transformation, problem solving, resilience and strategic thinking. Both built a second identity while they were still competing.
Where to start
The assessment tool includes a short section on how much of who you are is tied to your sport. It is not a diagnosis, just a starting point. For the empowerment toolkit, which is being built now, the research report recommends starting in the same place: who you are beyond your sport, before any business skills.
If the question weighs on you, talk to someone you trust, or to a sport psychologist. The assessment tool’s guide for coaches suggests a sport psychologist when a very strong athletic identity comes with very low self-belief.
ENTREMIND is an Erasmus+ Sport partnership co-funded by the European Union (project 101229842).
