THE ROLE OF THE ENTOURAGE ON ELITE ATHLETES’  RETIREMENT  TRANSITION
By
Tshepang Tshube

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
In partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy-Kinesiology
2014

ABSTRACT
THE  ROLE  OF  THE  ENTOURAGE  ON  ELITE  ATHLETES’  RETIREMENT  
TRANSITION
By
Tshepang Tshube
The  primary  objective  of  this  dissertation  was  to  investigate  elite  athletes’  
retirement transition experiences, including its psychological impacts, and postsport career adaptation of elite athletes in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and
Zimbabwe. The secondary objective was to investigate the role of the entourage
on  elite  athletes’  retirement  transition. A total of 17 retired athletes (12 males and
5 females) from various sports (athletics-6, swimming-2, Boxing-2, rowing-2,
field hockey-2, gymnastics-1, triathlon-1, biking-1) in Southern Africa and their
entourages (n = 35) participated in the current study. All athletes had competed at
the Olympics except one athlete who had competed at world championships and
the commonwealth games. The study observed three major themes (type of
retirement, dual-career, and challenges) consistent with the primary objectives as
crucial  in  elite  athletes’  retirement  transition  and  post-sport career and an
additional major theme (social and financial support) consistent with the
secondary objectives. The first major theme of type of retirement was derived
from interviews with athletes and entourages to explain reasons for retirement and
post sport career adaptation. Sub-themes observed under type of retirement were
voluntary and involuntary. The second major theme observed in the study was
dual-career. This  finding  reflected  the  athletes’  balance  between  school  and  sport  
as primary in preparing for a post-sport career transition and adaptation. Sub-

themes observed under the major theme dual-career were graduating from
university, full-time  job  during  one’s  career  in  sport  and part-time job during
one’s  career  in  sport. The last major theme observed in the primary objective was
challenges. It was clear from the respondents that athletes faced challenges
including lack of financial resources to maintaining an elite sport career and
support during retirement transition. Sub-themes observed under the major theme
of challenges were financial resources, lack of trained coaches, lack of facilities,
and lack trained medical personnel. The major theme consistent with secondary
objectives was observed across the three phases of data collection indicating
athletes receiving social and financial support from a variety of entourage
members in their elite careers in sport as well as during retirement transition.

Keywords: Retirement, Career transition, Entourage, Elite Athlete, Olympians, Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe

I dedicate  this  dissertation  to  my  daughter  Angela  “Unami”  Tshube.  It  is  her  
unconditional love that gave me the courage and perseverance to continue on this long
and winding road towards personal and professional improvement.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all those who gave me
the possibility to complete this report. The International Olympic Committee
Postgraduate Research Grant Programme deserves special thanks for funding this project.
My completion of this project could not have been accomplished without the support of
my advisor Dr. Deborah L. Feltz– thank you for great mentorship.
I would like to thank my dissertation committee members, Drs. Daniel Gould,
Reitumetse Mabokela, and Kristen Renn for their guidance on this dissertation
project.
Finally, to my caring, and supportive friend, Christel Lea Virginia Beverly. I would also
like to thank all participants that took part in the study.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES.………………………………………...……………..………….....viii
LIST OF FIGURES.……………………........……..…………………….……..………..ix
KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS..………………………………………………………........x
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION.………..……...……………….…………….……………..1
1.1 Nature of the Problem……………………………………….…………………….1
1.2 Statement of the Problem…..……….………………………………..……………6
1.3 Objectives of the Study…………………………….……………………………...8
1.4 Significance of the Study.…………………………………………………………9
1.5 Definitions……………………...………………………………………………...10
1.5.1 Athletic Career…………………….…………………………………………………..10
1.5.2 Athletes’ Entourage …………...……………………………………………………10
1.5.3 Transition……………………………………………………………………………….10
Chapter 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE….…………….………………………………11
2.1 Countries Background………..……………………………………………...…..12
2.2 Literature Review  on  Southern  Africa……………………….……….………….15
2.3 Gerontology and Thanatology Models of  Retirement  Transition……..…..……..18
2.4 Social Gerontology Models  of  Retirement  Transition……………...…...…….....19
2.4.1 Activity Theory……….....……………………………………….......19
2.4.2 Continuity Theory………...………………………………………….20
2.4.3 Subculture Theory………………...………………………………….20
2.4.4 Disengagement Theory……...……………………………………….21
2.4.5 Social Breakdown Theory…………...……………………………….21
2.4.6 Exchange  Theory……………….…...…………………………….....22
2.5 Thanatological Models of  Retirement  Transition…….……...…………………..23
2.5.1 Social Death……………………………………………….……...….24
2.5.2 Stages of Death……………………………………………………....24
2.6 Summary of Gerontology and Thanatology Models...……………..………..…..25
2.7 Athletic Career Transition Models………………………………..……………...26
2.7.1 Athletic Career Transition Model………...………………………….29
2.7.2 Lifespan Model of Athlete Development…...……………………….32
2.7.3 Conceptual Model of Adaptation to Career  Transition…...………….36
2.8 Factors Affecting Retirement Transition..…………..…………………………...39
2.8.1 Athletic  Identity………..….…………………………………………41
2.8.2 Coping  Processes…………………………………………..………...42
2.8.3 Social  Support……………………..………………………………....43
2.9 Summary: Factors Affecting Retirement Transition …………...……...………..44
Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY………………...………….………………….…….…….45
3.1 Research Design...………………………………..…………………...….45
vi

3.2 Participants……………………………………..………………….……..46
3.3 Procedure………..…………..……………………………………..…….46
3.3.1 Phase  I……..………………...……………….………………...47
3.3.2 Phase  II……..…….………………………………….……..…..47
3.3.3 Phase  III…….….…….…….…………………………..………47
3.4 Instruments...…………………………………………………………....48
3.5 Pilot  Study…………………………………………………………...….49
3.6 Data Analysis.……………..……………………………………....……49
3.7 Trustworthiness  of  the  Data……………………...…………………..…51
Chapter 4: RESULTS and  SPECIFIC  DISCUSSIONS…..……………..……………….52
4.1 Research Participants Brief Profiles (Athletes)…..……...................…….……….…52
4.2 Results by Primary Objectives…..………………………………........................…...61
4.2.1 Major Theme #1: Type of Retirement from Sport……………………...62
4.2.2 Summary: Type of Retirement from Sport…...…………………..……..70
4.2.3 Major Theme #2: Elite Athletes’  Challenges………………....………...71
4.2.4 Major Theme # 3 Balancing Sport and Other Careers.........................…73
4.2.5 Summary: Balancing Sport and Other Careers …………….…………..79
4.3 Results by Secondary  Objectives…..…………….…………...……………………...79
4.3.1 Major Theme #4: Social and Financial Support……………………..….81
4.3.2 Summary: Social and Financial Support ……………...…….……….…89
4.4 Comparisons  Across  Countries……………………….……………………………...89
4.5 Minor Themes by Primary and Secondary Objectives……………...………….……90
4.5.1 Athletes Patriotism……………………………………………………...91
4.5.2 Lack of Retirement Transition Programs and Federation  Politics……...91
4.5.3 Bias and Racism………………………………………………………...92
Chapter  5:  GENERAL  DISCUSSION..………………………………………………….94
5.1 Dual Career: Balancing Sport with Another Career Outside Sport……......…….99
5.2 Elite Athletes Challenges in Elite Sport and Post-Sport  Career……………......102
5.3 Entourage Support and  Type  of  Retirement………….………………………...104
5.4 Summary: Entourage Support and Type of Retirement..……………………….107
5.5 Comparisons between Southern African Countries…..………………...….…...108
5.6 Southern African Context……………………......…........…..…………….…...110
5.7 Limitations………………………………………………………...…………....111
5.8 Potential Future Research Directions…………………………………………...111
5.9 Suggested  Solutions  for  Elite  Athletes’  Career  Assistance  in  Southern  African  
Countries ……………………………………………………………………….112
APPENDICES………………………...……………………………………………..…116
Appendix A: Demographic Questionnaire……………………………………...117
Appendix  B:  Athlete  Interview  Guide…..……………...…………………........121
Appendix C: Entourage Interview  Guide……...……………………………….123
REFERENCES..………………………………………………………………..………124

vii

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Demographic Data and Themes……..…………………...………......................60
Table 2: Athletes’  Retirement  Planning  by  Country..….……………..…………….........66
Table 3: Athletes’ highest Academic Qualification…...…….…..………….....................76
Table 4: Athletes and Entourage members Interviewed…….……..........….....................80
Table 5: Athletes Entourage Profiles………………….…...……………….....................81
Table 6:  Summary  of  Athletes’  Stages  and  Raw  Data…………………...…....................82
Table 7: Athletes’  Marital  statuses  by  Country………..………………………………...86

viii

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Athletic Career Transition Model.…………………………………..................31
Figure 2: Lifespan Model of Athlete Development.…..……………………………........36
Figure 3: Conceptual Model of Adaptation to Career Transition…………......................38
Figure 4: Paths to Post-Sport  Career  Adaptation...…………………………....................98
Figure 5: Cross-National Comparisons....………..……………………………………..109

ix

KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS
Botswana National Olympic Committee-BNOC
Botswana National Sports Council -BNSC
Fédération Internationale de Football Association-FIFA
International Olympic Committee (IOC)
Namibia Sports Commission-NSC
National Olympic committee -OC
South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee-SASCOC
Zimbabwe Olympic Committee-ZOC

x

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Nature of the Problem
Sports federations across the world work hard everyday to develop sport
programs that enable elite athletes to have the ability to compete in the top echelon of
international sporting communities across a wide variety of sports. National sports
federations and club teams, particularly in professional and international sports invest
considerable resources in an effort to identify exceptionally gifted youngsters at an early
age in order to accelerate their developmental process into elite sport (Holt & Mitchell,
2006; Walker, 1990).
Coaches spend a significant amount of time creating training plans that will
accord talented athletes the opportunity to excel at international and professional sports.
Individual athletes together with their coaches must discipline themselves to train and
practice for many years over their athletic careers (Aquilina, 2013). Usually they need to
dedicate most of their days in pursuit of their athletic dreams. Some of these dreams are
to compete at the Olympic games and/or compete in professional sports. There is no
doubt that governments, sport federations, sport clubs, and sponsors have put pressure on
athletes to excel at the international level more than ever in the history of sports. For
example, sociology of sports literature demonstrates that sport continues to be used as an
instrument, to fulfill foreign policy goals. Governments sport funding and participation at
the Olympic games has significantly increased in the past twenty years. Even though a
significant amount of resources has been spent on athlete development, it was only in the
late 1980s that even industrialized countries started developing programs to help athletes’
transition out of competitive sport. There is no evidence in the literature of such
programs in developing African countries.
1

Research in higher education (Aries, McCarthy, Salovey, & Banaji, 2004; Henry,
2013) and sports psychology (Kim & Moen, 2002; Lotysz & Short, 2004; Wylleman &
Lavallee, 2004) demonstrate that elite athletes compete at the highest levels of athletic
performance as a result of a long-term psychological and physical commitment to
training and competition. Further to psychological and physical commitment, elite
athletes dedicate a significant amount of time to sport, sometimes, at the expense of
education and other avenues of life (Meyer, 1990; Parham, 1993). Wylleman and
Lavallee (2004) affirm that elite athletes do not only strive to reach the top but also to
remain at the top elite level in competitive sport. The commitments to reach and stay at
the top require elite athletes and those around them to invest at different levels (e.g.,
physical, social, financial) during a long period of time.

The aim of this dissertation was to look at Olympians’ retirement transition
experiences and the role played by entourage members in elite athletes retirement
transition. The researcher purposively selected Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and
Zimbabwe to participate in the study for two primary reasons. The first reason is that,
athletes from the selected countries are among the least studied in the sport psychology
literature. Most theoretical models and constructs that have been development on
retirement transition were carried out mostly in industrialized nations in Europe, North
America, and Asia which raises questions of generalizability of these existing models and
constructs. This calls for a need to test the applicability of these theoretical models and
constructs in other populations such as Southern Africa. An online search using the

2

keyword;;  “Botswana  sport”,  “South  Africa  sport”,  “Zimbabwe  sport”,  and  “Namibia  
sport”  on  ProQuest  databases  produced  a  total  result  of  18,967 studies. These results were
of varying types of literature relating to sport in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and
Zimbabwe. At least 2,519 of the studies were from scholarly journal articles. Most of the
scholarly journal articles were published in the African Journal for Physical, Health
Education, Recreation and Dance and other international journals such as International
Journal of the History of Sport and International Review for the Sociology of Sport. It is
worth noting that additional literature can be found in respective national libraries,
archives, and other online databases. However, ProQuest is one of the most popular
online database providers in the world.
The last reason for carrying out this dissertation in Botswana, Namibia, South
Africa, and Zimbabwe is informed by concerns made by retired athletes in the media
regarding post-sport career adaptation. For example, even though the South African
boxing legend, Baby Jake Matlala, was a four times world champion in the flyweight
category, he was considered financially down and out at the time of his death (“Boxing  
legend Baby Jake Matlala dies at 51 - Times  LIVE,”  2013). His friends and church
colleagues had to raise funds to cover his medical expenses. In a similar scenario, an
athletics legend from Botswana was quoted in The Midweek Sun, (2012) newspaper
expressing concern over neglect of retired athletes. It is an inevitable reality that all
athletes will face retirement from elite sport at some point in their sport career. What is of
primary importance is the athlete’s  post-sport career adaptation. In addition to the above
two reasons, the rational for the selected counties is to test the applicability of western
models and constructs in less studied populations. In addition to testing models and

3

constructs, differences in sport budgets, sport structures and national populations
accorded the researcher the opportunity to make cross-national comparisons.

Wylleman and Lavallee (2004) depict that termination of a high-level athletic
career is an emotional experience, not only for the athletes themselves, but also for those
in their close environment (e.g., parents, children, friends). Research findings (Blinde &
Greendorfer, 1985; Du & Tsai, 2007; Lavallee, Grove, & Gordon, 1997) are consistent
that retired athletes may experience a sense of loss and regret. For example, Blende and
Greendorfer (1985) observed that in addition to retired athletes missing their favorite
sport; these individuals felt that they lost the glory of being a famous athlete having to
make a transition to being just another person. Most elite athletes retire at a young age as
compared to the general population, which requires athletes to not only redefine their
social identity but in some cases to also realign their career goals. Sport psychology
literature (Aquilina, 2013; David Lavallee et al., 1997; Maseko & Surujlal, 2011; Park,
Tod, & Lavallee, 2012) demonstrated the need for elite athletes to have a 'dual career' and
or long term goals to prepare for a post-athletic career while still participating in elite
sport. In the United States, approximately 1% of collegiate athletes become professionals,
and the average professional sport career lasts around three and a half years (Beamon,
2010). The athlete is  “forced”  upon  retirement  to  find an alternative career to support
her/his family. It is therefore important for federations and other stakeholders in these
countries to understand factors (sport related and non-sport related) that impact elite
athletes’ retirement transition and post-sport career preparation.

4

One of the primary challenges faced by most elite athletes and their entourage
(e.g., parents, coaches, teammates, and federations) is the ability to manage the elite
athlete’s  intense  exclusive  focus  in  sports  and  still  build  resilience  and  capacity  to  meet  
the many transitions and demands required in both elite performance and life (Anderson,
2009). Imbalance in time and interest allocation may disrupt the normative
developmental stages of life and or events such as identity development, educational
career, long-term career planning and other socially related developments like spending
time with family. Elite junior (athletes under the age of 20) and senior (athletes over the
age of 20) athletes tend to form a foreclosed identity (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder,
1993; Pearson & Petitpas, 1990) due to a high investment and exclusive focus in sport.
As suggested by Peterson (1994), young athletes obtain a foreclosed identity when they
exclusively identify with the role of an athlete at the expense of other roles, which may
be crucial in their retirement transition ( i.e., role of being a student). Young athletes
competing at elite level are more susceptible to an exclusive focus on sport, hence
exclusive athletic identity with most of their self-definition and self-worth based on
athletic career success (Beamon, 2010; Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993). As
presented earlier in this chapter, exclusive athletic identity does not only negatively affect
elite athletes’  self-definition and self-worth but also their transition out of athletics as
they struggle to redefine their identities (Beamon, 2010). Blinde and Greendorfer (1985)
observed that even though 75% of retired college athletes did not experience any trauma
and continued following their teams, 25% of the athletes did, some who exclusively
identified as athletes experienced crisis and trauma. Authors further explained that
coaches and sports administrators are more likely to put pressure on athletes and coaches

5

to win/and or focus on sport at the expense of being a student because the public clamors
for a winner and success. It is evident that not all athletes who compete at professional
levels are able to successfully make a living out of professional sport. Nevertheless, most
athletes are able to make a living from their sport only as long as they are engaged in it,
while others will never reach an athletic standard that would ensure them a livelihood
(Samuel & Tenenbaum, 2011). The primary objective of this dissertation looks at elite
athletes retirement transition and the role of the entourage in athlete’s retirement
transition. This dissertation also assessed theoretical models and constructs on post-sport
career transition. Participants include less studied members of the entourage such as
federations and spouses. These samples give a different and unique perspective to
theoretical models of career transition. For example, results from this dissertation indicate
that they spouses play an instrumental role in providing social and financial support
during retirement transition, which is new to sport psychology literature.

1.2 Statement of the Problem
Even though retirement transition occurs across all ages, careers in competitive
sport are usually shorter than other occupational careers (Park et al., 2012). For example,
North and Lavallee (2004) found that elite athletes from gymnastics, diving, swimming,
ice skating, and judo planned to retire in the 24–30 year age category, while those from
sailing, golf, equestrian, and shooting planned their retirement well after age 40.
The  concept  of  athletes’  retirement  transition has experienced a significant growth
in the literature the past decade. Most research looks at the nature and causes of
retirement (Cosh, Crabb, & LeCouteur, 2013; Du & Tsai, 2007; Lavallee, 2005;
Stambulova, Stephan, & Jäphag, 2007; Stephan, Bilard, Ninot, & Delignières, 2003), and
6

there is also a significant growth in recent years on literature that looks at intervention
programs for retired athletes (Baillie, 1993; Constantine, 1995; Lavallee, 2005; Smith &
McManus, 2008). The nature of retirement from elite sport is often not only accompanied
by an initial sense of loss (Stambulova, 2000), and a period of re-orientation growth, but
a re-adaptation into the community (Alfermann, Stambulova, & Zemaityte, 2004; Taylor
& Ogilvie, 1994; Wippert & Wippert, 2010).
Given the challenges that retiring elite athletes face, it is crucial for them to have
the ability to cope effectively with retirement transitional challenges in order to progress
and make a successful transition to the next stage in their development (Wylleman &
Reints, 2010). Athletes who are unable to cope effectively are confronted with a crisis
transition, which may slow down or restrict their progress (Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994;
Wylleman & Reints, 2010).
This dissertation provides a unique, holistic and multifaceted approach to elite
athletes’  retirement  transition. As presented earlier in this chapter, about 18,967 studies
have been found on the ProQuest database on Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and
Zimbabwe. Search  keywords  used  in  the  online  search  are;;  “Botswana  sport”,  “South  
Africa  sport”,  “Zimbabwe  sport”,  and  “Namibia  sport”.  Literature gap filled by this
dissertation include assessing theoretical models and constructs that have been
development in the industrialized nations in Europe, North America, and Asia.
Participants included unique and less studied members of the entourage that include
federations and spouses. In addition to a unique set of participants, the study had a large
pool of entourage members from four different nations. Even though research on elite
athletes’  retirement  transition  is  being  conducted  around  the  world,  the  majority  of  
7

research targets specific national samples, cross-cultural studies are limited (Alfermann
& Stambulova, 2007; Huang, Schmidt, Hackfort, & Si, 2001). This dissertation tested
theoretical models and constructs that have been developed in industrialized nations and
specifically looked at less studied populations in the sport psychology literature. The
dissertation made cross-national comparison, specifically looking at the impact of
budgets, population size, and sport organizational structure. For example, even though
the four countries have ministries of sports, the South African Sports Confederation and
Olympic Committee (SASCOC) was formed in 1994 to assume the functions of high
performance sport which were previously carried out by other sport bodies such as
National Olympic Committee of South Africa, South African Commonwealth Games
Association, and South African Student Sports Union. In other three countries, National
Olympic committees (NOCs) are specifically designed for elite high performance sport
while National Sport Commissions/Councils (NSCs) are charged with the responsibility
to develop grassroots sport and promote nation wide sport participation.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The primary objective of this dissertation was to investigate elite athletes’ retirement
transition experiences, including its psychological impacts, and post-sport career
adaptation of elite athletes in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. A subobjective was to examine the coping strategies used by retired elite athletes during
retirement transition.
The secondary objective was to investigate the role of the entourage on elite
athletes’  retirement  transition. A sub-objective was to examine the availability of
8

retirement transition services for elite athletes in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and
Zimbabwe. Lastly, the dissertation made cross-national comparisons, looking
specifically at budgets, population size, and sport organizational structure impacts on
sport development.
1.4 Significance of Study
In the past decade, a few studies have advocated for a holistic approach to the
study of athlete development and retirement transition (Henriksen, Stambulova, &
Roessler, 2010; Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004). A holistic approach to the study of elite
athletes’  retirement  transition,  taken  by  this dissertation accords the researcher the
opportunity to study elite athletes and their entourage members as opposed to studying
only one sample. The significance of studying different entourage members provides a
multi-faceted approach that looks at the concurrent, reciprocal, and interactive nature of
athletic retirement transition. . In addition to studying a large sample, this dissertation
examined events that occurred in and outside sport to understand elite athletes retirement
transition. For example, the study observed that even though some athletes may not be
satisfied with their post-sport career jobs, having a job facilitated retirement transition.
The current study adds to the literature, a reciprocal interaction between elite athletes and
their entourage members. Results from this dissertation demonstrate not only that athletes
should prepare for a post-sport career, but also provides specific recommendations on
what athletes from southern African countries should do in preparation for a post-sport
career. The dissertation further provides the type of career support that elite athletes need
from their entourage members during retirement transition. Specific examples, including
lifestyle management services, lifestyle skills, and transitional skills that are used by
9

athletes. Lifestyle management enables elite athletes to balance elite sport, education,
vocation, and personal/family life in such a way that they are able to develop, sustain and
maximize their wellbeing and level of performance throughout as well as after their elite
career (Wylleman & Reints, 2010).
1.5 Definitions
1.5.1 Athletic Career: A term for a multiyear sport activity, voluntary chosen by
the person and aimed at achieving his or her individual peak in athletic performance in
one or several events.
1.5.2 Athletes’   Entourage: The entourage comprises all people associated with
athletes including; Family; Agents; Coaches; Sport Federations; and any person identified
as promoting  the  athlete’s  sporting  career.

1.5.3 Transition: An event or non-event, which results in a change in
assumptions about oneself and the world, and thus requires a corresponding change in
one’s  behavior  and  relationships  (Schlossberg,  1981).

10

Chapter 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The primary objective of this dissertation was to investigate elite athletes’
retirement transition experiences including its psychological impacts of elite athletes
retirement transition. The secondary objective was to investigate an in-depth account of
the  role  of  the  entourage  on  elite  athletes’  retirement  transition.  Lastly, the dissertation
makes cross-national comparisons, looking specifically at budgets, population size and
sport organizational structure impacts on sport development. This chapter starts by
presenting countries’ background information to contextualize theoretical constructs and
reviewed literature. Gerontology and thanatology models that have been applied to sport
to explain  elite  athletes’  retirement  transition  will  follow  the  background  information.
Lastly, the chapter presents literature review on retirement transition and models that
further explain elite athletes’ retirement transition and factors that affect retirement
transition. It should be noted that theoretical constructs and models used in this
dissertation might not be applicable to Southern Africa context. Models and constructs on
elite athletes retirement transition have been carried out in industrialized nations. These
models and constructs are made to fit industrialized nations cultures (i.e., sport
organizational structure, customs and size of the economy). Historians and economists
have demonstrated the relationship between sport, economy and society (Tranter, 1998).
For example, sports in the United States is highly commercialized and primarily funded
by private companies while sport in developing countries is heavily dependent on
government funding and nongovernmental organizations such as the International
Olympic Committee and Fédération Internationale de Football Association. These
differences in sports systems may have implications for the services available for retired

11

athletes. Sport psychology literature (Côté, 1999; Gould, Lauer, Rolo, Jannes, & Pennisi,
2006; Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) demonstrates a significant youth sport parental
involvement in industrialized nations, yet in developing counties particularly in Southern
Africa, athletes are more likely to perceive a lower parental involvement (Malete, 2006).
It should be noted that differences in parental involvement might also vary by socioeconomic statues. For example, inner city youth in the United States may perceive
parental involvement differently compared with youth who live in suburbs.
2.1 Countries Background
Botswana-The Republic of Botswana (581,730 sq km,) is a landlocked country in
Southern Africa, bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the
west and north, Zimbabwe to the northeast and Zambia to the north. Formerly the British
protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name upon independence in
1966 from Britain. Botswana is hailed as one of most peaceful countries in Africa with a
record of more than four decades of uninterrupted civilian leadership, progressive social
policies, and significant capital investment that have created one of the most stable
economies in Africa. Even though Botswana tourism industry experienced a significant
growth  in  the  past  two  decades,  Botswana’s  economy  is  dominated  by  mineral  extraction,  
principally diamond mining. Botswana has a population of 2.004 million est. 2012 with a
GDP of $14.50 billion ($ 7,191.44 per capita) and GDP growth rate of 4.2%. Botswana
has one of the world's highest known rates of HIV/AIDS infection, but also one of
Africa's most progressive and comprehensive programs for dealing with the disease. The
most popular sport in Botswana is football (soccer), and other mainl y
played sports include netball, volleyball, athletics (track and field) and
12

Boxing. It should be noted that even though Botswana started participant
in the Ol ympic games in 1980, the country won its first Ol ympic medal in
800m at the London 2012 Ol ympic games. Botswana National Sports
Council (BNSC) was established in 1965 as an independent organization
entrusted with the mission of raising funds to construct sport facilities
and source equipment for athletes . Botswana National Olympic Committee
(BNOC), incorporating Commonwealth Games Botswana, was formed in 1980 and
charged with the responsibility to facilitate the development of high performance athletes
to compete at the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. Botswana National Sports
Council and Botswana National Ol ympic Committee (BNOC) are the two
principal sports organizations in Botswana.

Namibia-Republic of Namibia (825,615 km2) is a country in southern Africa
with a population of 2,113,077 million, it shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to
the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Its western border
is the Atlantic Ocean. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990,
following the Namibian War of Independence. Namibia is a low middle-income country
with an estimated annual GDP per capita of US$5,155 but has extreme inequalities in
income distribution and standard of living. The most principal sports in Namibia include
football (soccer), athletics (track and field), rugby, cricket, and fishing. Major
achievements in Namibian sports include 4 Olympic medals in 100 and 200m at the 1992
and 1996 Olympic games respectively. Other highlights include reaching final stages at
world games in cricket and rugby in 2003. Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) is charged

13

with the responsibility to ensure that opportunities for sports are made available to all
people throughout Namibia. Consistent with other National Olympic Committees in
Southern Africa, Namibia Olympic Committee promotes high performance sport
throughout Namibia. In addition to high performance sport, it leads the Olympic
movement and promotes Olympism throughout Namibia.

South Africa-South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area,
and with close to 53 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is
located at the southern tip of Africa. It has 2,798 kilometers (1,739 mi) of coastline that
stretches along the South Atlantic and Indian oceans. Countries of Namibia, Botswana
and Zimbabwe boarder South Africa to the north; to the east are Mozambique and
Swaziland; and within it lies Lesotho, an enclave surrounded by South African territory.
South Africa is an upper-middle income economy with the largest economy in Africa,
which accounts for 24% gross domestic product in terms of purchasing power. This
makes the country one of only four countries in Africa in this category (the others being
Botswana, Gabon and Mauritius). Since 1996, at the end of over 12 years of international
sanctions, South Africa's Gross Domestic Product has since almost tripled to $400
billion, and foreign exchange reserves have increased from $3 billion to nearly $50
billion; creating a growing and sizable African middle class, within two decades of
establishing democracy and ending apartheid. There is no doubt that South African is a
key player in sport development at Africa level. South Africa is a host to a variety of high
performance centers that serve athletes from African counties. South Africa demonstrated
to the rest of the world that it has made economic and political progress that accords it to

14

host world-class sporting events. South African Sports Confederation and Olympic
Committee (SASCOC)  is  South  Africa’s  national  multi-coded sporting body charged
with the responsibility to ensure that South African teams perform at all the multi-coded
events (i.e., Olympic games, Paralympic games, Commonwealth games, and All Africa
games). Popular sports in South Africa include football (soccer), rugby, cricket,
swimming and Boxing.
Zimbabwe-The Republic of Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in Southern Africa
with a population of 12,619,600. It is bordered by Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to
the northwest, Mozambique on the east, and South Africa to the south. Zimbabwe got
independence from the United Kingdom in April 1980, following 14 years as an
unrecognized state under the conservative minority government of Rhodesia, which
unilaterally declared independence in 1965. An economic summery of Zimbabwe:
GDP/PPP (2011 est.): $6.474 billion; per capita $500 (2011 est.). An Act of Parliament
created the Sports and Recreation Commission in 1991. The Sports and Recreation
Commission (SRC) ensures that all people of Zimbabwe have access to sport and
recreation programs. In addition, the SRC oversees the general running of sport and
recreation programs by National Sports Associations (NSA). Popular sports include
football (soccer), cricket, rugby, and athletics (track and field).

2.2 Literature Review on Southern Africa
Areas in sport that have attracted most attention in Southern Africa literature
include the impact of political history on current sport particularly in South Africa and
Zimbabwe (Allen, 2011; Anderson, Bielert, & Jones, 2004; Chaulia, 2003; Chesterfield,

15

2007; Novak, 2012), the role of sport in national identity development after independence
(Amusa & Toriola, 2010; Keat, 2011), and the use of sport to fight HIV/AIDS (Biddle,
Akande, Vlachopoulos, & Fox, 1996; Clark, Friedrich, Ndlovu, Neilands, & McFarland,
2006; Fuller, Junge, Dorasami, DeCelles, & Dvorak, 2011). African colonies began to
attain independence from their colonial masters in the late 1950s. African leaders who
assumed power were charged with the responsibility to build nations and restore values
that were lost during the colonial era. As young nations, it was important for political
leaders to forge a national identity and build national pride. As they had used sport before
to build a sense of nationalism, they used sport again to galvanize a sense of shared
identity and destiny (Amusa & Toriola, 2010; Keat, 2011). For example, the shifting race
relationships in post-apartheid South African sport literature indicates the crucial role
sport played in building the rainbow nation and social integration in post-apartheid South
Africa (Anderson et al., 2004; Booth & Nauright, 2003; Chappell, 2005a). Pelak (2005)
examined the extent to which netball changed in the post-apartheid South Africa in order
to accommodate cultural diversity in South Africa. The researcher observed that netball
athletes and administrators construct new collective identities across a variety of cultural
differences.
Keat (2011) explained that African national leagues and the African Nations Cup
were developed for the specific purpose of promoting national identity. It was also in this
era that African nations gained memberships in international sports federations like the
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Sport also became an
important tool for African nations and international organizations to build peace and unite

16

warring nations or ethnic communities across (Anderson  et  al.,  2004;;  “United  Nations  
Sport for Development and Peace - Sport  and  Peace,”  n.d.).
Gaining membership to international sport federations accorded African nations
to bid and host international sporting events both at continent and world level. South
Africa had the opportunity to host the first FIFA World Cup on Africa soil. In hosting the
2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa became the first African nation to join industrialized
nations that have hosted one of the largest sporting events in the world. South Africa
demonstrated to the rest of the world that it has made economic and political progress
that accords it to host world-class sporting events. The 2010 FIFA World Cup budget was
R15 billion ($2bn) with R8.4 billion ($1.1bn) spent in building five new stadiums and
upgrading existing facilities, while R6.4bn ($800m) was invested in public transport
initiatives and supporting infrastructure (“S  Africa  unveils  World  Cup  budget,”  2006).
South Africa has the largest economy in Africa with Botswana ranked 18th, Namibia in
the 25th spot and lastly Zimbabwe ranked 31 (“Top  12  Largest  And  Strongest  African  
Economies,”  n.d.).
In the past 25 years, there has been a significant growth in partnerships between
non-governmental organizations (e.g., UNICEF) and national governments to use sport to
curb the spread of HIV/AIDS epidemic. National athletes and celebrities have been used
to teach and send messages on HIV/AIDS education, particularly to youth in African
countries. According to UNICEF, Eastern and Southern Africa is home to half the
world’s  population  living  with  HIV.  Today  the  region  continues  to  be  the  epicenter of the
HIV/AIDS  epidemic,  with  48  %  of  the  world’s  new  HIV  infections  among  adults,  55%  
among children, and 48% of AIDS-related deaths. According to the World Health

17

Organization 2013 report on HIV/AIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa, the Southern
Africa sub-region, experiences the most severe HIV epidemics in the world. Nine
countries - Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland,
Zambia and Zimbabwe have adult HIV prevalence rates of over 10%. The report
estimates 26 %, Swaziland has the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world, followed by
Botswana (23.4%) and Lesotho (23.3%). With 5.6 million people living with HIV
(17.3%), Southern Africa  is  home  to  the  world’s  largest  epidemic  (UNAIDS, 2013).
Sport has therefore been found to play a crucial role in teaching HIV/AIDS messages to
students and young people across Africa. In a study that used professional football
(soccer) players to provide HIV education in an interactive curriculum for 7th grade boys
and girls in Zimbabwe, students in the intervention classrooms demonstrated significant
increases in knowledge and attitudes using pre-, immediately post- & five-month postintervention surveys (Clark et al., 2006).

2.3 Gerontology and Thanatology Models of Retirement Transition
Research on the concept of transition in the past decades has been linked to a
wide range of topics that include individual life span development (Erikson, 1963), career
planning (Hopson & Adams, 1977), educational processes (Newman, Lohman, Newman,
Myers, & Smith, 2000), social support (Cutrona & Russell, 1990), and the processes of
aging, retirement, and dying (Cummings & Henry, 1961; Kubler-Ross, 1969). Popular
reports on the incidence of distress experienced by athletic career ending for youth and
professional athletes were initially explained in terms of a singular, all-ending event
Wylleman et al., 2004). For example, In the 1960s, theoretical frameworks that were used

18

to explain athletic career ending were derived from thanatology (i.e., the study of the
process of dying and death) (Kubler-Ross, 1969) and (social) gerontology (i.e., the study
of the aging process). Thanatology and gerontology models will be briefly explained
below.
2.4 Social Gerontology Models of Retirement Transition
Social gerontology is a multidisciplinary field grounded in the sociology of aging
but informed by psychologists, policy and public health researchers, medical and social
work practitioners, and economists other fields. Research in social gerontology addresses
many domains of social life and behavior, including family relationships, health and
disability,  and  older  adults’  social  participation  (Putney, Alley, & Bengtson, 2005). There
are numerous transition theories based on Social Gerontological models that could be
applied to athletic retirement transition, such as activity theory, continuity theory,
subculture theory, disengagement theory, social breakdown theory, and exchange theory.
2.4.1 Activity Theory. Activity theory asserts that an individual's life satisfaction
is directly related to his degree of social interaction or level of activity(Knapp, 1977).
Havighurst and Albrecht (1953) were some of the first researchers to suggest an
association between social activity and adjustment to retirement transition from the work
force looking specifically at old age. The theory suggests that individuals should maintain
a homeostatic level of activity throughout their lifespan. When applied to athletic
retirement transition, the theory suggests that athletes should substitute the active role of
an athlete with new roles during retirement transition (Havighurst & Albrecht, 1953).
Even though the activity theory received empirical support in the gerontology literature
(Rosenberg 1981), it was criticized for assuming that sport retirement is similar to
19

occupational  retirement  where  individuals  are  “forced”  to  withdraw  from  the  labor  force  
due to chronological age (Blinde & Greendorfer, 1985; Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994). Several
factors such as deselection, injuries and change of career are some of the primary reasons
for retirement from competitive sport.
2.4.2 Continuity Theory. Continuity theory suggests that individuals seek to
maintain role stability throughout their life course (Atchley, 1989). Behaviors and
attitudes are often the single most significant predictors of present or future behaviors
(Utz, Carr, Nesse, & Wortman, 2002). The application of this theory to sport suggests
that continuity theory can predict the level of adjustment to retirement by examining the
significance of sport in the lives of athletes (Lerch, 1984). Rosenberg (1981) asserts that
if  one’s  athletic  role  is  seen  as  more  meaningful  than  other  roles;;  athletes’  may  
experience some difficulties in distributing them during retirement transition. One of the
challenges of the continuity theory application to athletic retirement is when sustaining
the athletic role is not a priority for the athlete in transition, the reallocation of time and
energy to remaining roles will not create problems in the adjustment process (Lavallee &
Wylleman, 2000).
2.4.3 Subculture Theory. Hart (1976) defined subculture as a segment of society
embracing certain distinctive cultural elements of their own. Shared subcultural elements
include a set of identifiable beliefs, values, and means of symbolic expression. Sport
provides a highly visible, easily accessible, and particularly salient setting for the
formation of subculture and the resulting expression of subcultural values (Green, 2001).
The theory suggests that continued social interactions among individuals might enable
the retiring athletes to be less active and adjust well during retirement transition (Rose,
20

1962). This hypothesis was affirmed by Rosenberg (1981), who asserts that prolonged
social interactions among individuals leads to the development of a group consciousness,
and that people can be less active and well adjusted even if the situation is different from
overall social norms. Even though athletes have fairly distinguishable (sub) cultural
characteristics, and although it assists in revealing potential adjustment problems
experienced by athletes in ending their athletic career, there was no empirical support to
use this theory because retiring athletes are moving out of the proposed subculture
(Wylleman et al., 2004).
2.4.4 Disengagement Theory. Disengagement theory suggests that as adults’ age,
they gradually withdraw from society (Cumming & Henry, 1961). When the theory is
applied to sport retirement  transition,  the  theory  suggests  that  athletes’  retirement  
transition is a necessary manifestation of mutual withdrawal of athletes and the sport
structure. The mutual process of disengagement makes room for younger generations and
prevents unnecessary disruptions in the social system caused by deaths among the older
population (Utz et al., 2002). Given that athletes can involuntarily and suddenly leave the
work place due to injury and deselection, retiring from elite sport does not fit this theory.
In addition to involuntary retirement, athletes do not only retire due to chronological age.
Athletes can retire as early as 20 due to an injury or lack of interest.
2.4.5 Social Breakdown Theory. The social breakdown theory suggests that an
individual’s  sense  of  self,  his  ability  to  mediate  between  self  and  society,  and  his  
orientation to personal mastery are functions of the kinds of social labeling experienced
in life (Kuypers & Bengtson, 1973). The theory incorporates elements from activity,

21

subculture, and continuity theory and proposes that athletes become vulnerable to social
judgments upon retirement. The theory further suggests that athletes are exposed to
unfavorable redefinition, which may lead them to withdraw further from their sport and
become susceptible to more negative evaluation (Kuypers & Bengston, 1973). For
example, athletes may lose their celebrity status upon retirement and be relegated to a
common figure in society, which “forces”  athletes  to  redefine  their  identity.   Some
athletes may fail to redefine their identity hence isolation. Rosenberg (1981) applied this
theory to athletes and affirms that the withdrawal cycle demonstrates how elite athletes
are vulnerable to social judgments upon retirement. Edwards and Meier (1984) observed
a relationship between adjustment to retirement from sport and several variables
proposed to be significant in social breakdown theory, including socioeconomic status,
preretirement planning, and health. Athletes who have access to services that provide
employment and stable financial opportunities are more likely to use these support
services to facilitate their retirement transition hence a healthy retirement transition than
athletes who do not have access to such services.
2.4.6 Exchange Theory. The exchange theory was proposed by Homans (1961)
to explain how aging individuals rearrange their activities so that their remaining energy
generates maximum return. When applied to sport, Johns, Linder, and Wolko (1990)
demonstrated in a study carried out with former competitive gymnasts in Canada that the
examination of factors that contribute to retirement from sport through a social exchange
perspective has some merit. Rosenberg (1981) has suggested that this theory is the most
applicable to elite sport as it is often the inability of an athlete to create these new
networks that contributes to a difficult adjustment. In a different study, Koukouris (1991)
22

challenged the processes associated with exchange theory that they do not stand up
because they deny the possibility of the development of a career after sport. Gordon
(1995) suggested that resources such as physical talent might be able to be exchanged for
meaningful rewards from the sports system. These resources are finite and their
inevitable deterioration will affect the degree of control over the sports relationship
(Gordon, 1995).
Social gerontology theories provide a multidisciplinary approach informed by
psychologists, public health researchers medical, social work practitioners, and
economists other fields. Even though these theories address many domains of social life
and behavior, they did not fully explain retirement from competitive sport let alone
preparation for a post-sport career. These theories did not look at factors such as reasons
for retirement and goals that athletes have achieved in their career in sport. Research (Du
& Tsai, 2007) has shown that reasons for retirement influence retirement transition and
post-sport life experiences.

2.5 Thanatological Models of Retirement Transition
Thanatology is the study of the process of death and dying. Park (1912) outlined
thanatology by demonstrating the biomedical causes of death. Disciplines of psychology,
anthropology, sociology and theology have made significant contributions to the
thanatology literature (Rando, 1986). Thanatological models were used to suggest that
retirement from an athletic career is comparable to loss of social functioning, isolation,
and ostracism (Kalish, 1966). The application of these models has been criticized because
athletes continue to function even though they may face challenges.
23

2.5.1 Social Death.  Social  death  approach  was  used  to  explain  that  after  athletes’  
sports career termination, athletes are treated as if they were dead even though still
biologically alive, bringing about the loss of social functioning, isolation, or even
ostracism (Wylleman et al., 2004). The concept was used to explain the psychodynamics
of athletic retirement, which in some cases athletes, might be isolated (Lerch, 1984). This
approach failed, among others, due to the obvious fact that athletic retirees continued
functioning in society, albeit in a different social role (Wylleman et al., 2004).
2.5.2 Stages of Death. In describing retirement from sport, a more popular use of
thanatology was developed to describe athletic retirement in the series of stages
experienced when facing death (Kubler-Ross, 1969). The stages of dying as applied to
retirement from sports, include denial and isolation. Retired athletes in denial and
isolation initially refuse to acknowledge the inevitability of their career termination;
anger, in which retiring athletes become disturbed at the overall changing situation;
bargaining, in which they try to negotiate for a lengthened career in sport; depression, in
which they experience a distress reaction to retirement; and acceptance, in which retirees
eventually come to accept their career transition (Wylleman et al., 2004). The application
of the stages of death theory was a topic of interest in athlete retirement research. For
example, theorists employed this model to describe the psychological consequences
experienced by athletes during rehabilitation from injury (Wiese-Bjornstal & Smith,
1994). The  model’s  narrow  approach  to  retirement transition calls for caution in its
applicability to athletes’ retirement. For example, the model assumes that retirement from
sport is always involuntary (i.e., through injury). Recent research (Du & Tsai, 2007;

24

Lavallee et al., 1997) demonstrate that athletes can retire voluntarily to take new roles in
their lives. Even though the models were instrumental in stimulating research in career
transition issues and appealed to some researchers in sociology of sports and sports
psychology, thanatological models were criticized especially because of the lack of
analogy between terminal illness and career termination (Gordon, 1995; Taylor &
Ogilvie, 1998). Thanatology models remain limited for explaining sports career
termination from a non-sport specific character; the model also presumes that career
termination is inherently negative and requires considerable adjustment (Wylleman et al.,
2004).
2.6 Summary on Gerontology and Thanatology Models
The universal application of the retirement concept justified the use of theoretical
perspectives underlying sport retirement from social gerontology and thanatology given
the period they were used. A discussion of these models stimulated research in sports
psychology, sociology of sports and clinical psychology, which ushered a new
understanding of elite athletes retirement transition, which will be discussed below.
Social gerontology and thanatology models inability to adequately address the
complex nature of athletic retirement, theorists suggested that alternative perspectives are
needed to explain athletic retirement transition (Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994). Researchers
further suggested that athletic career termination might serve as an opportunity for social
rebirth rather than a form of a social death (Coakley, 1983). The shift in studying
retirement transition not only ushered new transitional models but also presented
interventions necessary for retired athletes (Kadlcik & Flemr, 2008).

25

2.7 Athletic Career Transition Models
In counseling psychology, the concept of transition is presented as an event or a
non-event, which results in a change in assumptions about oneself and the world and thus
requires  a  corresponding  change  in  one’s  behavior  and  relationships  (Schlossberg, 1981).
In sport psychology, transition was introduced to study how former athletes coped with
the event of retirement from high-level competitive and professional sports (Haerle,
1975; Mihovilovic, 1968). Recent literature (Henriksen et al., 2010; Kadlcik & Flemr,
2008) and models (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) advocate for a shift from studying
retirement transition as a single event and or in isolation but focus on a holistic approach
to  athletes’  retirement  transition.  A  holistic  approach  to  retirement  transitions,  incorporate  
athletes’  experiences  that  occur  at  athletic, psychological, psychosocial,
academic/vocation level, and their ability to cope with these changes (Wylleman,
Alfermann, & Lavallee, 2004). Even though theoretical models and constructs have been
developed to help researchers explain elite athletes’ retirement transition, these models
and constructs may not be applicable to Southern African populations.
Transitional challenges that retired athletes have to deal with include, among
others, adjusting to a new life and a new lifestyle following the sport career (Wylleman &
Reints, 2010). Retired athletes have to deal with missing the sport atmosphere and
competition, as well as bodily changes that come with retiring from competitive sports.
Some of the changes include a subjective wellbeing and, or adapting to a new social
status and vocational responsibilities (Cecicerpic, Wylleman, & Zupancic, 2004; Stephan
et al., 2003). It is therefore crucial for development programs to understand transitional
challenges experienced by athletes during and after retirement form elite sport. Wylleman
26

and Reints (2010) observed that former elite athletes need motivational readiness and
interpersonal skills to integrate back into non-sports professional settings. The study
provides evidence that elite athletes are confronted during and after retirement with
transitional challenges that impacts the course and progress of their development in and
outside sport. The authors further argue that several former elite athletes may in fact turn
to their family-of-origin for support (i.e., due to lack of financial stability), or even
‘‘return  home’’  to  live  with  their  parents  and  may  then  also  experience  interpersonal  (or  
intergenerational) problems.
Two models that guide this  study  are  Stambulova’s  (2003)  athletic  career  
transition model and Wylleman & Lavallee's (2004) lifespan model. The primary reason
for selecting these models to guide this dissertation is that they complete each other in
addressing issues relating to athletes retirement transition. A further in depth elaboration
on each model and evidence of empirical support is presented in this chapter.
Consistent with the two models that guide this study, athletes describe highlights
in their athletic career in terms of specific moments or situations that occurred throughout
their career. For example, a specific moment might include their first-training day with a
coach, their first competition, being invited to join the junior team followed by the senior
team camp, and eventually the retirement press conference. Some of these highlights are
very specific like winning first medal at All Africa games or the Olympic games. What is
also consistent in these highlights is transition within the athletic career from a certain
point to another. Wylleman and Reints (2010) depict that athletes face two types of
transitions throughout their athletic career, namely predictable and anticipated or
‘‘normative’’  transitions  (e.g.,  from  junior  to  senior  level,  from  amateur to professional
27

status, ending the athletic career) and more or less unpredicted, unanticipated, and
involuntary  or  ‘‘non-normative’’  transitions  (e.g.,  a  season-ending injury, unanticipated
de-selection from the team, loss of a personal coach).
Even though there is need for a thorough understanding of career transitions in
sport and empirically supported data in Southern Africa, the Wylleman  and  Lavallee’s  
(2004) lifespan model provides developmental stages that athletes go through in their
career in sport. This model is one of the widely used models in sport psychology
literature. For example, the initiation stage is characterized by specific moments that are
the main highlights specific only to the beginning of  athletes’  careers in sport. One of the
primary highlights is the development of passion and love for participating in the activity
or disliking the activity leading to withdrawal. Parents take a leadership role by providing
young athletes with the initial opportunity to participate in the domain and sought out
their  child’s  first  formal  teacher  or  coach  (Wylleman et al., 2004). Parents are also crucial
during retirement transition for providing both financial and social support in athletic and
non-athletic contexts. Some of the more specific highlights may be scoring their first goal
in primary school. Sports programs in African schools provide the opportunity for
athletes to play sport. Once athletes have moved to an upper phase like development, they
look forward to a normative transition from junior team to a senior team. This transition
is in athletic contexts. Outside sports, athletes may be transitioning from junior secondary
to senior secondary school. It is important to emphasize that each stage is characterized
by shifting demands on the athlete and entourage members (Baker, Horton, RobertsonWilson, & Wall, 2003). In a similar study carried out earlier, Côté (1999), observed
comparable transitions occurring between stages of sampling, specializing, investment,
28

and mastery in the development of deliberate practice.
2.7.1 Athletic Career Transition Model
Stambulova’s  (2003)  athletic  transition model (Figure 1) presents the athletic
career transition as a process of coping with a set of specific demands and or challenges
necessary for athletic career success or adjusting to a post-sport career. A detailed
explanation, including steps of the model is presented below.
According to the model, developmental conflicts and challenges stimulate the
athlete to mobilize resources and the support system required to cope with challenges and
demands during retirement transition. This model is important for providing an
understanding on the influence of circumstances surrounding athletes’ retirement and the
support system to post-sport career transition and adaptation, which is pivotal in
discussing results of this dissertation. The ability of the athlete to effectively cope is
dependent on the balance between transition resources (internal and external factors,
which facilitate the coping process) and barriers (all internal and external factors, which
interfere with effective coping) (Kadlcik & Flemr, 2008). If the athlete effectively
manages to cope with the challenges he/she will have positive consequences and the
inability to cope leads to crisis-transition. Crisis in an athlete’s development may be
caused by a set of transitional problems (contradictions, or inner conflicts) that he/she has
to resolve, but is not able to resolve without qualified psychological assistance
(Stambulova, 2000). The author provided three types of athlete crises that are identified
and described as (a) age-related crises, (b) sports career-related crises, and (c) situationrelated crises. Success or goal achievement has also been associated with a smooth
29

retirement transition. For example, if the athlete’s  goal  was  to  compete  at  the  Olympic  
games, that may give closure for the athlete to focus on a new career. Sinclair and Orlick
(1993) explored transition experiences of high-performance athletes and observed that
athletes who adjusted smoothly tended to retire after they achieved their sport related
goals or because they had achieved their goals in sport. Even though there is empirical
data supporting the athletic career transition model from past research (Kadlcik & Flemr,
2008; Park, Lavallee, & Tod, 2013) and the current study, the model does not provide
empirical evidence on what athletes need to do, in preparation for retirement. This
dissertation provides empirical data to support the model on the type of retirement and
circumstances surrounding retirement transition, and in addition, this dissertation
provides recommendations on what athletes should do while at the peak of their careers
in preparation for a post-sport career.

30

Figure 1: Athletic Career Transition Model

Transition demands

Crisis
prevention
Interventions

Dynamic balance between transition
resources and barriers

Coping

Effective

Psychological crisis
coping

(= positive transition)

Ineffective
(= crisis transition)

Interventions
Need for
Intervention

Effective

Ineffective or no
intervention

‘Costs’  for  failure  
to cope with the
interaction

Psychotherapeutic
interventions

31

2.7.2 Lifespan Model of Athlete Development
Wylleman  and  Lavelle’s  (2004)  descriptive  model  (Figure  2)  approaches  athletic  
career transition from a holistic and lifespan perspective. The model discusses how
athletes move through stages of athletic development that are tied to their ages and
developmental levels. The model is considered holistic because it incorporates many
aspects of life such as education, sports, and social life. Incorporating sport and events
occurring outside sport such as education is not new to sport literature. The ancient
Greeks' worldview advocated the development of both mind (e.g., educational programs)
and body (physical training programs) through sport (Pavlidis & Gargalianos, 2014).
Recent research (Borggrefe & Cachay, 2012; Corrado, Tessitore, Capranica, Rauter, &
Topic, 2012; Pavlidis & Gargalianos, 2014; Wylleman et al., 2004) in sport psychology,
has taken keen interest in issues occurring in and outside sport as athletes move through
stages of athletic development. International organizations such as the European
Commission (EC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have also take keen
interest in this approach. The European Commission acknowledged the importance of
dual career (balancing school and sport) for young elite athletes by promoting policies
that promotes good physical and psychological health. These policies are made to ensure
the reintegration of professional sportspersons into the labor market at the end of their
sporting careers. The International Olympic Committee runs a program that guides
Olympic athletes into education with the goal of a better postretirement life.

The primary reason for choosing this model to guide this study is that it considers
transitions occurring in the athletic domain as well as those occurring in other domains of
athletes’  lives. In addition to the fact that this model is widely used in sport psychology
32

literature, the model has significant empirical support (Debois, Ledon, Argiolas, &
Rosnet, 2012; Stephan & Demulier, 2007; Wylleman & Reints, 2010) from studies
carried out around the world. For example, Aquilina (2013) demonstrated that events
occurring in and outside sport (i.e., balancing school and sport) plays an instrumental role
in the understanding of athletes retirement transition. The author depict that some
athletes' time may be dedicated to developing their sporting career, with very little time
left to develop other aspects of their lives outside their sport such as education which may
result in more severe retirement transition challenges.
In order to get an understanding of the development of talented elite athletes and
how they cope with the transitions in their athletic development, it is crucial to also get an
understanding of the other developmental transitions (e.g., at psychological level, at
psychosocial level) faced by elite athletes (Wylleman et al., 2004). The lifespan model
reflects the  concurrent,  interactive,  and  reciprocal  nature  of  athletes’  development  in  four  
domains (athletic, psychological, psychosocial, academic/vocational). The athletic
domain consists of four stages that depict normative progression from initiation,
development, mastery and discontinuation. These stages are similar to those observed by
Bloom (1985) and Cote (1999). The initiation stage introduces young athletes to
organized sports from 6 to 7 years of age. From the initiation stage, athletes are
recognized as talented in the development stage. Training time and level heightens to
prepare athletes for the next stage. Athletes who reach the mastery stage compete at the
highest-level of competition in their respective sport. Athletes in the mastery stage
compete at national, international, and elite level. The mastery stage coincides with
higher education. The last stage is the discontinuation stage where athletes withdraw

33

from competitive sport. It is worth noting that discontinuation can occur earlier in the
athletic career. For example, it can occur at initiation if the athlete loses interest in the
sport at 7 years old and withdraw from sport. The psychological domain consists of
childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It is crucial for coaches to be aware that
development stage in the athletic domain coincides with adolescence in the psychology
domain. It is important for adolescents to continue involvement in physical activity and
sports, which contributes to achieving and maintaining good emotional and physical
health. The psychosocial domain represents the changes that may occur in the social
development of an athlete. The psychosocial domain also denotes individuals who are
perceived by athletes as most significant during that particular transition or stage (e.g.,
parents,  coach,  peers,  life  time  partner)  in  the  athlete’s  career  (Wylleman & Reints,
2010). The final domain is the academic/vocational domain, which represents the stages
in the academic and vocational development of the athlete (primary education, secondary
education, higher education, Vocations training/ professional occupation).
The academic development of athletes is influenced by the education system in
respective countries. For elite athletes, vocational development may start after secondary
education or after higher education. In some cases, elites athletes may engage in parttime/ full time work. Even thought the model is widely used in sport psychology
research, this is the first study to test its applicability of Southern Africa population. For
example, the psychosocial component of the model suggests that parents play a primary
role of introducing their kids into sport (mostly organized sport) as early as six years of
age. Horn (2008) affirms that the sport involvement of children takes place in a social
context, and parents, peers, and siblings can strongly influence the psychological

34

outcomes of this involvement. However, in the context of Southern Africa, this
dissertation observed that even though parental involvement is important, school sport
programs provides an  environment  that  support  children’s  participation  in  sport and
parents are not as engaged as it is the case in industrialized nations. Results from this
dissertation are consistent with Shehu and Akpata (2008)’s  findings  that  teachers in many
schools  in  Southern  Africa  volunteer,  and  it  is  also  part  of  a  lot  of  teachers’  jobs  to  coach,  
be umpires, and organize intra- and extra-mural sport events. As a result, teachers in most
African countries are not only in a position to widen youth sport participation but to
inspire life-long physical activity and encourage attainment of self-directed sport
aspirations. Malete (2006) affirms this statement, given the cultural context and
perception in Botswana. It is therefore likely that young athletes may perceive lower
parental support than their counterparts from industrialized nations. This lifespan model
does a great job in explaining how athletes move through stages in their career in sport
but may not fully explain some specific components of athletes’ psychosocial
development particularly in African populations. The model does not account for the role
of extended family members which may be significance role given the family structure in
many African countries.

35

Figure 2: Lifespan Model of Athlete Development
Age

Athletic
Developmen
t

Psychological
development

Psycho-social
Development

Academic /
Vocational
Development

10

Initiation

Childhood

Parents
Siblings
Peers

Primary
Education
10

20

15

Developme
nt

25

Adulthood

Peers
Coach
Parents

Secondary
Education

Family
Coach
Peers

Partner
Coach

Vocational profession
Professional Athlete

Higher Education

15

35

Discontinua
tion

Perfection

Adolescen
ce

Puberty

30

20

25

30

35

2.7.3 Conceptual Model of Adaptation to Career Transition
Drawing from previous theoretical frameworks, both within and outside of sport,
and current empirical research, Taylor and Ogilvie (1994) proposed a five-step model
(Figure 3) that examines adaptation to athletic retirement. The model examines the entire
course of the career transition process. According to the model, the first stage identifies
the causal factors that initiate the retirement process (i.e., age, injury, and free choice).
Depending on the cause of withdrawal from competitive sport, the second stage presents
developmental factors related to transition adaptation. Factors related to transition that are
emphasized in the model include developmental experiences, self-identity, and tertiary
contributors. The third stage describes the available resources that affect the response to
retirement. The resources required (i.e., social and financial support) for coping with
retirement are crucial for athletes. Research (Bloom, 1985; Côté, 1999; Wylleman et al.,
36

2004) demonstrates that members of the entourage (i.e., family, peers, and coaches)
provide needed support during athlete development and retirement. The fourth stage
assesses the quality of adjustment to career transition, and the final stage looks at possible
treatment issues for distressful reactions to career transition. The quality of retirement is
influenced by many factors that include among others, social support and nature of
retirement.

37

Figure 3: Conceptual Model of Adaptation to Career Transition

Causes of Career Termination:
Age, Deselection, Injury
Free choice

Factors related to Adaptation
to Career Transition:
Developmental experiences
Self-identity
Perception of control
Social identity
Tertiary contributors

Available Resources for
Adaptation to Career
Transition:
Coping strategies
Social support
Pre-retirement planning

Quality of Career Transition

Career Transition Distress:
Adjustment difficulties
Occupational/financial problems
Family/social problem
Psychopathology
Substance abuse

Healthy Career Transition

Intervention for Career Transition:
Cognitive
Emotional
Behavior
Social
Organization

38

2.8 Factors Affecting Retirement Transition
The quality of post-sport career transition and adaptation is influenced by athletic
and non-athletic factors. Some of the greatest contributors to a difficult transition include
involuntary retirement (i.e., injury, deselection, and age), a strong, exclusive athletic
identity, and lack of pre-retirement planning and support services (Taylor & Ogilvie,
1994). Retired athletes are faced with financial, occupational, emotional, and social
adjustment challenges during the athletic career transition (Grove, Lavallee, & Gordon,
1997). Factors influencing athletic career transition can result in a successful, relatively
smooth transition, or in more or less intense difficulties at the psychological, physical,
psychosocial, and/or occupational level (Cecić  Erpič,  Wylleman,  &  Zupančič,  2004). It is
therefore crucial to pay attention to preparing elite athletes for retirement transition and
post-sport career.
Athletic identity issues, coping processes, support network, and career planning
have been identified as fundamental factors that influence adaptation during an athletic
career transition (Cecić  Erpič, Wylleman,  &  Zupančič,  2004). Cross-cultural research
indicates that transition out of elite sports is a dynamic, multidimensional, multilevel, and
multifactor process in which nationality/culture plays a crucial role in post-sport career
transition (Alfermann et al., 2004; Stambulova et al., 2007). Even though retirement
planning regardless of nation is associated with more favorable emotions and coping
behaviors in the transition (Alfermann et al., 2004; Stambulova et al., 2007), it is not
associated with perceived quality and long-term consequences of the transition
(Stambulova et al., 2007). This dissertation provides an understanding an what athletes
need to do for a long-term post-sport career quality. For example, research (Aquilina,
39

2013) suggests that dual-career can be a good long term post-sport career plan for elite
athletes. In a cross-cultural study between Russian, German, and Lithuanian retired
athletes, German athletes showed more positive and less negative emotions after
retirement than Russian and Lithuanian athletes. Though Russian and Lithuanian athletes
were accepting the reality of retirement, Lithuanian athletes showed more signs of denial
while Russian athletes used distraction strategies more than athletes in other nations. In a
similar cross-cultural study comparing French and Swedish athletes, Swedish athletes
showed more positive retirement transition than French athletes. Starting a new
professional career was perceived as difficult regardless of a nation (Stambulova et al.,
2007). It is worth noting that most theoretical models and constructs that inform elite
athletes’ retirement experiences are carried out using quantitative research methods. For
example, Biddle (1997) reviewed papers (n = 529) published in two major sport
psychology journals (Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, JSEP; International
Journal of Sport Psychology, IJSP) between 1985 and 1994. The researcher observed
very little diversity in research methods. Over one-third of the papers used cross-sectional
survey methods and less than 6% used qualitative methods. In a more recent review,
culver, Gilbert, and Sparkes (2012) reviewed qualitative research published in three
leading sports psychology journals (Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, The Sport
Psychologist, and journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology) between 2000 and 2009.
Researchers observed a 68% increase in qualitative researcher papers published between
1990 and 1999 (from 19.3% to 29%). In addition to the fact that there is need for more
diversity in the research method (Biddle, Markland, Gilbourne, Chatzisarantis, &
Sparkes, 2001) , the applicability of these theoretical models and constructs needs more

40

empirical support with participants from Southern Africa.
2.8.1 Athletic Identity. Athletic identity is one of the well-studied areas in sports
psychology and one of the main predictors of athletic retirement transition (Fraser et al.,
2010; Lavallee & Robinson, 2007; Warriner & Lavallee, 2008). Brewer, Van Raalte, and
Linder (1993) defined athletic identity as the degree to which an individual identifies
with the role of an athlete. High athletic identity is associated with strong commitment to
athletic goals (Lally, 2007), particularly during adolescence a period demarcated for the
pursuit of an identity (Warriner & Lavallee, 2008). High athletic identity has also been
found to contribute to less positive reactions to retirement transition and to more
problems in athletes’ retirement adaptation process (Grove et al., 1997; Lally, 2007;
Warriner & Lavallee, 2008). Even though athletic identity is related to retirement
difficulties, some studies argue that it is not related to overall life satisfaction and
athletes’  anticipated  disrupted  identities  upon  retirement  (Lally, 2007; Webb, et al.,
1998). A proactive diminishing of athletic identity prior to retirement is associated with
positive effects on retirement transition particularly, precluding a major identity crisis or
confusion upon and following athletic retirement (Fraser et al., 2010; Lally, 2007;
Lavallee & Robinson, 2007; Webb et al., 1998).
Looking  specifically  to  gymnast  retirees’  adjustment  to  retirement,  problems  
pronounced in gymnastics were due to the young ages at which participants began and
ended their competitive careers (Lavallee & Robinson, 2007). Identity loss is salient upon
retirement from gymnastics and physical changes associated with retirement are some of
the challenges that gymnasts face (Caine,  Lewis,  O’Connor,  Howe,  &  Bass,  2001;
Lavallee & Robinson, 2007). Athletic retirement challenges also intensify due to the fact
41

that athletes invest heavily in sport during adolescence; a period that coincides with a
time when adolescents typically undergo profound changes physiologically and in
identity development (Emmert, 2012; Lavallee & Robinson, 2007; Warriner & Lavallee,
2008).
2.8.2 Coping Processes. Coping is defined as constantly changing cognitive and
behavioral efforts to manage specific external and or internal demands that are appraised
as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person (Lazarus & Folkman, 1986). Authors
further proposed that there are generally two ways of coping with stress. The first way is
problem- focused coping, which is aimed at problem solving or doing something to alter
the source of the stress. The second strategy is emotion- focused coping. Emotion
focused coping is aimed at reducing or managing the emotional distress that is associated
with (or cued by) the situation (Lazarus & Folkman, 1986). Although most stressors elicit
both types of coping, problem-focused coping tends to predominate when people feel that
something constructive can be done, whereas emotion-focused coping tends to
predominate when people feel that the stressor is something that must be endured
(Folkman & Lazarus, 1980).
Using coping strategies, Sinclair and Orlick (1993) demonstrated, through an
exploratory study, that specific coping strategies such as having other interests, keeping
busy, and or continuing to exercise are positively correlated with adjustment to retirement
from sport. In a similar study, with a sample of 48 retired athletes, acceptance and
positive reinterpretation were the most frequently used coping strategies during the career
transition process (Grove et al., 1997). Social support (i.e., family and friends), engaging
in pre-retirement planning, and a subsequent control of the transition out of sports by
42

reducing participation gradually and finding a meaningful replacement has been found to
be crucial in managing retirement transitions (Fraser et al., 2010; Lavallee & Robinson,
2007; Warriner & Lavallee, 2008). Even though dual career is a challenge to a lot of
athletes, it is associated with positive athletic retirement transition because athletes move
form one career to another instantly (Borggrefe & Cachay, 2012; Corrado et al., 2012).
Dual-career is viewed as a valuable tool for promoting an important contribution to the
development of policy actions in the area of sport and education at national and European
levels (Corrado et al., 2012).
2.8.3 Social Support. Social support has been identified as one of the most
important factors in both nurturing athletic talent (Gould et al., 2006; Wuerth, Lee, &
Alfermann, 2004) and managing post-sport career transition (Park et al., 2012; Taylor &
Ogilvie, 1994). Parents  and  other  family  members  involved  in  athletes’  athletic  careers
provide family environment that affects the quality of performance and retirement
transition particularly starting a new career. Consistent with the literature, Du (2008)
studied Hong Kong retired elite athletes and observed that the quality of placement of
elite athletes in Hong Kong after retirement was affected by their sports achievements
and "personal support" gained from family members, coaches, and friends during
retirement transition. A similar study revealed differences in the psychological states,
retirement awareness, retirement plans, self-regulation, social support, and life
contentment between the successful retirement cases and the failed ones (Siekanska,
2012). Successfully retired athletes were often aware that they were going to retire and
made plans to start new careers, but athletes who failed to start new careers after
retirement often used avoidance coping mechanisms (Du, 2008; Siekanska, 2012; Yang,
43

Peek-Asa, Lowe, Heiden, & Foster, 2010). Family members and the network gathered
during  athletes’  careers  are  significantly  helpful  to  the  quality  of  athlete  retirement  
placement in terms of getting new jobs. Du (2008) argues that the society and sports
organizations should not use medals as the only achievement measure. The author
suggests that the society and government should provide elite athletes with occupational
training or learning opportunities, thus enhancing the quality of placement of retired
athletes.
2.9. Summary: Factors Affecting Retirement Transition
The research reveals that the circumstances surrounding withdrawal from
competitive sports significantly influence the quality of retirement. Some of the coping
mechanisms used by athletes are to engage in other activities while other athletes may opt
to avoid their challenges and hence be isolated. Family support and other members of the
entourage provide the much-needed support that may be social and or financial. Having a
dual-career like going to college is also a crucial factor in retirement transition. Greater
emphasis should be directed towards the psychological, social and physical transitions
experienced by elite athletes prior to and after retirement to ensure a positive adaptation
into post- sports life.

44

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY
The primary objective of this dissertation was to investigate elite athletes’
retirement transition experiences including  it’s  psychological  impact,  and post-sport
career adaptation. The secondary objective was to investigate psychological impacts of
elite athletes retirement transition and the role played by the  entourage  on  elite  athletes’  
retirement transition. Presented in this chapter are methods and procedures used in the
conduct of the research. The following format is followed in the presentation of this
chapter; research design, participants, procedures, instruments, pilot study and data
analysis.
3.1 Research Design
To address the problem stated above, this study used a grounded theory research
approach. The notion of grounded theory approach was developed by the work of
sociologists Glaser and Strauss (1967). Grounded theory can be described as a
systematic, yet flexible methodology for collection and analyzing qualitative data to
construct theories that are grounded in the data themselves (Sparkes & Smith, 2014). The
grounded theory approach was chosen to explore the experiences of retired elite athletes
and their entourage members because it accords the researcher the opportunity to
generate theory rather than impose theory on the data. Although the components of a
grounded theory appear in linear sequence, it is worth emphasizing that the grounded
theory approach is a recursive process. In practice, the researcher consistently shifts in
the data collection and analysis process largely due to a constant comparison method
required in the grounded theory. What makes theory developed in the grounded theory
profoundly different from other psychological theories is that in the grounded theory
45

method, the theory is created during data analysis, and the validity of the theory is
“grounded”  as  the  data  supporting  it  increases. Unlike other methods of qualitative
research where theories are generally cemented in the original hypothesis and therefore
have the possible of change during the research process, in grounded theory the research
theory is developed throughout the research process and as more data is received and
analyzed, the theory continues to change as the data dictates.
3.2 Participants
A total of 17 retired athletes (12 males and 5 females) from various sports
(athletics-6, swimming-2, Boxing-2, rowing-2, field hockey-2, gymnastics-1, triathlon-1,
biking-1) in Southern Africa and their entourages participated in the current study. All
athletes had competed at the Olympics except one athlete who had competed at world
championships and the Commonwealth games. A total of 35 entourage members
participated in the study and included parents, coaches and spouses.
3.3 Procedure
National Olympic Committees of Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and
Namibia were contacted to facilitate the recruitment process. Personalized recruitment
letters were then sent to each individual retired athlete recruiting them to take part in the
study. Participants were awarded a $50 gift card or cash for participating in the study.
The researcher was granted the research permit by Michigan State University
Institutional Review Board and National Olympic Committees of participating countries.
Data collection was carried out in three phases.

46

3.3.1 Phase I. The first phase comprised a 15-minute online demographic survey
that was emailed to athlete participants after they agreed to participate in the study
(Appendix A). The demographic questionnaire sought information such as age, type of
sport, time of retirement and if athletes were ready for retirement. The primary reason for
Phase I data collection was to focus interviews and give the researcher more information
about the participant prior to the interview process.
3.3.2 Phase II. The second phase involved in-depth online (via Skype/phone)
interviews. Each in-depth interview lasted 45 to 55 minutes. All athletes and their
entourage members were interviewed separately. Given the distance and time difference
between where the researcher lives and where participants live, Skype/telephone were the
most viable way to conduct interviews. The researcher also traveled to the site to conduct
interviews with participants who were not available for a Skype/telephone interview
(athletes n=2 and entourage n=17).
3.3.3 Phase III. The third phase of data collection consisted of focus groups with
the same retired athletes from South Africa, Botswana and spouses of athletes from
Botswana. Focus groups were conducted separately for each set of participants and they
were conducted on separate dates. Botswana focus groups were conducted at the
University of Botswana (UB) and for South Africa, they were conducted at the South
Africa Sport Confederation of Olympic Committee (SASCOC). Focus groups were used
for triangulation purposes as a data quality control measure as well as to follow-up on
questions that were not answered or emerged during the interview process. Interviews
and focus groups with multiple samples (athletes, parents, spouses, coaches ad
federation) accords the researcher the opportunity to triangulate data and use different

47

data sources as a quality control measure. Retired athlete focus groups were conducted
first  and  followed  by  spouses’  focus  group in Botswana (athletes n=6, spouses n=3) and
(South Africa athletes n=2).
3.4 Instruments
The conceptual model of adaptation to career transition (Taylor & Ogilvie, 1998)
and the lifespan model (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) were used to guide the interviews.
Demographic information collected in Phase I was also used to further guide the
interviews for this study. A total of three data collection instruments were designed for
this study: the online survey (Appendix A) and two semi-structured interview schedules.
Two semi-structured interview schedules were designed for individual athlete interviews
and  the  focus  groups  respectively.  Athletes’  interview guide (Appendix B) was
influenced by the lifespan model on athlete development, the role played by the
entourage  in  athletes’  careers,  circumstances surrounding career termination and
retirement transition. The conceptual model of adaptation to career transition influenced
some questions particularly on circumstances surrounding retirement. Entourage
interview guide (Appendix C) focused on the same areas as athletes interview guide but
from the entourage perspective. A sports psychology professor examined the instruments,
and revisions were made where necessary. A follow-up instrument was designed after
interviews to enquire further and provide clarity where needed during focus groups. Even
though instruments in the appendix show question on athletes entire career in sport,
questions that were of primary interest to this dissertation are those relating to retirement
transition and the role of the entourage.

48

3.5 Pilot Study
A pilot study with two retired athletes was conducted and data from the pilot were
transcribed and analyzed to test the validity of the instruments. Revisions were made
accordingly. Retired athletes who participated in the pilot study were not recruited to be
part of the study sample.
3.6 Data Analysis
For the demographic survey descriptive statistics (e.g., means, frequencies) were
calculated for Phase I data collection. Grounded theory was used to provide the
philosophical understanding and guidance of the interview protocols. The basic tradition
within the grounded theory approach involves a specific mode of analysis in which the
researcher  generates  or  “discovers”  a  theory  from  the  data  (Sparkes & Smith, 2014).
The
 researcher
 generated abstract
 concepts from numerous manuscripts and created a
theory on elite athletes retirement transition. To
 accomplish
 the objective of creating a
theory, 
 Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña (2013) explained that
the
 researcher
 needs
 to
 be
 flexible
 and
 open 
 to
criticism
 while
 portraying
 appropriateness and
 authenticity throughout the research
process. Following data collection, all recordings were transcribed which is an obvious
first step in grounded theory data analysis process. For reliability and data quality, the
researcher adopted a blind coding approach. The researcher and an independent academic
with experience in qualitative research independently listened to all recordings of the
interviews and read the transcripts several times. The blind method is part of a scientific
method used as a quality control measure to prevent research outcomes from being
influenced by outcomes from either the placebo effect or the observer bias (Creswell,

49

2012).
Reading and listening to all audio recordings accords readers the opportunity to
judge whether the phenomenon of interest has been illuminated from a particular
perspective. Consistent with ground theory data analysis (Sparkes & Smith, 2014),
transcribing data was followed by an intense line-by-line manual open coding using the
participant’s  own  words  by  the  researcher and his independent colleague. She is a
doctoral student in the kinesiology department with experience in qualitative research
methods. During the open coding process, researchers consistently engaged in a
comparison method. The concept of open coding and constant comparison is described as
finding key phrases or words in documents and experimenting with meanings (Miles et
al., 2013). This process accorded researchers the opportunity to ask specific questions
such  as  ‘who  interacted  with  elite  athletes  in  their  athletic  careers?’  ‘Under  what  
circumstances  did  they  interact  with  athletes?,  ‘how  did  retired  elite  athletes    and  
entourage  members  experience  the  interaction?,  and  “when  did that interaction take place
in  athletes  careers?’.  Consistent  with  the  (Sparkes & Smith, 2014), the researcher
remained open minded throughout the data analysis process.
Open coding was followed by axial
 coding
 , where the researcher created
subcategories
 and related them to main categories and specified properties
 and

dimensions of a category (Sparkes & Smith, 2014). The last stage of data analysis was

 selective
 coding. The researcher linked all categories and sub-categories to the core
category in order to create a story of theoretical propositions.

50

3.7 Trustworthiness of the Data
The researcher made efforts to ensure that data reduction and analysis were
rigorous, authentic and trustworthy. For reliability and data quality, the researcher
adopted a blind coding approach. The researcher and an independent academic with
experience in qualitative research independently listened to all recordings of the
interviews and read the transcripts several times. The blind method is part of a scientific
method used as a quality control measure to prevent research outcomes from being
influenced by outcomes from either the placebo effect or the observer bias (Creswell,
2012).  The  role  of  an  external  reviewer  is  also  to  “keep  the  researcher  honest,”  by  asking  
difficult questions about methods, meanings, and interpretations (Creswell, 2012) of data.
Reviewer and researcher analysis were compared, and discussed during a three-hour
meeting. Consensus regarding core themes was achieved.

51

Chapter 4: RESULTS and SPECIFIC DISCUSSION
The primary objective of this dissertation was to investigate elite athletes
retirement transition experiences including its psychological impacts and post-sport
career adaptation in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The secondary
objective was to investigate the role played by the entourage on  elite  athletes’  retirement  
transition. Lastly, this dissertation made cross-national comparison looking specifically at
sport budgets, population size and sport organizational structure.
This chapter begins with a brief profile of each athlete participant including his or
her retirement transition experience. A demographic table providing more detailed
information on athlete participants in this dissertation follows the profiles. This chapter
concludes with a detailed explanation of the main concepts discovered and subcategories
in this dissertation. Results are presented consistent with primary and secondary
objectives of this dissertation and specific discussions are made in the context of
Southern African populations and models used in this dissertation. Pseudonym names
have been assigned to all athletes and their entourages to protect the participants in this
study. Additionally, pseudonym names have not been associated with specific countries
because of potential identification of the participant. When it was relevant to describe the
country of a participant, a number was used to refer to the participant.
4.1 Research Participants Brief Profiles (Athletes)
Mod started gymnastics at the age of 8. He then went on to represent (country
name) at the world championships, commonwealth games and world university games.
His coach, parents and extended family members provided him with the social support he
52

needed in his career in sport. Mod did not complete university, with an attempt to focus
on gymnastics but involuntarily retired around the same time he left university at the age
of 22. He was married and self-employed during data collection of this study.
Thato competed in the flyweight Boxing category at the (city) Summer Olympic
games. He started boxing at senior secondary school after playing other sports that
included volleyball, track, and tennis. Thato had a brother who was also a boxer and a
great inspiration to him. Thato won a silver medal at the (city) Commonwealth games.
Thato is currently a teacher and he is actively involved in sport development in (country
name). Teachers and his teammates provided support at the beginning of his career. His
job and family played a crucial role in his retirement transition. Thato had a smooth
transition because he had a job during his retirement transition
Ellis started boxing by accident at the age of 16. He joined a workout group with
the motive to manage his weight and ended up competing at the (city) Summer Olympic
games. Before joining boxing, the 35 year old played Badminton. The 35-year-old former
(country name) Olympic boxer got support from his club, teammates, and family during
his athletic career. Ellis mentioned consistently in the interview that teachers were crucial
his development in the boxing career. He voluntarily retired to pursue his new career and
also work as a coach for young developing boxers. Ellis shared with the researcher that
he had a smooth retirement transition because he had a job upon retirement.
Trice represented (country name) at the (city) Olympic games and other major
world championships such as International Associations of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
world championships, commonwealth games and world university games in 100 and
53

200m. He started participating in his sport at the age of 10. His coach/teacher and his
parents provided him with support at the beginning of his career. The federation provided
him with financial support during his elite career in sport. Trice retired at the age of 28 to
focus on his teaching job as well as spend time with his family. He consistently
mentioned during the interview that even though he missed his sport, he had a smooth
retirement transition. He also mentioned that retirement accorded him more time with his
family.

Daniel is a retired middle distance runner who represented (country) at the (city)
Olympic games and other major tournaments. The 36 year old former middle distance
runner was recruited by a teacher whom they have had a father-son relationship with
since then. His former teacher becomes a crucial mentor both in sport and outside sport.
Daniel had to go back to school after retirement and is currently a teacher and lives with
his wife. Daniel involuntarily retired from competitive sport and he was quick to mention
during the interview process that he was not ready for retirement. His wife played a
crucial role is his elite career as well as during retirement transition. One of the factors
that  played  a  pivotal  role  in  Daniel’s  transition  was  studying after competitive sport.
Joe is a retired long distance runner who represented (country name) at the (city)
Olympic games. One of his major achievements includes being ranked fourth in world
cross-country rankings. Joe started his athletic career as a high school student competing
for his school. A university official who spotted him competing in track races at the age
of 18 recruited him to train under his guidance. Even though his family was not
forthcoming in supporting him at the beginning of his career in sport,  Joe’s  family  played  
54

a crucial role in his elite athletic career and retirement transition. Entourage members
who  were  profound  in  Joe’s  athletic  career  include  the  university  official  who  recruited  
him, his teachers and his wife. The university official did not only train Joe, he provided
him with meals, training shoes and other needs that Joe had before he had a job. During
Joe’s  elite  career  and  retirement  transition,  his  wife  played  a  crucial  role  providing  him  
with social support. Joe retired involuntarily due to a career ending injury.
Mmoloki is a retired (country name) sprinter and Olympian who started track at
19 years of age in senior secondary school. One of his major achievements includes
competing at the (city) Summer Olympic games, winning a silver medal at the (city)
world in-door games and a gold medal at the All Africa games. The 34 year old had a
career ending injury a few months before the (city) Olympic games. His peers, teachers
and siblings provided support during his career in sport. His retirement transition was not
planned hence he lacked employment and had other related challenges. He strongly
believes that God provided solace during his retirement transition.
Bill is a retired (country name) sprinter who competed at the (city) Olympic
games and made the final in 100m at the (city) Olympic games. He also represented
(country name) at several world championships. When Bill was 6, he started playing
different sports because it was required at his school. He specialized in athletics when he
got to high school and college. He went to college in the United States where he
competed at several championships. People and organizations that played a crucial role in
his athletic career include his parents, coach and the federation. Even though Bill had a
career ending injury, he was ready for retirement. He had planned for retirement by going
to graduate school and starting a real-estate business. Some of his worries during
55

retirement transition included the uncertainty of whether he had fully planned for his
retirement  from  elite  sport  or  not.  Bill’s  spouse  played  a  crucial  role  in  providing  him  
with social support during retirement transition.
Nick is a retired triathlete who represented (country name) at the (city) and (city)
Olympic games. His parents taught him how to swim at the age of six. Nick was also
competing in school cross-country races around the same age. His friend invited him to a
swimming meet and he brought his bike with him, to put the running, swimming and bike
together.  At  the  age  of  18,  Nick  specialized  in  triathlon  and  never  looked  back.  Nick’s  
parents and his siblings played a crucial role in his athlete development by providing
financial and social support that Nick needed throughout his athletic career. Other
entourage members who played a crucial role in his athletic career include the federation
and  his  wife.  Nick’s  wife  was  instrumental  in  providing  social  support  during  his  
retirement transition. Nick voluntarily retired at the age of 30. He was employed and
satisfied with his retirement transition.
Anne represented (country name) at the (city) Olympic games in rowing singles.
She retired after the Olympics games at the age of 36. Other major highlights in her
athletic career include placing fifth place at the world junior championships. Anne credits
her parents in supporting her athletic career from as early as six years old when she
started participating in rowing. Entourage members who played a supporting role in her
athletic career include friends, teachers, coach, siblings, extended family and the
federation. Even though Anne was not ready and did not prepare for retirement, she
moved into a new career upon retirement.

56

David is a 30-year-old (country name) retired middle distance runner. He won a
silver medal in 800m at the (city) Olympic games, (city) Commonwealth games, and the
(city) world championships. Even though his parents provided social support, they were
not fully  involved  in  his  athletic  career.  People  who  played  a  crucial  role  in  David’s  
career in sport include his senior secondary school teacher/ coach and his coach at elite
stage. David was recruited at the age of 15 to compete for his senior secondary school
and joined professional sport after his senior secondary school. He involuntarily retired
from elite sport at the age of 29 due to an injury.
Brad is a 31 year-old retired (country name) track cyclist. He represented (country
name) at the (city) Olympics. Before specializing in his sport, he played football (soccer)
at university level. People who played a crucial role in his career in sport include his
parents and his sister. He retired after the Olympics games. Brad planned his retired and
was happy with his retirement transition. Brad shared with the researcher that he was
ready to focus on other aspects of his life when he retired from competitive sport.
Helder is a retired (country name) rower and Olympic medalist. Helder won a
bronze medal at the (city) Olympics in the coxless pair with his partner. He started
rowing at the age of seven and his parents and teachers were crucial at the beginning of
his athletic career and his coaches were more profound at the elite stage of his career in
rowing. Helder graduated from the university when he was at the peak of his career in
sport. He shared with the researcher that even though he missed his sport, he had a
smooth retirement transition.
Missy is a 32-year-old retired field hockey player. She was a member of the
(country name) squad that represented (country name) at the (city) Olympics. Other
57

major achieves include competing for (country name) at several world championships.
Even though Missy had support from her coaches and teachers, she considers her parents
to have been behind her success in field hockey throughout her career. She did not
complete university and she is currently employed. She retired involuntarily from
competitive sport.
Julie is a 38-year-old retired former (country name) field hockey player. Julie
started playing field hockey at the age if 12 at her primary school and went on to
represent (country) at various international competitions including the (city) Olympic
games. She also represented (country name) at the Commonwealth games and the world
cup. Even though field hockey was introduced to Julie in school, her parents played a
crucial role in supporting her socially and financially until her retirement at the age of 29.
Julie retired due to a career ending injury and tried to return to sport but eventually
retired. Even though she was disappointed for deselection after her injury, she moved on
in her new career in marketing.
Jocy is a 39-year-old retired (country name) swimmer. Her parents taught her how
to swim at the age of six. Jocy participated in several other major world games including
two Olympic games. Her parents supported her financially and socially to the point she
retired at the age of 22. She voluntarily retired to focus on her studies and start a family.
She had a smooth retirement transition and is happy to have made a decision to retire
from competitive sport.
Thabo is a swimmer who represented (country name) at the (city) Olympic
games. She started swimming at the age of 10 and retired 2 years after the Beijing
Olympic games. Before she specialized in swimming at the age of 14, she took part in
58

other sports including track. Thabo was introduced to swimming by her parents and
started competing in primary school swimming galas to the point of winning a national
championship and competing at world swimming championships and the Olympics.
People who were most profound in her athletic career include her family, coach, peers
and husband. When Thabo learned that she had qualified for the Olympic games, she
chose to withdraw her university registration to focus on training for the Olympic games.
She voluntarily retired to start her swimming school and also give back to her parents
after many years of support.

Table 1 presents general demographic data on athletes that participated in the study and
some of the major and minor variables observed in this dissertation. A presentation of the
primary and secondary objective results is presented following Table 1.

59

Table 1: Demographic Data and Themes
Athle
te

Gend
er

Marital
Status

Sport

Dual
career

Jocy

F

Married

Swimming

Yes (university)

Julie

F

Single

F-Hockey

Helde
r
Brad

M

Married

M

Anne

Retirement
type

Prepare
for ret?

Voluntary

Think of ret
(when senior
athlete)
Yes

Yes

Ready
for
ret?
Yes

Involuntary

No

Yes

No

Rowing

Yes (university +
part-time work)
Yes (university)

Voluntary

No

No

No

Single

Biking

Yes (university)

Voluntary

-

Yes

Yes

F

Single

Rowing

Yes (university)

Involuntary

No

No

No

Nick

M

Married

Triathlon

Voluntary

Yes

Yes

Yes

Bill

M

Married

Athletics

Yes
(university
and
part-time
work)
Yes (university)

Involuntary

Yes

Yes

Yes

Joe

M

Married

Cross country

Involuntary

No

Yes

Yes

Trice

M

Married

Athletics

Yes
(full-time
work)
Yes (university)

Voluntary

No

No

No

Ellis

M

Single

Boxing

Yes (university)

Voluntary

Yes

Yes

Yes

Thato

M

Married

Boxing

Yes (university)

Voluntary

Yes

Yes

Yes

Mod

M

Married

Gymnastics

No

Involuntary

No

No

No

Thabo

F

Married

Swimming

No

Voluntary

No

-

No

Missy

F

Single

F-hockey

No

Involuntary

No

No

No

David

M

Divorced

Athletics

No

Involuntary

No

No

No

Mmol
oki
Danie
l

M

Single

Athletics

No

Involuntary

No

No

No

M

Married

Athletics

No

Involuntary

No

No

No

60

Education

Ret
age

University
degree
Graduate
school
University
degree
University
degree
University
degree
University
degree

22

Graduate
School
Secondary
School
University
degree
University
degree
University
degree
Did
not
complete
university
Withdrew
university
registration
Did
not
complete
university
Secondary
school
Secondary
school
Diploma
(after elite
sport)

31

29
36
36
30

36
28
28
28
22
23
28
35
29
33

4.2 Results by Primary Objectives
The primary objective of this dissertation was to investigate elite athletes’
retirement transition experiences, including its psychological impacts, and post-sport
career adaptation. A sub-objective was to examine the coping strategies used by retired
elite athletes during retirement transition. The study observed three major (see Table 1)
themes (type of retirement, dual-career, and challenges) as  crucial  in  elite  athletes’  
retirement transition and post-sport career. The first major theme of type of retirement
was  derived  from  interviews  with  athletes’  and  their  entourages’  to  explain  athletes’  
experiences during retirement transition and post sport career adaptation. Sub-themes
observed under type of retirement were voluntary and involuntary retirement. Elite
athlete experiences during retirement transition varied by type of retirement and
circumstances surrounding retirement and post-sport career. The second major theme
observed in the study was dual-career. Athletes and their entourages shared with the
researcher during the interview process that finding the balance between school and sport
was primary in preparing for a post-sport career transition. It was also clear during data
analysis that, dual career significantly influenced athletes’ retirement transition and postsport career. For example, as presented in Table 1, a total of 10 athletes managed to
balance school and sport in order to have another career outside sport hence positive postsport career transition.

Other  crucial  factors  that  influenced  athletes’  experiences  include  the  availability  
of support during retirement, preparing for retirement as well as being ready for
retirement were crucial in athletes’ experiences in retirement transition. Sub-themes
61

observed under the major theme dual-career were graduating from university, full-time
job  during  one’s  career in sport, and part-time  job  during  one’s  career  in  sport. The last
major theme observed in the primary objective was challenges. It was clear from retired
athletes and their entourages during the interview process that athletes experienced
challenges during their career in sport as well as during retirement. Some of the
challenges shared by athletes and their entourages include lack of financial resources to
maintaining an elite sport career and support during retirement transition. Sub-themes
observed under the major theme of challenges were lack of financial resources, trained
coaches, facilities, and trained medical personnel. Each of these major themes and
subthemes will be discussed in detail below.
4.2.1 Major Theme # 1: Type of Retirement from Sport. It was clear across the
three phases of data collection that the impetus of sport retirement transition is a function
of two primary factors: voluntary retirement (making a decision to voluntarily retire) and
involuntary retirement (forced by circumstances to retire). Consistent with sport
psychology literature (Lavallee & Wylleman, 2000; Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994) on
retirement transition, reasons for involuntary retirement shared by athletes and their
entourages include injury, deselection from the team, and failing to qualify for the games.
Involuntary retirees experiences psychological distress of felling stressed, devastated and
in some cases, isolated. Athletes who voluntarily retired from sport shared with the
researcher that they had planned and knew when they will retire. Data analysis showed
that voluntary retirees used events such as major games to mark their retirement from
competitive sport. For example, athletes would make a decision that they will retire after
their next Olympic games. Reasons for voluntary retirement shared by athletes include

62

focus on studies, start a family, and career change. Even though voluntary retirees missed
the sport and had to navigate life without competing in their favorite sport, they moved
on their new career. Data analysis also showed that voluntary retirees had thought of
retirement when they were senior athletes. Participant # 16 from Namibia shared with the
researcher that even though she retired after the (date, city) Olympic games, she had been
planning and thinking of her retirement.

I  had  made  up  my  mind  even  long  before  the  Olympics.  I  knew  I  couldn’t  
combine both my studies and my sport to the extent that I would want to. I
was happy about my decision and looking back I still am happy about my
decision.
It was clear in the data analysis that voluntary retirees were “switching” from competitive
sport to join a new career. Participant #16 consciously made a decision to end her career
in sport because of the conflict between school and sport. She also shared with the
researcher that even though her new career did not immediately replace her passion for
sport, she had something meaningful to look forward to. Similar to participant #   16’s  
comments, other athletes retired from competition to a new job. These athletes used
words   such   as   “smooth”,      “automatic”   or   “transfer”   to   refer   to   the   ending   of   their  
competitive sport and transition to a new career. Participant #3 from Botswana
voluntarily retired to start a career in teaching.
I must say that mine was actually automatic transition because I was a
student when I was (sport). That meant that when I finished schooling, I
started working. I was concentrating on my teaching career. Being a retired
athlete did not frustrate me because sport was not paying us much. We were
not benefiting financially so retirement did not strain me in any way and I
didn’t  need  to  prepare  anything  special  for  retirement.

63

Participant #3 makes reference to the fact that he did not have significant financial benefit
from (sport) and as a result, he did not feel any financial loss from quitting competitive
(sport). Nonrevenue sports such as boxing, swimming, and hockey did not earn athletes
significant amounts of money except in cases where the team had a sponsor or they were
exceptionally talented to have a sponsor on their own. The commitments to reach and
stay at the top of elite sport require elite athletes and those around them to invest at
different levels (e.g., physical, social, financial) during a long period of time (Baker et al.,
2003). At least three athletes (2-Botswana 1-Zimbabwe) shared with the researcher
during the interview process that they chose to retire because of lack of financial support
to continue with their sport. All athletes were asked the same question on circumstances
surrounding their retirement and shared their thoughts and experiences on retirement.
Even though circumstances of financial support led to their retirement, these athletes
made a conscious decision to retire from competitive sport. These athletes also used
major events such as the Olympic games and or world championships to mark their
retirement from elite sport. Participant # 13 from Botswana shared with the researcher
that even though he was ranked 8th in the world, he did not have enough support to
prepare for international games and decided to retire and focus on developing young
athletes.
I felt I was not getting enough support to achieve what I wanted to do. I
was one of great (sport) in Botswana, ranked 8 in the world. I needed more
international exposure. For example, to take part in competition such as
the Olympics and the World Cup, you have to go for a few months to
prepare for the competition but in Botswana you have to go direct to that
competition. I was also looking at my knowledge of (sport) that if I retire,
I can assist our senior national team in any way.

64

Participant # 13 is one of the athletes from Botswana who successfully completed
university studies and voluntarily retired from competitive sport. It was clear during the
interview that if participant # 13 had financial resources to continue, he could have
continued with the sport. Wylleman and Lavallee (2004) affirm that elite athletes do not
only strive to reach the top but also to remain at the top elite level in competitive sport. In
addition to lack of support, participant # 13 shares that he was also looking at giving back
the knowledge he acquired through his sport over the years. The sentiment of giving back
to the nation and or other young athletes was consistent across at least 6 athletes
expressing a sense of patriotism and love for their country. During the data collection of
the project, participant # 13 worked with (sport) development teams at junior and senior
level. He shared with the researcher that he was happy with his retirement transition
experiences. Consistent with participant  #  13’s  statement about lack of support,
participant # 2 from Botswana shared that she did not enjoy playing her sport anymore
because of lack of support and also decided to retire from competitive sport.
I   got   to   a   point   where   I   wasn’t   enjoying   it.   Like   I   told   you, I   wasn’t   getting   any  
financial support from anyone but my parents. I had enough of that and I wanted to
start giving back to them. I was an adult now and they had to continue to pay for
my  studies,  and  coaching.  It  just  didn’t  feel  like  it  was  fair.  So  a  lot  of  my  decision  
was based on no funding.
As presented earlier in this chapter, it is important for athletes to prepare for a post-sport
career and also plan for retirement. Data analysis across the three phases indicated that a
small number of athletes (n=8) had prepared for retirement. Athletes shared with the
researcher that savings, buying assets (particularly a house) and graduating from
university were their primary approach to preparing for retirement. A distribution of

65

athletes’  preparation  for  retirement  by country is presented in Table 2 show that only two
athletes from Botswana though of retirement when they were senior athletes.
Table 2: Athletes Retirement Planning by Country
Country

N Think of retirement at
senior stage

Prepared for
Retirement

Planned
for
retirement

Botswana
Zimbabwe
South Africa
Namibia

7
4
4
2

2
3
1
2

2
2
0
2

2
2
0
2

Zimbabwe had the highest number of athletes who planned for retirement. None of the
athletes from South Africa thought of retirement in their senior stage. It is not surprising
for elite athletes not to think of retirement in their careers in elite sport. The conflict
between motivation for success in sport and preparation for a post-sport career (or
retirement) is evident throughout athletes’ careers in sport. It is important for athletes to
focus and have high motivation to achieve significant success (e.g. winning an Olympic
medal) in sport. Some entourage members (i.e., coaches) may influence athletes to
exclusively focus in sport (Blinde & Greendorfer, 1985) even at the expense of
education. Athletes’ focus on other factors of life (e.g., education) may be viewed as
distraction from success in sport. Past research (Brewer et al, 1993) affirms that high
athletic identity and an exclusive focus in sport may force athletes to neglect other
aspects of life in order to fulfill the athlete role. The conflict between high motivation for
success in sport and a focus on planning for retirement may also force athletes to sacrifice
spending time with family and friends, and other important aspects of their life such as
proper career planning, which may be detrimental in athletes retirement transition. It is
66

therefore important for educators, federations and sport programs to consider developing
more flexible programming for gifted athletes without compromising the time and quality
requirements as established by education departments in each country.

Consistent with sport psychology literature (Alfermann et al., 2004) on
retirement transition, psychological impact of involuntary retirement included sense of
vulnerability, panic, nervousness, and lack of control during retirement transition. In
some cases, some athletes (n=4) presented a sense of feeling denial of the circumstances
that they had to retire from competitive sport. All involuntary retirees showed similar
experiences regardless of country of origin. These athletes made an attempt to return to
elite sport but could not continue for a period of not more than a single season.
Participant # 12 from South Africa shared psychological experiences of not making the
team after working hard to return to playing.
I was devastated. I was desperate to make the team, I was training really
hard. I thought I made a good enough recovery to be at the level that I
needed to be to play. But the coaches in the selection thought differently. I
was in a bad place.
Similar to participant  #  12’s  experiences,  participant # 6 from Botswana shared with the
researcher that he was more concerned about returning to athletics than planning
retirement transition when asked about circumstances surrounding his retirement and
services available for athletes who retire from competitive sport.
No, when you retire they do not give you anything, not even money. For
me I never really fought on the side of money. I was fighting to return. I
was hopeful that I will come back to athletics.

67

It was clear during the interview process that Participant # 6 wanted to
continue competing and was not ready for retirement. His retirement was due to a career
ending injury. The quotes presented above demonstrate typical examples of athletes who
retired involuntarily and worked hard in anticipation that they return to competing. Even
though all athletes shared sentiments of worry, disappointment and missing their sport, it
was clear during the data analysis process that involuntary retires without job a or
university education (n=6) were more concerned about source of income to support their
families. Consistent with statements shared by participant #6 (athlete from Botswana),
there were no services available specific to athletes who retired from competitive sport in
all the four countries except an International Olympic Committee career-planning
program in South Africa. However, even though a South Africa federation official shared
that the program had recently been implemented, athletes did not have much information
on the program. Participant # 10 from Zimbabwe explained to the researcher that
unavailability of retirement transition services was a problem in Zimbabwe. Participant #
10 also shared with the researcher how he prepared and coped with retirement transition.

That’s  a  big problem in Zimbabwe. Most athletes  don’t  prepare  for  life  after  
sport. A lot of them are unemployed and struggle with their lives despite the
fact that they did very well in sport. For me, I can say I was fortunate because
I prepared myself for life after sport. I had passed my high school exam and I
have a good job. During my athletic career, I took sport management courses.
Most  of  my  colleagues  in  sport  didn’t  have  basic  education.  They  cannot  find  
jobs or do sport courses because they do not have basic  education.  So  that’s  
the  major  problem  with  other  athletes.  But  for  me,  I  don’t  have  a  problem.  I’m  
comfortable with what I have.
Completing secondary school accorded athletes the opportunity to further their studies
during and in post-sport career. Participant # 10 affirmed that, passing secondary school

68

exams accorded him the opportunity to take advantage of short sport management
courses that are offered by local and international sports federations to further his studies.
Completing university education did not only accord athletes the opportunity to further
their studies but also to seek employment in a variety of disciplines such as teaching,
finance, and marketing depending on their university qualification. Completing
secondary school and university positively facilitated athletes’ experiences, particularly
in post-sport career adaptation.
As indicated earlier, financial challenges during retirement transition were most
evident in athletes (n=6) who did not complete college education and or source of
income. Upon retirement, athletes realized that they needed another source of income
because they heavily relied on appearance fees and allowances from competing
internationally for their countries. Athletes used words such  as  “facing  life”  to  refer  to  
their experiences in transition from competitive sport. Such experiences brought a sense
worry, panic, and nervousness. Their immediate worry that athletes had was supporting
their families financially. In some cases, athletes had to live with friends or family
members because they did not have a place to live since they had lived abroad in their
career in sport. Participant # 6 from Botswana retired after a career ending injury. He
shared his experiences with the researcher after retirement.

At that point when you retire, there are things that you face in life. You get
challenges. You need to have a source of financial support. So what
happened with me was that, I was just about to break through into making
money.  I  can’t  say I was making enough to rely on yet. What I could do next
was either look for a job or do some courses.

69

Consistent with participant # 6’s  comments, participant # 13 from South Africa shared
similar comments with the researcher during the interview process that his immediate
worry after retirement was supporting his family.
My immediate worry was the ability to support my two boys. When you're
(sport) you're make money and paying your bills. But when you stop,
there's nothing that's coming. You're used to the lifestyle that money is
coming in and out but when you retire, it's only going out. My worry was if
I was able to get a good job and to be able to get back to the South African
society.
In addition to lack of financial resources, one of involuntary retirees felt isolated.
Participant # 5 expressed a sense of isolation after his retirement from competitive sport.
If you get injured today or you retire without anything nobody will even
think of you or where you are. We will meet you at the bus rank (bus
station) looking very old, tired and without anything. I had a similar
situation but I was lucky to go back to school just before it happened to
me.
Returning to school and finding alternative sources of income are some of the strategies
athletes used to cope with financial challenges during their retirement transition. Athletes
also joined federations, became coaches, did public speaking (only in South Africa) and
engaged in other sport related activities for income and to remain within sports circles.
4.2.2 Summary:Type of Retirement from Sport
It was clear during the data analysis that athletes’ experiences upon
retirement were more crucial in understanding their type of retirement and post-sport
career. For example, all (n=6) athletes who did not complete university education
experienced financial insecurities during retirement transition, regardless of their
nationality. It is worth noting that South African athletes had support resources such as
sponsors and or part-time jobs, which played a crucial role to prepare them for a post70

sport career in sport. These athletes were able to have post-sport careers emanate from
their part-time employment when they were elite athletes. A further discussion of
challenges that athletes face in their career in elite sport as well as during transition is
presented in the next paragraphs.
4.2.3 Major Theme # 2 Elite Athletes’ Challenges. Athletes experienced a
variety of challenges in their careers in sport. The most profound challenges that athletes
faced include lack financial resources to compete at an elite level, lack of training
facilities, lack of trained coaches, and lack of trained medical personnel. Athletes
experienced most of these challenges in their senior stage and retirement transition.
Athletes and their entourage members explained to the researcher that in some cases, they
did not have access to information, which resulted in more challenges. A spouse of an
athlete from Zimbabwe summarized some of the challenges that her husband and other
elite athletes from developing athletes experienced during their career in sport.
I think when you come from an underdeveloped country you have a lot of
other challenges that come your way and I think, never mind financially, its
logistically, its lack of internet, its not being able to communicate, its
hearing about things at the last minute. For example at the Olympics, no
one communicated the rule with regard to the kits logs until last minute.
(Athlete name) literally was with (coach name) taping over his logos and
changing his bike and covering logos with tape. You know those kind of
rules   weren’t   communicated   effectively   to   (athlete   name).   First   world  
countries  athletes  don’t  have  to  deal  with  these  challenges,  they  come  with  
the best equipment, and the best bikes. I mean, there were people in (city
name) who had to weight their bikes because their bikes were too lite. And
now you have a little third world (country name) arriving and his bike
weighs  double  anyone  else’s  bike.
Data analysis showed that even though athletes from South Africa experienced financial
challenges, they had local sponsors to give them financial support and part-time jobs.
Athletes from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe did not have local sponsors hence
71

relied primarily on their government and international sponsors. Participant # 11 from
Zimbabwe also affirmed that financial challenges were profound in his elite career in
sport. To address financial challenges, Participant # 11 explained to the researcher that he
raised money to support his (year) Olympic games qualification tour.
The last 2 to 3 months trying to qualify for (city) were really hard for me
from all points. I was always trying to fight always trying to raise money
to get to races. I got it but I had to fight really hard to get it and it took a
lot of energy.
Lack of training equipment and other resources posed a lot of challenges for athletes from
Botswana,  Namibia  and  Zimbabwe.  Participant  #  16’s  coach  from  Namibia  explained  to  
the researcher that they have a 25m-heated pool. However, when participants# 16 was an
elite athlete, they did not have a heated pools for swimming in winter. In order to train in
winter, they focused on endurance, weight lifting, and some mental exercises. The coach
also shared with the researcher that in some cases, they used wood burning stove to heat
their swimming pool.
We did a more all rounded training with a lot of endurance training, and
weight lifting. To avoid being bored in the longer sense, I would give
them quizzes or riddles to solve. Sometimes we would heat a pool with
word-burning stove, what we call a donkey.
It should be noted that a lot of athletes from Botswana, Namibia Zimbabwe consistently
mentioned that they trained in South Africa and industrialized nations (i.e., England,
Germany and Norway). Access to world-class sport facilities and medical treatment are
some of the reasons shared by athletes for training abroad. Major races that athletes took
part in took place mostly in Europe. Competing in Europe also created some challenges
for athletes who were in school while competing in major world competitions such as the

72

Olympics. The next chapter will discuss athletes’ experiences and the importance of
balancing a career in and outside of sport.
4.2.4 Major Theme # 3: Balancing Sport and Other Careers. The researcher learned
that even though a variety of factors facilitated retirement transition, education, part-time
and or full-time job, and engaging in other activities played a crucial role in facilitating
retirement transition. Completing secondary school accorded athletes the opportunity to
further their studies during their career in sport as well as in post-sport career.
Completing university education did not only accord athletes the opportunity to further
their studies but also to seek employment in a variety of disciplines such as teaching,
finance, and marketing depending on their university degrees. Athletes who were
employed part-time or full time were only observed in South Africa and Zimbabwe (an
athlete from Zimbabwe living in South Africa). Athletes who had part-time jobs
suggested that it was a great way to learn skills that were useful in their post-sport career
and also to give them an opportunity to be employed full time upon retirement from
competitive sport. Athletes did not only share the benefits of dual career but they were
also visible in athletes who had jobs and/or completed higher education. These athletes
were quick to mention to the researcher that they were teachers and/or worked in other
fields of their post-sport career. Participant # 12 from South Africa shared with the
researcher that she had a job during her career in elite sports.
I had a job, which was kind of in the marketing field. The company I
worked for understood my needs as an elite athlete. They hired me fulltime and also gave me extra time off to train in the morning and at night,
which did not affect my leave time. I was paid most of the time at
competitions.

73

As presented in Table 1, at least athletes (n=10) successfully completed a university
degree while competing in elite sport at the same time. Even though the study did not
look  into  the  type  of  jobs  and  athletes’  income,  all  retired  athletes  (n=17) were employed
during the data collection of the project. It is therefore important for future research to
focus on the type of jobs that retired athletes do. Competing at the elite level and working
part-time jobs accorded athletes unique skills and experiences that they used in their postsport career. In South Africa, some athletes had an arrangement of part-time work with
their sponsors. These athletes were able to use such skills efficiently and their social
network as resources for a post-sport  career.  An  athlete’s  employer/sponsor  from  
Zimbabwe (they lived in South Africa) shared with the researcher that they discussed
what was best for the athlete when he retired from competitive sport.

So (name) had been working for us part time since 2009. We also supported
him financially in terms of some of the events he needed to go to last year
over the salary we gave him. So when he was coming up to his retirement,
we  sat  down  and  he  said  “look  I'm  retiring”  and  we  had  a  very  open  dialogue  
on what his career aspirations were. I think there was a lot of support just like
when anyone is coming to work for you full time and the career
conversations and so on. Yea, it was very involved between us.
The  sponsor/employer’s  company  was  based  in  South  Africa  but  sponsored  a  
Zimbabwean athlete based in South Africa. Athletes who worked part-time in their elite
sport mentioned to the researcher that the skills learnt were useful in their post-sport
career and it was not challenging to get such part-time jobs in sport industry companies.
Participant # 12 shared her experience of working part-time while she was an elite
athlete.
I guess sport people like to work with other sport people. They know the
74

dedication and commitment that it takes to be an elite athlete and they can
relate that back to their work at their job. In marketing my field is relatable
to sport and some people like to hire those that know what it takes to be an
athlete and relate that to their job.
It was clear during the interview with Participant # 12 that she learned to transfer her
sport-learned skills, such as commitment and determination, to her part-time job in
marketing. The ability for athletes to transfer sport-learned skills is crucial for post-sport
career adaptation. Athletes who are able to transfer their skills are more likely to adapt to
their post-sport career faster and be able to use sport-learned skills such as teamwork,
resiliency, and positive thinking which are taught in sports. Even though it was clear that
balancing school and sport facilitated retirement transition, athletes experienced a lot of
challenges balancing school and sport.
Athletes (n=10) who successfully completed a university degree during their elite
career in sport also shared challenges they came across in finding the balance between
school and sport. Data analysis indicated that it required patience, resiliency, time
management skills and social support to successfully balance school and sport. In some
cases, athletes made a conscious decision with their parents to withdraw from university
in order to train for the Olympics but in other cases, athletes were dropped from
university by their respective institutions. Participant #2, an Olympian from Botswana
had moved to study overseas when she learned that she had qualified for the Olympics
and decided to focus on training for the Olympic games instead of starting her university
studies. Participant #2 explained to the researcher the decision she made.
I actually had moved to the UK. My (extended family member) lives there
and I moved there with them to go study. I registered to study psychology,
but about four months before I started I got a call that I had qualified for
the Olympics. I had to talk to my parents and they told me that it was
75

entirely up to me but if it were them, they would definitely go to the
Olympics   and   not   give   up   an   opportunity   like   that.   That’s   where   I   am  
today.
Upon  Participant  #  2’s  retirement  from  competitive  sport, she completed a swimmingcoaching course in the United States funded by her parents. Table 3 shows athletes
highest academic qualification during data collection by country.
Table 3: Athletes’ highest Academic Qualification
Country
Botswana
Zimbabwe
South Africa
Namibia

N
7
4
4
2

Athletes highest academic qualification
Senior secondary Diploma University degree
school
3
1
3
1
2
2
1
0
2

Graduate
degree
1
1

In a similar case, the university dropped participant # 15 from South Africa after 6 years.
The  quote  below  is  Participant  #  15’s  response  from  the  researcher  when  she  was  asked  
about her experience when she was at the university while competing in elite sport.

Ooh f*** well, we are all growing and learning how to make sports more
professional.   I   was   there   for   six   years   and   I   didn’t   qualify   or   I   still   don’t  
have a degree. I will never blame anyone because I was an adult and I made
my decisions, hockey was my thing, my number one thing and its difficult
to play for the national team and get a degree. I would miss lectures
because of training. It came a time where it was almost pointless for me to
be in a lecture because I would go in to the Gym in the morning from six to
seven, then go to lectures before lunch-time. I would then go for a 30 to 40
minute run. Now I am tired. I go to lectures in the afternoon, then in the
evening  I  have  a  skill  session  and  that’s  my  day.    “You  are  in  class,  and  its  
just showing up. Your mind is everywhere and you are literally napping in
your  mind”.  

76

Participant # 15 also made suggestion on the best possible way to help students who
compete internationally for their countries to cope with balancing school and sport.
They should say you are here to do (sport), your degree takes three years
but from history, you will take five or six years. No way I would juggle
that, its almost impossible. Maybe just take half of each semester load then
you can cope. No one tells you that when you apply for varsity and when
they   give   you   a   full   scholarship.   No   one   tells   you   that   it’s   going   to   be  
difficult  and  they  help  you  where  they  can  like  missing  class  and  you  can’t  
substitute  that.  You  can’t  substitute  for  time  in  class.
Participant # 11, an Olympian from Zimbabwe shared his experiences of competing
internationally. He goes further to share his concerns regarding support from his
university in balancing school and sport.
So basically growing up through senior secondary school, I was fortunate
enough that I went to two world championships. With that, then university
got  in  the  way  and  I  didn’t  think  I  would  really  be  continuing  with  the  sport  
that   much.   I   went   to   (university   name),   which   wasn’t   really   renowned   for  
sports such as (sport). It was in the end of my second year at university that I
really wanted to give it a go again.
Participant #6 from Botswana shared that he had a choice and did not consider balancing
school and sport to be viable at the time because he was doing well in sport as early
senior secondary school.
There was a choice. I could have maybe tried to focus more on academics and try
to balance it with athletics. I did not consider it to be a viable option at that time.
Maybe I should go back to re-write some of the subjects so that I can be admitted
to a college or university.
Participant  #  6’s  comments  are  consist  with  research  (Blinde & Greendorfer, 1985) that
suggests that athletes may focus on sport at the expense of being a student because the
public clamors for a winner and success.

77

Challenges of navigating elite sport and higher education were also shared
by  coaches  and  other  entourage  members.  Participant  #6  and  Participant  #  5’s  coach  from  
Botswana shared with the researcher that the system or structure of sport makes it
difficult for students to balance school and sport. The coach also shared that coaches and
parents should encourage athletes to find balance between school and sport or else,
athletes would choose sport over school.
It is very difficult to balance school and sport especially in our system here.
I think it is the role of parents and coaches to encourage athletes to balance
school and sport otherwise the players would drop from school and go elite.
Three athlete participants had enrolled in the university and one did not start while the
university dropped the other two. What was most common in these athletes decision was
that they both chose sport over their university studies. The role played by universities,
coaches, and parents in supporting athletes through elite sport and higher education is
crucial. Participant #3, a retired Botswana (sport) shared that the most challenging times
of his career in sport were juggling sport and education. The athlete further shared that
sport also provided an opportunity to refresh from schoolwork and come rejuvenated.
The challenge with me would be juggling sport and education. It proved to be
very difficult because sometimes I would miss classes and exams. I would
miss out on a lot of content and when I come back, I have to really work hard
to cover up. In a way, I would benefit because I would have refreshed and
study well. That was a big challenge. Sometimes I would not attend
international camps because I was a doing school work. But it did not stop me
from working hard to achieving results. The university and my coach were
very supportive.
It is therefore very improtant for athetes to have career guidanve and academc support
diring their career in sport and school. Athletes inability to balance school and sport may
78

pose some challenges leading to atheletes being dropped from university or choosing
sport over education.

4.2.5 Summary: Balancing Sport and Other Careers
The theme of dual career revealed that even though balancing sport with other
career such as school and employment is a challenge to a lot of athletes, it is important in
facilitating long–term post sport career transition and adaptation. Completing university
education accorded athletes the opportunity to further their studies and also seek
employment in a variety of disciplines such as teaching, finance, and marketing
depending on their university degrees.

4.3 Results by Secondary Objectives
The secondary objective of this dissertation was to establish the role of the
entourage on elite athletes’   retirement   transition and also make cross-national
comparisons, looking specifically at budgets, population size, and sport organizational
structure. In addition, this section provides general results on factors that facilitate elite
athletes’ involvement in sport observed in Southern Africa. Table 4 provides athletes and
entourages that were interviewed in this dissertation. A sub-objective was to examine the
availability of retirement transition for elite athletes in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa
and Zimbabwe.

79

Table 4: Athletes and Entourage Members Interviewed
Athlete
Jocy
Julie
Missy
Helder
Brad
David
Anne
Nick
Bill
Mmoloki
Joe
Daniel

Gender
F
F
F
M
M
M
F
M
M
M
M
M

Trice
M
Ellis
M
Thato
M
Mod
M
Thabo
F
Federation officials
Total entourage members

Marital status
Married
Single
Single
Married
Single
Divorced
Single
Married
Married
Single
Married
Married

Sport
Swimming
F-Hockey
F-hockey
Rowing
Biking
Athletics
Rowing
Triathlon
Athletics
Athletics
Cross country
Athletics

Married
Single
Married
Married
Married
Botswana -3

Athletics
Boxing
Boxing
Gymnastics
Swimming
Namibia-1

Entourage members interviewed
Parent and coach
Coach
Parent and coach
Parent
Spouse
Parent, spouse, coach and sponsor
Coach
Coach, spouse, and family focus group (father, mother, 3
siblings)
Spouse
Parent and coach
Spouse, coach, and parent
Spouse, parent and 2 coaches
South Zimbabwe-1
Africa
-1
35

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4.3.1 Major theme # 4: Social and Financial Support. This dissertation
observed that in addition to having university education, entourages played a crucial role
in facilitating athletes’  retirement  transition.  Financial  and  social  support from family
(i.e., spouse and parents) and other entourage members (i.e., coach and federations)
played a crucial role in facilitative retirement from competitive sport. As presented in
previous chapters, Athletes shared with the researcher that they did not have any
retirement transition services from federations and or their respective governments.
Research (Beer & Pretorius, 2011; Côté, 1999; Gould et al., 2006) on parental
involvement and other members of the entourage suggests that different members of the
entourage play different  roles  at  different  stages  in  athletes’  careers  in  sport. This
dissertation (see Table 5 and 6) observed that parents and teachers play a crucial role in
supporting athletes at the beginning of their careers while the federations and the coach
were observed to play a profound role at senior and late stage in athletes careers. Table 5
presents  elite  athletes  entourage  profiles  across  the  four  stages  in  athletes’  careers.  

Table 5: Athletes Entourage Profiles
Age

11
Start
Teacher
Parents
Siblings
Ext family

14
Junior
Coach
Teacher
Parents
Federation

18
Senior
Coach
Federation
Parents
Friends

33
Retirement
Family
Coach
Federation
Friends

Members of the entourage that were introduced for the first time in the literature
particularly in Southern Africa include the role played by spouses, federations, schools
81

and extended family members. It is not surprising that schools play a crucial role at the
beginning of athlete career in sport given sport programs in school across different
African countries. The next paragraph and table (table 6) provides more details on the
role of the entourage particularly school and parental involvement in the early years of
athletes careers in sport and the role of spouses and coaches during retirement transition.

Table 6: Summary of Athlete Stages and Raw Data
Athlete Phases
Start
School

M
age
11

I took part in sports because there was sport at school
My parents gave us the opportunity to play sport right from the start.
Sport is a general requirement in Zimbabwean school

School
Junior
Parents

14

Coach/Teacher
Senior
Federation

18

My parents were supporting me because I was also getting an education
In terms of support, my high school coaches were the ones that used to push
me.
They provided the vehicle with which to develop
They provided a good relationship with international sporting bodies
Had a passionate athletics and swimming coach
I got support especially from my coach

Coach
Retirement
Family
Federation

Raw data

33
I had my family and my wife
Probably my fiancée because she encouraged me a lot but sometimes she
would  just  say,  “  go  ahead  and  get  a  job  and  start  working”.  
They gave me a really great send off and felt being appreciated; it made me
feel great about the transition and the position I was taking.

Playing a variety of sports before specialization provides youth athletes with a wide base
of movement skills before they specialize in the sport of their choice. School systems in
Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe provided athletes with the opportunity
to play structured sport at the beginning of their careers in sport. Participant # 11, an
athlete from Zimbabwe who was introduced to swimming buy his parents and had a lot of
support from his parents explained to the researcher that the Zimbabwean school system
82

accorded him and others the opportunity to play a variety of sports before specializing in
his sport of choice.
Growing up in Zimbabwe school system, you go through a lot of sports.
Some afternoons in winter you have to play rugby and hockey, which I did.
I was also a competitive swimmer. I was a captain in both junior and senior
school. I did cross-country running in junior school and I loved it. Even in
senior school up until my third year in senior school I still played rugby
and hockey. I stopped rugby and hockey because I was focusing more on
(sport).
Parental involvement is crucial in supporting athletes in their career in sport from the
beginning to retirement. Participant # 16 from Namibia shared with the researcher that
her parents gave her the freedom to make decisions on her practice sessions. Her parents
did not force her to attend  practice  sessions  if  she  didn’t  want  to  attend.  
They  were  always  there,  but  there  wasn’t  pressure  from  their  side  for  me  to  
do  anything  I  did  not  like  or  didn’t  enjoy.  It  was  more  of  a  supporting  
structure  than  anything  else.  If  I  didn’t  want  to  go  to  the  training  session  
they  said,  “then  don’t  go,  stay at  home”.  But  I  went  anyways.  They  
respected decisions of what I wanted to do. When we had training camps
they made arrangements that we could be there. They were more in the
background more than anything else, but for me it was an absolute
foundation.
Consistent with Participant #16 comments, Participant #2 from Botswana indicated that
her parents introduced her to swimming and went further to share that her parents
enrolled her to a club. Participant #2 also acknowledged that the school organized
competitions that accorded her the opportunity to compete with other students.
My family, I was taught swimming as a life skill at that age. At that age we
did a few little competitions at school. It came around then that I actually
had talent because I was winning races. At about ten years old my parents
took  me  to  a  club  and  that’s  when  it  started.  Basically  it  was  my  parents  and  

83

coach  that  really  got  me  involved  and  I  was  talented  and  I  shouldn’t  throw  it  
away.
Participant # 11 from Zimbabwe also shared with the researcher the role-played by his
parents created a family environment that accorded him and his brother to play a variety
of sports.
It was definitely my parents. I was very fortunate to have my family. I have
2 brothers, my older brother played cricket, I did swimming and rugby, and
my younger brother also did swimming and water polo. My parents were
very passionate in making sport a part of our lives. So they did give us the
means to do that. So growing up in Zimbabwe, it was definitely my parents
who gave us the opportunity to do that, right from the start.
In addition to parental and school support at the beginning of athletes careers, it was
evident in the data analysis that close entourages such as parents, siblings, and spouses
availed themselves to spend time with athletes during retirement transition. Entourages
and athlete participants shared with the researcher during the interview process that in
addition to financial and social support, engaging in multiple roles (having a life partner)
and activities (continued active life style) and spending time with family kept athletes
engaged in something meaningful. Spouses of retired athletes shared with the researcher
that retirement from an elite sport was an opportunity for their life partners to focus their
energy  on  their  relationship.  Participant  #  11’s  spouse  shared  her  experiences  and  ideas  
on  the  role  she  played  in  her  husband’s  retirement  transition  as  well  as  providing  some  
positive outcomes after retirement.
Obviously  it’s  been  quite  a  change  but  I  think  it  helps  if  you’re  proactive  with  
other  activities.  For  example,  now  we  can  go  to  the  gym  and  it’s  not  this  athlete  
who runs 3 minutes a K and his wife who is running 5 and half minutes a K.
Now we can do things together you can stay active in a different way. For
example, (name) and I do a lot off road and obstacle courses so we race
84

together almost every weekend. He may do 18 K and ill do the 12 K but we go
together and we do different things so we are still keeping active. So I think
instead of putting all that energy into himself and his progress we now put that
energy into our progress and us together. So I think that helps, we put a diary
together  of  things  to  keep  us  active  which  is  fantastic  and  that’s  been  key  to  the  
transition.
Participant  #  5’s  spouse  also  shared  similar  sentiments  with  the  researcher  that  in  addition  
to providing financial support the family, she provided social support to her husband
during retirement transition.
I had a job so I made sure that we had food all the time. What my son and
I also did was to make him understand that the best thing he can do to
“survive”  (deal  with  retirement)  is  to  focus  on  his  family  and  most  
importantly start training our son; he was around seven years at the time of
his (participant # 5) retirement. We also made him realize that there are a
lot of young athletes he can help develop to the level he did.
In addition to the role played by the entourage in providing social support, Participant #
11 from Zimbabwe shared with the researcher that even though there are no retirement
transition services, he felt recognized and appreciated by his federation when they staged
a send off ceremony in for his retirement.
There   isn’t   really   any   support   for   anyone   who   retires,   but   the (federation
name) really went out of their way to give me a really good send off in my
final (sport). They awarded me with a gift of an awards function in my name.
So they gave me a really great emotional thanks and an emotional send off. I
also had a full time job that I could get into. I was working part time for
(Company name) and it was a stepping-stone into something else. My fiancée
and I already had a wedding planned for December. It was all these factors.
Participant #11 provides evidence that even though there were no retirement transition
services, recognitions from the federation, having a job, and a life factors were crucial in
supporting his retirement transition. Table 7 presents the number of athletes who were

85

married, single and those that were divorced during data collection. Only six athletes
were single and one divorced.
Table 7: Athletes’ Marital status by Country
Country
Botswana
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Namibia
Total

N
7
4
4
2
17

Married
5
1
3
1
10

Divorced/separated Single
2
1
2
1
1
1
6

It should be noted however that even though parents provided social support to elite
athletes’  retirement  transition,  some  athletes  (n=8-Botswana-6, Zimbabwe- 1, and South
Africa-1) shared with the researcher that their parents were less involved at the beginning
of their careers in sport. When Participant #3 was asked about his parental involvement,
he explained that his parents were not forth coming in supporting his career in sport
particularly at the beginning. His parents were not against his participation in sport, but
they were mostly concerned about his schoolwork.
My   parents   didn’t   care   much   about   what   I   did   except   my   school.   They   saw  
sport as part of playing. They were not against it, but they were not coming
forward to provide some specific support towards sports. I will chat with my
father  and  he  would  say,  “I  hear   you   fight   people  and   you  are  so  tiny.  They  
will  kill  you.”
Consistent   with   Participant   #3’s   experiences   with lack of parental involvement at the
beginning of his career in sport, Participant #10 from Zimbabwe shared similar
sentiments and made generalizations in Africa, parents are more concerned about school
and fear that sport may temper with progress in school.

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You know in Africa, our parents normally want you to concentrate in your
schoolwork first and after that you can do sport. They think that sport is
playing.  My  parents  thought  that  I  was  playing  and  I  wasn’t  concentrating  
on my schoolwork. They were worried that maybe I was going to fail in
school.
It is important to note that for both Participant #3 and Participant 10, their parents may
have considered sport as part of play not a profession that can be undertaken for a career.
Parents confirmed during the interview process that their primary concern was for their
children to get the education they need from school.
Consistent  with  Participants  #3  and  10’s  comments,  past  research  (Chappell,
2004; Malete, 2006) in Southern Africa shows that Batswana (People of Botswana) and
some cultures in Southern Africa may view sport as mainly play for fun and enjoyment.
For example, in Setswana (language for Tswana speaking ethnic groups in Southern
Africa), the term sport is loosely translated as tshameka, which means play that is not
serious and that cannot be considered for anything serious. This may have an influence in
the parents perception of playing sports as waste time and not engaging in something
serious with their lives. In Ikalanga, (another language in Southern Africa) sport is also
loosely translated as zana, which means playing and the word can be used to refer to
someone who is not serious with whatever they are doing. It is worth noting that the use
of such words implication may only be applicable in Southern Africa and may not make
sense to other culture. The researcher used these examples to provide more context and
understanding of parental involvement to athletes in Southern Africa. A federation
official from Botswana affirmed that entourage involvement varies, but parents are the
least  engaged  in  their  kids’  sport.

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That's absolutely right, the level of engagement varies from the involvement
of teachers, spouses to parents. I easily agree with them because their
parents are the least engaged. Here in the (Federation name), we would like
to see a change in that for greater parent involvement because in our view
the greater parental involvement the better the athlete does.
In cases where parents were not highly involved in supporting their children at the
beginning of their careers, teachers played a crucial role in supporting athletes by
providing them with resources to play sport even outside school. Participant # 3 from
Botswana explained to the researcher that his teacher/coach supported him financially at
the beginning of his career in sport. He shared with the researcher that his teacher/coach
bought him his first ticket to Europe to compete in professional sport. The relationship
that Participant # 5 had with his teacher/coach properly fits the description of a parentchild relationship, even though they are not biologically related. Teachers in several
schools played a parental role once they identified a talented athlete with the potential to
succeed  in  professional  sport.  Participant  #  5’s  teacher/coach  provided  him  with  sport  
gear, running shoes and supplements as well as transport to competitions even those
outside the school calendar.
He bought me shoes. If you remember very well, I use to run barefooted. He
introduced me to spikes, bought me trainers and supplements. There is nobody
who can do that for you. He also drove me to competitions.

Research (Carron, 1978; Forde, McMahon, Gronn, & Martin, 2013; Gilbert & Trudel,
2004) in sport psychology on coach-athletes relationship  indicate  that  coach’s  role  goes  
beyond the technical and tactical instruction in the field. Coaches are considered parents
and mentors to athletes.

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4.3.2 Summary: Social and Financial Support
It was clear across the three phases of data collection that different entourage
members played different roles in athletes’ careers in sport. Parents and schools were
crucial at the beginning of athletes’ careers in sport but federation and spouses were more
profound at the end of athlete’s careers in sport. In addition to providing social support,
spouses also provided financial support to athletes that did not have jobs during
retirement. Spending time with family and engaging in a variety of activities were
observed to also play a crucial role in facilitating retirement. There were no available
retirement transitions services for retired athletes.
4.4 Comparisons Across Countires
Even though there may be cultural similarities between South Africa, Namibia,
Botswana and Zimbabwe, the South African economy, population size and infrastructural
development gives South Africa an edge to compete with industrialized nations such as
the United States, Germany and Russia. Even though the researcher was able to find the
South  Africa  annual  sport  budget,  SASCOC  ‘s  budget  for  the  2016  Rio  de  Janeiro  
Olympic games is estimated to about R400 million (about $37, 710, 912), which is by far
less that Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe budgets. For example, Botswana National
Sport Council Olympic games budget is small given that they send about four athletes on
average to the Olympic games. Botswana National Sport Council 2013/2014 budget was
P71, 158,990 ($810,469.26), which is smaller compared to the South Africa budget for
the 2016 Olympic games.
Botswana National Sports Council is responsible for reviewing and coordinating
National Sports Association budgets and distributing the government grants to the 34

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associations and Botswana National Olympic Committee. Even though the researcher
could  not  find  sport  budgets  for  Namibia  and  Zimbabwe,  the  nations’  GDPs  indicate  that  
they have lower gross income compared to Botswana and South Africa. As presented in
chapter 1, The 2010 FIFA World Cup budget was R15 billion ($2bn) with R8.4 billion
($1.1bn) spent in building five new stadiums and upgrading existing facilities, while
R6.4bn ($800m) was invested in public transport initiatives and supporting infrastructure
(“S  Africa  unveils  World  Cup  budget,”  2006). South Africa was the first country in
Southern Africa to have the capacity to host the football world cup. South Africa has the
second largest economy in Africa while Botswana ranked 18th, Namibia in the 25th spot
and lastly Zimbabwe ranked 31 (“Top  12  Largest  And  Strongest  African  Economies,”  
n.d.).
4.5 Minor Themes by Primary and Secondary Objectives
Minor themes observed in the study-included patriotism, entitlement, federation
politics, and race related politics. Athletes shared with the researcher that, even though
there were no services for retired athletes, it brought a sense of patriotism, pride, and love
for   their   countries.   Athletes   used   words   such   as   “ambassador”   to   refer   to   representing  
their countries at international competitions. Athletes and entourage their entourages
consistently used the politics to refer to some ways in which athletes used to navigate
federation experiences. Participants consistently mentioned that federation officials were
insecure   that   athletes   would   take   the   officials’   positions   upon   the   athletes’   retirement  
from competitive sport. The theme of race and politics came up only in South African
athletes. Three retired athletes shared with the researcher that they were unfairly judged

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because they were black. Athletes also shared that they had to work harder to impress
their white coaches in order to be in the team.
4.5.1 Athlete Patriotism. Data analysis indicated that athletes exemplified
patriotism and expressed love for their countries in many ways. During the interview
process, athletes talked passionately about their countries and what should be done to
improve sport in their respective countries. They consistently suggested that their
countries should emulate industrialized countries and also implement the long-term
athlete development models implemented in Canada. The researcher learned that athletes
felt entitled to be supported because they represented their countries abroad. They used
the  word  “ambassador”  in  reference to representing their countries abroad. Participant # 5
from Botswana suggested that the government should have a plan for retiring athletes.
Let me use this analogy for you. Parents of kids in pre-schools already
know which primary schools they will send their kids but here in Botswana
it’s  something  else.  You  have  to  represent  your  country  and  when  you  are  
done, there is nothing for you.

4.5.2 Lack of Retirement Transition Programs and Federation Politics.
All the four countries studied did not have retirement transition programs or post-sport
career training programs for elite athletes. Athletes could join federations and or chose to
coach after their elite career. Federations also employed some athletes, particularly those
who had tertiary education.
In some cases, athletes and their entourages shared that federation politics
impacted their participation in Sport. For example, three participants raised concerns that
they had problems with federation officials during their elite career in sport. Such
problems included athlete choice of the coach, funding from the federations, clearance to

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compete internationally and qualification rules interpretation. For example, some athletes
shared that federation officials did not provide enough support but expected athletes to
contribute 10% of their earnings to the federation coffers. Participant # 10 shared with the
researcher his experiences with his federation.
I have to be honest that there was the problem in my federation. There was
friction in my federation. Some of them were power-hungry and jealous.
That was the problem with my federation. They thought maybe if you
became successful you take over the positions of the management of the
federation, so at times we used to have some friction. At times, they wanted
about 10% of our earnings for nothing. I was sponsored by (two sponsor
names), so they used to fly me to different competitions. The federation
didn't give me enough support. If the federation had supported me, I
would've achieved a lot. I used to miss some of the competitions because
my federation failed to buy me flight tickets.
4.5.3 Bias and Racism. South African black athletes shared that white
coaches treated them unfairly. Athlete participants from South Africa shared that they
were subjected to more scrutiny than their white teammates. For Example, Participant #
15 consistently mentioned that the quota system in South African (sport) team during her
time subjected her and other black players to stereotypes that they did not earn to be in
the team but were brought in to meet the minimum number required by the policy. The
quota system in South Africa was implement to encourage black South Africans in sports
such as rugby and cricket continues to be discussed in South African media. Participant #
15 shared her experience watching men (sport) with the researcher.

I have sat in the stands watching the men (sport) team player in RSA and
players will go on and off the field and a non-white player will make a
mistake and you could hear this murmur around the stands. I know its not
everybody but if the player makes the same mistake and they would be like
haahaaa   a  “quota  player”.  Not  ever  thinking  that  this  guy  is   having   a  bad  
day today. A white player would make mistakes all the time but they won’t  
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see it that way, they will say John is off today.
It should be noted that the quota system and representation of black athletes is currently
being discussed in South African media to increase participation of black athletes in sport
such as hockey, rugby and swimming.

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Chapter 5: GENERAL DISCUSSION
The primary objective of this dissertation was to investigate elite athletes’
retirement transition experiences including  it’s  psychological  impacts and post-sport
career adaptation. The secondary objective was to establish an in-depth account of the
role  of  the  entourage  on  elite  athletes’  retirement  transition.  Lastly,  the  dissertation  makes  
cross-national comparisons, looking specifically at budgets, population size and sport
organizational structure impacts on sport development.
To address the objectives stated above, this dissertation used a grounded theory
research approach and development the to post-sport career adaptation model (figure 4).
The grounded theory approach was chosen to explore the experiences of retired elite
athletes and their entourage members because it accords the researcher the opportunity to
generate theory rather than impose theory on the data. The study observed three major
themes in the primary objective (type of retirement, dual-career, and challenges) as
crucial  in  elite  athletes’  retirement  transition and post-sport career and two major themes
(social and financial support) in the secondary objectives. Brief summaries of major
findings are discussed in the following paragraphs.
The first major theme of type of retirement was derived from interviews with
athletes and entourages to explain reasons for retirement and post sport career adaptation.
Sub-themes observed under type of retirement were voluntary and involuntary. The
second major theme observed in the study was dual-career. This finding reflected the
athletes’  balance  between  school  and  sport  as  primary  in  preparing  for  a  post-sport career
transition and adaptation. Sub-themes observed under the major theme dual-career were
graduating from university, full-time  job  during  one’s  career  in  sport  and part-time job

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during  one’s  career  in  sport. The last major theme observed in the study was challenges.
It was clear from the respondents that athletes faced challenges including lack of
financial resources to maintaining an elite sport career and support during retirement
transition. Sub-themes observed under the major theme of challenges were financial
resources, lack of trained coaches, lack of facilities, and lack trained medical personnel.
Consistent  with  literature  on  retirement  transition,  the  study  observed  that  athletes’  
experiences in elite sport are crucial in explaining not only their retirement transition, but
also their post-sport career adaptation. The three key findings from this dissertation are
that there is a need to balance school and sport, it is important for federations and other
major stakeholders to provide services for athletes in retirement transition and lastly,
athletes should be provided with medical care to help them deal with injuries. Even
though there are some reports (“Retiring  Olympic  Athletes  May  be  at  Risk  of  Substance  
Abuse,  Studies  Suggest,”  2012) that some athletes in retirement transition may fail to
adapt into the community and resort to drugs, this dissertation did not observed any
maladaptation to that level in Southern Africa. Athletes who did not have jobs made an
attempt to find employment and seek support from entourage members to adapt to the
community.

Results from primary objectives of this study are discussed within Wylleman and
Lavelle’s  (2004)  Lifespan  Model  of  Athlete  Development  and  Taylor  and  Ogilvie  
(1994)’s  Conceptual  Model  of  Adaptation  to  Career  Transition.  The  primary  reason  for  
choosing these models to guide primary objectives results is that they incorporates
transitions and experiences occurring in the athletic domain as well as those occurring in

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other  domains  of  athletes’  lives.  In  order  to  understand  elite  athletes’  career  paths,  it  is  
crucial to take into account developmental transitions occurring outside sport, such as
athlete psychological, vocational/academic, and psychosocial development (Wylleman et
al., 2004).
Results from this dissertation extend theory and the understanding of elite athletes
particularly on the role of the entourage on retirement transition. For example, the
Lifespan Model of Athlete does not have federation and teachers as entourage members
in athletes’ careers but this dissertation observed that in cases where parents are not fully
involved in their kids’ participation in sport, the federation and school played a crucial
role making sure that kids have access to playing sport. The Lifespan Model does not
take into account the role played by extended family members, but discusses the role
played by close family members. Results from this dissertation are able to extend the
Lifespan Model to include extended family members and other members of the entourage
as presented in Table 5.
Results from this dissertation were consistent with the Conceptual Model of
Adaptation to Career Transition. Consistent with the model(Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994),
causal factors that initiate the retirement process (i.e., age, injury, and free choice) were
crucial in explaining athletes retirement transition. Depending on the cause of withdrawal
from competitive sport, developmental experiences and tertiary contributors either
facilitated retirement or because a challenge for the athlete to overcome. For example,
involuntary retirees made an attempt to return to sport but eventually retired. There were
no available resources/services for retired athletes, which created a deficit in athlete’s
retirement transition, particularly in those that did not have university education to be

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immediately employed. The resources required (i.e., social and financial support) for
coping with retirement are crucial for athletes. Research (Bloom, 1985; Côté, 1999;
Wylleman et al., 2004) demonstrates that members of the entourage (i.e., family, peers,
and coaches) provide needed support during athlete development and retirement.

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Figure 4: Paths to Post-Sport Career Adaptation

New career

Voluntary retirement

•
•

•
•
•

Change of career
Start family
•
•
•

Identity shift
Missing sport
Rediscovery

Dual Career
Type
Retirement

Path to Post Sport Career Adaptation
•
Return to school
•
Employment
•
Social support
•
Patience
•
Resilience

Challenges
•
Identity shift
•
Missing sport
•
Rediscovery
•
Unemployment
•
Financial challenges

No new career yet

•
•
•
•

Involuntary retirement

•
•

Teacher
Coach
Public speaking

Injured
Deselection

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Try to return to sport
Try to maintain sport identity
Unemployment
Isolation

Post Sport
Career
Adaptation

The Path to Post-Sport Career Model was developed through the grounded
theory approach using major theoretical constructs observed in this dissertation. Major
themes in the model include circumstances surrounding retirement (type of retirement),
dual career, challenges, support from entourages and athletes’ ability to find paths to post
sport career adaptation. It should be noted that involuntary retirees who did not have
university education were immediately looking for jobs to support their families after
retirement. Even though some of them were not satisfied with their new jobs, athletes
preferred to have jobs than roam the streets. Athletes shared with the researcher as
presented in this chapter that supporting their families was a priority. Given
unemployment rate of about 60% in Zimbabwe, 37% in Namibia, 25% in South Africa
and 17% in Botswana, athletes may not necessarily have a choice in selecting jobs and
seeking for satisfaction. A further discussion of the major themes is presented in the
following paragraphs.

5.1 Dual Career: Balancing Sport with Another Career Outside Sport
Wylleman and Lavallee (2004) explain that even though athletic factors (e.g.,
achievement  in  sport)  have  a  significant  influence  in  athletes’  within-career transition as
well as retirement transition; there are a lot of factors occurring outside sport (e.g.,
athletes’ education, and social support) that impact within-career transition, retirement
transition, and post-sport career life. The current study observed that graduating from
university, and part-time and fulltime employment positively facilitated retirement
transition. Results from this study demonstrated that athletes use dual-careers
(job/education and elite sport) to prepare for a post-sport career. Pre-retirement planning
has been found to broadly and positively influence retirement transition (Coakley, 1983;
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Schlossberg, 1981; Yeung, 2013). Results from this finding  are  consistent  with  Cecić  
Erpič,  Wylleman,  and  Zupančič  (2004)  who  observed  that  quality  of  sport  career  
termination  process  depends  on  the  voluntariness  of  career  termination,  participant’  
subjective evaluation of athletic achievements, education status and the occurrence of the
negative non-athletic transitions.
One of the primary challenges faced by most elite athletes and their entourage
(e.g., parents, coaches, teammates, and federations) is the ability to manage the elite
athlete’s  intense  exclusive focus in sports and still build resilience and capacity to meet
the many transitions and demands required in both elite performance and life (Anderson,
2009). Even though at least 10 athletes in this study had university education, the conflict
of sport  and  school  was  evident  in  athletes’  careers  particularly  in  the  early  stages  of  their  
careers in sport. There is no doubt that governments, sports federations, sports clubs, and
sponsors have put pressure on athletes to excel at the international level more than ever in
the history of sports while most universities adhere to high academic standards for their
students, regardless of their athletic status. Pressure to succeed in sport and exclusive
focus may lead to athletes dropping out of school to focus in sport. Some of the factors
observed in research (Fong, Lin, & Chi, 2003; Lang, 1988; Whitley, 1999) that play a
crucial role in influencing student-athletes to dropping out of school to play sport include
secondary school grades, repeating a year in school, feelings towards school, and
mother's education.
This study observed that athletes perceived graduating from college as a positive
way to prepare for a post sport career. This finding is consistent with most literature on
retirement transition. Even though dual career is a challenge to a lot of athletes, it is
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associated with positive athletic retirement transition because athletes move from one
career to another instantly (Borggrefe & Cachay, 2012; Corrado et al., 2012).
Research (Aquilina, 2013; Grove, Lavallee, & Gordon, 1997; Park, Tod, &
Lavallee, 2012) further demonstrated the need for elite athletes to have a 'dual career'
and/or long term athlete development to prepare for a post-athletic career while still
participating in elite sport. For example, the United States Olympic Committee has
arrangement with some of American universities to officer online classes to athlete. This
is an approach that African universities can take. Instead of offering online classes, they
can offer part-time classes and provide more flexible time for athletes. Professional sport
is one of the shortest careers that one can undertake; most competitive athletes retire at a
young age, which requires athletes to redefine their sense of self and social identity
(Baker, Koz, Kungl, Fraser-Thomas, & Schorer, 2013; Witnauer, Rogers, & Saint Onge,
2007). In the United States college sport, approximately 1% of collegiate athletes become
professionals’  athletes,  and  the  average  professional  sports  career  lasts around 3.5 years
(Beamon, 2010). The athlete and entourage members have to find an alternative career
path that would last beyond playing in professional leagues. In addition to education, it is
known that sports might offer alternative career paths and relief athletes and their
families from poverty.
Athletes can be encouraged to save and invest their money in the early years of
their career. In the west, dual-career is viewed as a valuable tool for promoting an
important contribution to the development of policy actions in the area of sport and
education (Corrado et al., 2012).International organizations such as the European
Commission (EC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have also take keen

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interest in this approach. The European Commission acknowledged the importance of
dual career (balancing school and sport) for young elite athletes by promoting policies
that promotes good physical and psychological health(Pavlidis & Gargalianos, 2014).
These policies are made to ensure the reintegration of professional sportspersons into the
labor market at the end of their sporting careers. The International Olympic Committee
runs a program that guides Olympic athletes into education with the goal of a better
postretirement life. It is therefore crucial for federations and governments to support
athletes to find balance between school and sports. Research (Borggrefe & Cachay, 2012;
Corrado et al., 2012; Pavlidis & Gargalianos, 2014) demonstrates that dual career
maximize  athletes’  contributions  to  society  by  building  on the capabilities athletes have
developed during their athletic careers. Athletes who succeed in sport and other careers
are great role models to young athletes who may aspire to be play sport professionally.

5.2 Elite Athletes’ Challenges in Elite Sport and Post-Sport Career
In addition to lack of retirement transition programs, data analysis indicated that
elite athletes faced challenges that include lack of financial resources to compete and
remain at the top of their elite career in sport. Athletes also experienced injuries that
required specialized trained to work with athletes. Reasons for retirement among some of
the involuntary retirees were either due to injuries, deselection and or failure to qualify.
Some voluntary retirees shared that they did not have financial support to continue with
the sport and opted for retirement from competitive sport.
Challenges experienced by athletes in several African countries are a subject of
discussion in the literature. Some studies have looked at barriers of participation in sport
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(Amusa, Toriola, Onyewadume, & Dhaliwal, 2008), challenges faced by elite athletes in
high performance centers (Gizaw, 2014), and challenges faced by student-athletes
navigating school and sport simultaneously (Burnett, Peters, & Ngwenya, 201 0).
Consistent with challenges observed in this study, studies (Amusa et al., 2008; Burnett et
al., 2010) carried out in Southern Africa affirm that low socio-economic status, sociocultural factors, facility inaccessibility, and lack of student-athletes support were primary
barriers of athletes in developing countries. Amusa and colleagues suggest that planning
and delivering sport and recreation services as well as implementing intervention
programs are crucial for communities in Botswana. In a study that looked at studentathletes needs in South Africa, Burnett and colleagues observed that student-athletes
came from relatively impoverished backgrounds and that they needed tutoring and more
flexibility in completing assignments. Authors also depicted that student-athletes
expressed a need for medical coverage and professional rehabilitation services due to
constant injuries that comes with training and competing in elite sport.
Sport-related injuries were perceived as the biggest threat to the continuation of a
sporting career, and, despite being socialized into accepting and even competing with
minor injuries, athletes perceived that injuries remained a real threat to their careers
(Burnett et al., 2010). Gizaw (2014) suggest that limited role of the community in sports,
the decline of sports in schools, shortage of sports facilities, sportswear and equipment, as
well as the lack of trained personnel are some of the challenges faced by elite athletes in
high performance centers. African federations should market their athletes more for
sponsorship to generate more revenues. In addition, it is important for federations to

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understand their athletes value when they seen sponsorship. Africa has retired legends in
a lot of sports that can be used to market and generate funding for African federations.

5.3 Entourage Support and Type of Retirement
Sport psychology research (Bloom, 1985; Côté, 1999; Debois et al., 2012;
Wylleman et al., 2004) demonstrates that elite athletes’ career in sports can be organized
into four main stages from the initiation, development, mastery, and discontinuation.
Even though this dissertation focuses primarily on retirement transition, athletes’
experiences at earlier stages likely impact athletes’ retirement transition. One of the
primary differences observed in this study and the previous literature is the types of
challenges that athletes face in their careers in sport. For example, athletes in the
industrialized nations, particularly middle class families may face challenges of parental
over-involvement (Heinzmann,  2002;;  O’Rourke,  Smith,  Smoll,  &  Cumming,  2011) while
athletes in Southern Africa may perceive lower parental involvement (Chappell, 2004;
Malete, 2006). Athlete participants in this study did not always expect parental
involvement and in some cases, parents had never travelled to watch their kids compete.
In middle class industrialized nations, it is almost expected that parents will travel to
watch their kids.
Elite athletes’ career stages (i.e., initiation, development, mastery and
discontinuation) are discussed in the literature showing that athletes continuously
advanced from one stage to another in their career in sport. The role played by different
institutions varied by stage. For example, in this study, athletes related most of their early
careers to the role played by schools and parents with no or minimal mention of the
federation. It was clear from the data analysis that athletes were dependent on financial
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and social support from the school to play sport at the early stages of their careers. Even
though parental involvement varied, school programs had resources to accord athletes the
opportunity to play a variety of sports throughout the year. Horn (2008) depicts that the
sport involvement of children takes place in a social context. Parents, peers, and siblings
can strongly influence the psychological outcomes of this involvement. In the context of
Southern Africa, even though parental involvement varied, school sport programs
provided an environment that supported children’s participation in sport. Shehu and
Akpata (2008) explained that teachers in many schools in Southern Africa volunteer, and
it  is  also  part  of  a  lot  of  teachers’  jobs  to  coach,  be  umpires,  and  organize  intra- and extramural sport events. As a result, teachers in most African countries are not only in a
position to widen youth sport participation but to inspire life-long physical activity and
encourage attainment of self-directed sport aspirations. Malete (2006) affirms this
statement, given the cultural context and perception in Botswana. It is therefore likely
that young athletes may perceive lower parental support than their counterparts from
industrialized nations. However, because teachers were found to play such a central role
providing them with information about developing athletes on and off the field might be
particularly important.
Athletes used age, and level of performance to indicate progression from just
playing for their schools to a national junior and or senior nation team. For example,
athletes  consistently  mentioned  qualifying  for  the  “under  21”  world  junior championships
or joining the senior national team and the role-played by the federation to give them
access to international competitions such as the Olympics. At the elite stage, participants
also shared with the researcher that they started earning income that showed that they had
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advanced to a stage of independence. Transition from junior to senior stage and
experiences within each stage posed within-career transitions that athletes coped with
advance to a higher stage. For example, an athlete may make the youth Olympic team but
fail to advance to senior Olympic team. Stambulova (2000) depicts that within-career
transitions can be normative (expected), or non-normative (unexpected). Research in
sport and other careers (Cabello Bonilla, 2012; Kosugi, 2012) demonstrated that withincareer transitions are common among young athletes as well as young employees that just
joined their professional field.
Normative and non-normative transitions observed in the study were consistent
with studies that have looked at within-career transition (Lorenzo, Borrás, Sánchez,
Jiménez, & Sampedro, 2009; Stambulova, Franck, & Weibull, 2012; Wylleman et al.,
2004). Normative transitions were determined by age (e.g., qualifying for the Olympic
games or qualifying  for  “U21-team”)  and  in  contrast,  non-normative transitions were
unpredictable experiences (e.g., injury and de-selection leading to retirement) that
athletes coped with in their athletic career. Data analysis showed that involuntary
retirement due to cutting, injury, and failing to qualify for major games was associated
with non-normative transition. Athletes had expected to continue with their sport but
rather got injured and ended their career.
Reaching and staying at the top in elite sport requires the need to train more
intensively (e.g., increased physical and psychological commitment) as well as cope with
higher competitive levels (Wylleman et al., 2004). The model of human adaptation to
transition, Schlossberg et al. (1995) suggests four primary fundamentals of managing
transition. Schlossberg and colleagues identified personal control over the transition, self106

efficacy in dealing with the transition, availability of social support during transition, and
the individual’s  coping  strategies  as  crucial  in  understanding  and  explaining  one’s  ability  
to cope with transition. Wylleman and colleagues affirm that, a supportive psychological
network (e.g., coach, family, peers), attention to injury prevention, and a gradual
developmental athletic career may provide athletes with the possibilities to progress
towards high-level competitive sport. The study observed significant challenges that will
be discussed further in this chapter. Some of the challenges observed include lack of
resources and specialized trained medical personnel. According to Stambulova and
Alfermann (2009), the universal knowledge about "athletes in general" seems insufficient
to explain the behavior of athletes’ transition from different cultures. It is therefore
crucial to incorporate not only culture but also transitions occurring outside sport (i.e.,
school) particularly in Southern Africa where there are no transition support services for
athletes.
5.4 Summary: Entourage Support and Type of Retirement
Athletes began their athletic careers in school with the support of teachers and
parents. The school system in Southern Africa accords athletes to play a variety of sports
before specializing in their sport of choice. Different members of the entourage play
different  roles  in  athletes’  careers.  Federations  expose  athletes  to  international  sports as
well as provide developmental programs for junior teams. Graduating from high school
and college is an important factor in preparing athletes for retirement transition as well
facilitating retirement transition. Engaging in multiple roles during retirement also
facilitated retirement transition such as continuing training as well as being married.
Close entourage members such as spouses and parents spent time with athletes during
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retirement transition. All athletes had full-time jobs during data collection and did not
express financial insecurity. Promoting dual-career does not only prepare retirement
transition, but also facilitates retirement transition because athletes engage in multiple
activities and roles.

5.5 Comparisons Between Southern African Countries
Given the cross-national comparisons made in this dissertation, the Ecological
model of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) was used to discuss comparisons
across the four countries. The model takes into account the social context of human
development as consisted of macro-social factors (laws, traditions, policies on level of
society), and micro-systems (e.g., family, peers, schoolmates/teachers,
teammates/coaches), in which a person is involved. This model has been used to make
cross-national comparisons by past researchers including Stambulova and colleagues. For
example, it was clear during the data analysis that South African athletes reflected some
obvious macro social factors in their social environments such as population and
economic size. Even though there were differences at macro-social level (i.e., population
size, sports budgets, and structural sports system across the four counties), there were no
major differences across the four countries at micro level (i.e., family). Even though
South Africa is  a  developing  country,  it’s  economic  size  and  the  private sector accorded
South African athletes part-time employment and sponsorship that were not available for
athletes from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. South Africa is the only country in
South Africa that has hosted the FIFA world cup and has shown interest in hosting the
Olympic games. There were more similarities between Botswana, Namibia and

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Zimbabwe in sport structure than there are differences. National Olympic committees are
responsible for elite sport while sports commissions and sports councils develop wide
participation in sports. South Africa is the only country in the region that combined its
federations in to confederation.
A lack of paid jobs and or support programs in sport available for former athletes
and higher requirements to employees’  educational  level  might  more  favorable  to  athletes  
with university education and less favorable to those without college education.
Figure 5: Cross-National Comparisons

Macrosystem

Population size and economy rank
Botswana-about 2 million
Namibia-About 2 million
South Africa about 53 million
Zimbabwe-about 12 million
South Africa-2nd
Botswana-18
Namibia-25
Zimbabwe-31
Education and corporation policies

Exosystem

Botswana-not available
Namibia
South Africa-athletes part-time
employment
Zimbabwe

As presented earlier in this dissertation, in all countries, retired athletes are not
109

provided with financial and or any organizational support programs except part-time
employment and IOC career assistance program in South Africa. Sport systems in all the
countries give athletes a free choice to decide about their termination from sports and
about  what  to  do  afterwards.  South  African’s  large  economy  increases  employment  
possibilities for elite athletes compared to the other economies of Namibia, Zimbabwe
and Botswana. Through these factors, together with an absence of financial support and
or any special support programs for retired athletes, the sport systems places complete
responsibility of the transition to the post-career on athletes themselves. Athletes and
their entourages across the four countries are responsible for making their own retirement
plans and decisions and decisions on ways to cope with retirement transition.
5.6 Southern African Context
Even though African communities have always played a variety of games
including some form of football (soccer), the British colonials in the mid-1800s
introduced organized football. The first documented game on the continent was played in
South Africa in 1862, a year before soccer's official rules were codified(Alegi, 2006).
Traditional games were primarily meant for recreation as well as for educational purposes
but not as a form of employment. It is a historical fact that it took time for African
communities to view sport as a form of employment and it is still in that transition phase.
Recent research (Chappell, 2004, 2005b; Malete, 2006; Shehu & Akpata, 2008),
carried out in Southern Africa including findings from this dissertation affirm that even
though socioeconomic status may have an influence in parental involvement is kids
participating in sport, culture plays a crucial role in explaining parental involvement. As
presented earlier in previous chapters, the use of certain terms and the context in which
110

they are used perpetuates stereotypes on participation in sport including parental
perceptions of participating in sport. Chappell (2004) affirms that the use of the term
tshameka (loosely translated as play) may have an influence in parents’ perception of
playing sports as wasted time and not engaging in something serious with their lives.
5.7 Limitations
Readers are encouraged to exercise caution in drawing conclusions from
theoretical constructs derived from this research and applying them in industrialized
nations. Results from this research can only be applied to Southern Africa populations.
Athletes who took part in this dissertation are exceptionally talented, hence their
participation at the Olympic games. Results may not be applicable to amateur athletes
and/or athletes who do not reach elite sport.

5.8 Potential Future Research Directions
Findings from this dissertation affirm that retirement from sport is a complex and
multifaceted process, it is therefore important for future research to consider validating
research  tools  on  athletes’  retirement  and  transition  to  post  sport  career. In addition to
instruments,  research  that  looks  at  athletes’  retirement  transition  should  be  “holistic”  to  
incorporate factors in sport and those occurring outside sport (Wylleman et al., 2004).
Most  studies  that  look  at  retirement  transition  trace  athletes’  retirement  transition  after  
they have retired. Future research should consider different research methods such as
mixed methods and longitudinal research. Engaging in qualitative and quantitative
research methods increases the validity of research findings and promotes greater
understanding of the phenomenon being studied. The use of longitudinal research will
111

accord research to follow athletes’ careers in sport to retirement. For example, even
though this dissertation observed that all athletes were employed, it is important for
future research to investigate further particularly on the type of jobs that retired athletes
do. An investigation into the type of jobs that athletes do accords researchers to
understand if retirement athletes are satisfied with their post-sport careers. A further look
on the role of universities on student-athletes particularly in Southern Africa would
provide more specific recommendations.
Consistent with research in sport psychology (Stambulova & Alfermann, 2009),
future research should incorporate culture in the study of athletes’ retirement transition.
In was evident in the data analysis that cultural context is crucial in explaining athletes
retirement transition.
5.9 Suggested  Solutions  for  Elite  Athletes’  Career  Assistance  in  Southern  African  
Countries
Many countries around the world have, in the past 20 years, developed programs
to help their retiring athletes. The Canadian Olympic Career Centre was created in 1985
to assist Canadian athletes with their careers after elite sports. This was one of the first
programs for elite retired athletes in the world. The United States Olympic Committee
Career Assistance Program followed in 1988 to give athletes the much needed assistance
during their athletic career transitions (Pearson & Petitpas, 1990). The Athlete Career and
Education (ACE) in Australia and the United Kingdom were established to provide elite
athletes with career, education and personal development guidance. National Olympic
Committees and federations in Africa should develop similar programs for their athletes
so that retiring athletes can make better post-career transitions into life as productive
members of their society. The next paragraph provide specific possible solutions
112

In conclusion, even though there are programs across Southern Africa that
introduce athlete to sport, schools provide the most obvious platform for athletes.
Teaches are already trained in different disciples, it is therefore important to provide
additional (e.g., life skills) to enhance their skills hence athlete development. The
introduction of physical education in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe provides
training for coaches, teachers and students. This also accords schools the opportunity to
build sport facilities, which are also used for sport. There is an urgent need for retirement
transition programs for retired athletes. It was clear in the data analysis that that athletes
should at least have a place to go if they needed help with going back to school and or
seeking employment.
1.

Provide additional training to teachers and coaches, particularly in primary and
secondary schools. Based on the findings of this research, it is crucial for teachers
to have adequate technical (sport skills) training as well also life skills (skills
(e.g., decision making, team work, public speaking, leadership) training. Teachers
and coaches ability to teach life skills accords athletes the opportunity to learn
skills that are transferrable to post-sport career. Seminars, workshops and
educational modules should be used to train teachers and coaches. Collaborative
conferences attended by teachers, coaches and federations should be stages at
least annually.

2. Federations introduce programs that attract parents to not only provide social and
or financial support to their kids but also attend practice and competitions for their
kids. Introducing incentive programs (i.e., best parent award) may encourage
113

parents  to  be  involvement  in  their  kids’  sport.  In  some  cases,  parents  trivialized  
their  kid’s  participation  in  sport.  
3. Provide tutoring service and more support for student-athletes. Flexible study
times, coach-teacher interaction and mentorship for student-athletes until at least
university level. Athletes who successfully balance school and sport are likely to
have a better transition than athletes without university education.
a. Provide scholarship programs tailor-made for student-athletes unique
challenges (e.g., longer university degree for athletes)
b. Provide scholarship programs for retired athletes (e.g., open scholarship
for Olympians)
4. Introduce part-time employment/attachment for athletes (e.g., five hours a weeks).
Part-time employment accords athletes the opportunity to learn both soft skills
(communication, creative thinking, work ethic, networking, problem solving and
critical thinking) and hard skills relevant to their field of interest.
5. Provide  vocational  and  professional  occupation  training  for  elite  athletes,  
including  vocational  guidance,  soliciting  (e.g.  resume  ́, interview, curriculum
vitae), knowledge of the job market, networking, and career advice.
6. Federations/governments provide relevant career transition training to athletes
(through workshops, seminars and provision of pamphlets). Include topics such
as, possible advantages of retirement, perceived and expected problems related to

114

retirement, physical/physiological aspects of retirement and decreased levels of
athletic activity.
a. Pre-retirement counseling
b. Career planning/information on jobs and education opportunities
c. Financial help/advice
d. Readings on how other athletes have dealt with retirement
e. Physiological and dietary detraining programme
f. Seminars with other retired athletes

115

APPENDICES

116

Appendix A: Demographic Questionnaire
The purpose of this questionnaire is to obtain a comprehensive view of the factors that
have been important in your athletic career from your development to retirement. This
includes the role of your parents, coaches and federation to your development and
preparation for retirement. The researcher will use the information you provide in this
questionnaire to create an interview guide.
1. What was your main competitive sport?
a) Swimming
b) Track and Field
c) Rowing
d) Hockey
2. What is the highest level of competition you have participated at in your sport?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

Olympic Games
World Championships
World University Games
Commonwealth Games
All Africa Games
African Championships

3. In your opinion, who do you think played the most important role in your
achievements?
a.
b.
c.
Lets now talk about your elite level. This is when you competed at the highest level in
your athletic career. It includes competitions in Europe and other parts of the world.
Example Africa Championships and the Olympics.
4. How old were you when you competed at elite level for the first time?
a) 17-20
b) 21-23
c) 24- 27
5. In your opinion, who was your main source of support at this stage?

117

6. Please rank in order of importance the following people in terms of support and role
they played during your ELITE years of sports.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)

Parents
Coach
Federation
Siblings
Sponsor
Agent
Friends
Extended Family

7. Did you ever think of retirement at this stage?
a) Yes
b) No
8. Indicate the amount of support you received from each of the following people during
your ELITE athletic career.
Very Small Small
Support
Support

Average
Support

Enough
Support

A lot of
Support

Parents
Coach
Federation
Siblings
Sponsor
Agent
Friends
Extended
Family
Lets now talk about retirement from competitive sports. This is the stage when you did
not continue to compete in sports.
9. How old were you when you retired?
a) 20-25
b) 26-30
c) 31-36

10. Were you ready for retirement?
118

a) YES
b) NO
11. Who was there for you during retirement transition?
a) Parents
b) Coach
c) Federation
d) Siblings
e) Sponsor
f) Agent
g) Friends
h) Extended Family
12. Did you plan for your retirement?
a) YES
b) NO
13. Indicate the amount of support you received from each of the following people during
your RETIREMENT transition.
Very Small Small
Support
Support

Average
Support

Enough
Support

A lot of
Support

Parents
Coach
Federation
Siblings
Sponsor
Agent
Friends
Extended
Family
14. Please rank in order of importance the following people in terms of support and role
they played during your RETIREMENT transition.
a) Parents
b) Coach
c) Federation
d) Siblings
e) Sponsor
f) Agent
g) Friends
h) Extended Family
15. How long before your retirement did you start pre-retirement planning?
119

a)
b)
c)
d)

0-2 months
2-5 months
6-11 months
12 and more

16. Were any of the following services were provided to you in preparation for your
retirement from elite competitive sport? (Tick all that apply).
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)

Pre-retirement counseling
Financial advice/advice
Career planning/information
Readings on how other athletes have dealt with retirement
Physiological and dietary detraining program
Seminars with other retired athletes
None
Others (Specify)

17. Which of the following conditions were most difficult during transitioning out of
competitive sport?
a)
b)
c)
d)

Financial (changes in financial status, losing contacts, making new friends, etc.)
Emotional (Feeling confusion, anger, depression, loss and fear)
Occupational (finding a job, new career, adjusting to new working hours, etc.)
Physical (changes in body shape, adjusting to new level of exercise and new diet,
etc.)
18.  Are  you……….?
Single
Married
Divorced or Separated
Widowed
19. Which of the following best describes your current occupational status?
Employed
Unemployed
Student
20. Gender
Male
Female
21. Age
a) 23-25 b) 26-28 c)29-32 d) 33-36 e) 37-40

120

Appendix B: Athlete Interview Guide
Thank you to have agreed to participate in this interview. We will talk about your
involvement in elite and the support you got from different people.
1. Tell me about your initial involvement in sport and some of your major
achievements.
2. Who provided you with support when you first got involved in sport and what
type of support?
3. How  do  you  characterize  your  parents’  involvement  in  your  athletic  career  when  
you first started?
4. Did any other person influence you significantly when you started? (Coach, agent,
sponsor, federation, friends and extended family)
5. You indicated in the survey that you did not think of retirement while in your elite
stage. Tell me more about that.
6. How do you characterize your parents, federation coach and spouse involvement
when you were an elite athlete?
7. Let’s  talk  about  your  retirement  transition.
8. What were circumstances surrounding your retirement from competitive sport?
9. You indicated in the interview that you were not ready for retirement, can you tell
me more about that?
10. You also stated that you did not plan for retirement, can you talk a little bit more
about that
11. What were your immediate worries when you retired from competitive sport if
you had any?
12. How much thought did you give to your withdrawal from elite sport?
13. What other activities or roles were you involved in during your professional
career? work? marriage?
14. What transition and support services are available for elite athletes in retirement
transition?
15. What would you say you needed after your elite career ended to give your life
meaning and satisfaction?
16. Who provided you with support during retirement transition from elite sport and
what type of support?
17. How do you characterize your spouse, parents and coach involvement during your
retirement transition?
18. Did any other person influence during your retirement transition? (Coach, agent,
sponsor, federation, friends and extended family)
19. Final Thoughts
121

20. What have been the hardest things about achieving the athletic success you have?
21. If you had the opportunity to make recommendations to talented athletes who
want to achieve what you have, what would you suggest?

122

Appendix C: Entourage Interview Guide
Introduction-background Information
1. When did you first meet athlete X?
a. What was he or she like?
b. What do you remember about him or her?
2. How long did you coach (if coach) him or her?
3. When did you first realize this athlete was talented?
4. How would you characterize your relationship with him during his/her athletic
career?
5. Given your entire coaching career, what was your greatest thrill relative to
working with this athlete?
6. Who provided athlete X with primary support during his elite athletic career?
7. How   would   you   characterize   his   or   her   parents’   involvement   during   his   or   her  
athletic career?
8. Did any other events or individuals (siblings, friends, federation, sponsor,
spouses, and extended family) influence his or her participation in sport at this
period?
9. What were the circumstances surrounding his/her withdrawal from competitive
sports?
10. What role did you play during his/her retirement transition?
11. Who  is  responsible  for  athletes’  transition?
12. In your opinion do you think your relationship had changed from when he/she
was an elite athlete?
13. Who  do  you  think  played  a  primary  role  in  athlete  X’s  retirement  transition
14. What should be done for retired athletes?
15. Anything to add?

123

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