Becoming a professional athlete is an ambition for many - but careers can often be short-lived and some struggle to adjust to life after sport.
BBC News spoke to former athletes about the impact of retirement on their lives. (Mental health challenges facing athletes after quitting sport - BBC News)
- “Sport is exciting,” said Mike Tuck. “There’s an adrenaline rush to it. It’s not your typical career.”
A Canadian-British national, he played for the Sheffield Sharks basketball team for 13 seasons - 11 of them as captain. He said he had a “fairytale career” and was not prepared for the impact of retirement at the age of 39.
"Some mornings, I didn’t even want to get out of bed. “The whole structure of my life had been flipped on its head.”
He said as a professional athlete you had people telling you “where to be and at what time”. “And all of a sudden, that’s all taken away.”
- Natasha Gale, former European champion boxer said she found it hard to find employment despite a degree in fitness.
"I’d gone from being a Team GB athlete, full-time athlete, podium athlete, European champion to working in a warehouse on night shifts. “I really struggled. I was really depressed.”
**Switch the Play is the only UK charity dedicated to supporting sportspeople to adapt to life outside sport.
- Their advice to athletes still competing is to think about what they could do in their downtime.
- “Use it to start to build your identity, build some skills and it gives you a positive distraction outside of sport that starts to lay the foundations towards the future.”
Sport need to do a better job at encouraging and supporting athletes to develop themselves as human beings.
"That’s about creating a positive environment where we are prioritising mental health and it is not performance or mental health.
“We can have mentally healthy sports people who can also achieve on the field of play.”**
