Research question:This paper is an integration of three studies. Study 1 investigates sport career transition organisational intervention programmes for high performance athletes and training and development programmes for sport career transition practitioners in order to find a research gap with regard to sport career transition supporting services. A psycho-educational curriculum was developed for sport career transition practitioner in Study 2 to fill the research gap. In Study 3, the curriculum was examined to see if the curriculum contributed to enhancing practitioners' confidence in key competences. Research methods:A range of methods were applied to the studies including One Group Pre-and Post-test design, Case Study, Focus Group, Semi-Structured Interview, two-round Delphi-Method and Questionnaires. The data for Study 1 collected from 19 countries worldwide and total 16 participants based in seven different countries were invited to development and evaluation of the curriculum. Results and Findings:A novel psycho-educational curriculum for sport career transition practitioner was developed and evaluated concerning four competences as a form of curriculum package. The findings revealed that the curriculum package increased the participants' confidence in key competences concerning sport career transition. Implications:The findings deepen the knowledge of sport career transition in the areas of organisational intervention programmes focusing on high performance athletes and sport career transition practitioners. These findings contribute to modifying the Conceptual Model of Adaptation to Career Transition (Lavallee, Park, & Taylor, 2014) by strengthening the organisational intervention perspective and applied work in respect of sporting organisation management strategies.

Aim: This article investigates the available support services/interventions offered by sporting organisations worldwide for athletes facing career transitions resulting from suspensions due to violating anti-doping policy. The authors aim to provide an overview of existing support systems and raise an awareness of the need of customised and structured support for sanctioned athletes as part of duty of care in sport, Method: Web-based data was initially collected. Following this we contacted each sport organisation by email with a request to answer prepared research questions. Fifty sport organisations were contacted, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs). The data from 22 sport organisations representing five continents are presented.Results: The data are presented under five main themes: Termination of support, Psychological support, Financial support, Informative support, and Development in progress. The central finding is that none of the sporting organisations in this study has established a structured support programme or system for supporting doping sanctioned athletes to date. Conclusion:In most cases sanctioned athletes are simply cut off from all organisational support and left to cope on their own when they are likely to be vulnerable. We argue there is a need for better awareness and support programmes of the challenges faced by athletes following a competition ban or other forced exit from sport due to an anti-doping violation.

This paper investigates high-performance athletes’ development of their financial literacy and self-management skills and the related organisational support available to them during their athletic careers. The data were collected from 20 retired high-performance athletes (10 male and 10 female) representing six different countries (Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, and the UK). Thematic analysis was applied to the processing of the data and five themes emerged: (1) Funding battles: financial challenges and misjudgements; (2) Coping Strategies; (3) Support from sponsors, parents, and sport organisations; (4) Development of Financial Literacy; and (5) Life After Sport. The data indicates that athletes experienced financial challenges due to a lack of organisational support, reduced or terminated funding, and limited opportunities to access sponsorship. Typically, athletes developed their financial literacy and self-management skills by ‘self-help’ or ‘trial and error’. The findings contribute to both literature and practice by providing empirical evidence on the coping strategies adopted by athletes in order to overcome financial challenges and on the methods used in order to develop their financial literacy and self-management skills. These findings inform sport organisations and governing bodies to develop support schemes for high-performance athletes as well as deepen our knowledge of athletes’ career development and transitions focusing on the financial aspect.

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