Olympic cycling champion Jack Bobridge jailed for dealing ecstasy in Perth. Could it have been avoided?
Philip Stoneman
CEO & Founder @ M5 Management | Sports Marketing and Management Expert
One of the leading charters for M5 is to provide strong support when athletes reach a point of retirement - be it planned or unexpected (injury). Our M5 clients such as Mathew Hayman (Cycling), Ky Hurst (Surf Champion), and Jessica Ashwood (Swimmer) are all beginning or currently going through this transition now.
The transition process to retirement is a very difficult time for any athlete, just the thought of making this decision can be paralyzing. Going from living within a high-performance bubble to something that is very unstructured is such an emotional and physical shift for our professional sportspeople, coaches and their coping mechanisms can be seriously depleted.
The elite Sportsperson and Coach often thrive on traits such as OCD, single-mindedness and ruthless ambition. However, these traits become destructive when they are no longer directed towards competing. If you then include insecurity, financial hardship and a declining sense of personal worth, you now have the ingredients for manifesting depression, anxiety and in Jack Bobridge case, drug addiction. This is further emphasized with the sudden availability of time that that was once committed to a 30 hour training week. I see it day-in and day-out with retiring athletes just having no idea of what to do with their next 2 hours of their day let alone the next 20 years of their lives
I can't help think that again we in the business of sport have failed in our duty of care. Our communities are littered with ex-pro athletes, football players, coaches that have just been used up by the federations and discarded to fend for themselves when their used by date has expired. We the managers/agents also need to take our share of responsibility. Let's see real education on helping retiring, injured, cast out athletes and coaches and not just box ticketing
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1 年Philip, thanks for sharing!
Senior Health & Medical Executive & Strategic Consultant
5 年As a former second-tier elite athlete during the 1980s I have witnessed several examples of such athletes. During the early 1990s the AIS developed a number of "elite athlete support programs" across Australia designed to equip athletes to a meaningful "life after full-time competition". I lost touch with those AIS programs and their original aims and objectives, but it seems that somehow those programs appear to fail athletes to achieve their objectives after a life-time of competition. Although, I believe that each individual athlete must also take full responsibility for their own transition into OTHER alternative lifelong professional activities after their lives of competition have finished.
Head of swimming St Margaret’s AGS
5 年Very well said. Especially in Australia where they, the administrators, prey on the passion and commitment of swimmers and coaches. Great read!
Senior Program Manager | Aerospace & Product Development Leader | Engineering, Manufacturing & Supply Chain Expert | Risk Management & Client Relationship Specialist
5 年You look at some dudes and wonder how the strength didn’t translate. But you know, it doesn’t for many guys. A dude needs help and support to keep everything moving forward to some reward or contentment after you do a sport at a high level for a while.
Transformation | Delivery | Leadership
5 年Nice article Philip Stoneman. Even weekend warrior cyclists struggle when they are forced to stop riding, i can’t fathom what it must be like for ‘next level’ athletes.