Personal Crisis in Athletes: Injuries and Retirement

Injuries and involuntary retirement are common within sport. If an athlete does not have adequate strategies or support to deal with these, negative consequences are likely to follow. These two life events can often be uncontrollable, unpredictable, and often of unexpected nature increasing the risk of the athlete to experience them as career crisis. The aim of this chapter is to: (1) discuss the negative consequences of sports injury for athlete’s health and well-being; (2) consider factors underpinning the retirement decision; (3) discuss involuntary retirement and its impact on athlete health and well-being; (4) outline strategies to alleviate the negative impacts of retirement on athlete health and well-being; and (5) discuss ways in which we can facilitate athletes’ retirement transitions.