Dual career: balancing success in sport and life

A main challenge for many current and aspiring Olympians and Paralympians is to successfully balance education and/or vocational work with their sporting ambitions. This is often referred to as “dual career”. Athletes’ will experience anticipated (e.g. secondary to tertiary education) and unanticipated (e.g. injury) transitions in their career that influence psychological, psychosocial, and academic/vocational development. A need therefore exists for sporting organisations to implement effective support programmes for athletes’ in their pursuit of dual career. In this chapter, we provide an overview of recent developments of dual career research and the benefits this approach can have across the lifespan of an athlete’s career. We discuss current dual career programmes, with particular focus on Olympic and Paralympic athletes, and the challenges in evaluating their effectiveness. Further, we offer insight into proposed factors contributing to effective programmes and provide case-study examples of Olympic and Paralympic athletes who have successfully managed to balance their sporting ambitions with education and/or work.