As the Paris 2024 Olympic Games unfold, career development professionals have a unique opportunity to draw inspiration from elite athletes’ journeys. I promise you, if you keep reading, this isn’t just another blog about work that uses a tonne of sports analogies; it’s about how people who are at the height of their careers and need to think about their career development; where to go next when their current opportunities run out. Their experiences can help inform our approach to working with career changers.
Olympic athletes develop a range of skills that extend far beyond their athletic prowess. These include discipline, work ethic, goal-setting, strategic planning, teamwork, leadership, performing under pressure, resilience, and adaptability. Most of these being soft skills in high demand today. As career professionals, recognizing and translating these skills is so important for guiding athletes—and indeed any professional—through career transitions.
Many Canadian Olympians have gone on to have successful careers outside the sport they trained in for many years, and use the skills they honed as an athlete. Penny Oleksiak, Canada’s most decorated Olympian, is currently competing in Paris while also considering her future. At 24, she’s already exploring opportunities and education in interior design and fashion design, even though she intends on competing at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Simon Whitfield, gold medallist in triathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, successfully transitioned into entrepreneurship, technology, and keynote speaking. He co-founded a tech startup, drawing on his goal-setting and strategic planning skills honed through years of athletic training. Clara Hughes, a six-time Olympic medallist in cycling and speed skating, found her calling in mental health advocacy. Her transition showcases how personal experiences and challenges can shape a meaningful second career.
These are just a few examples of Canada’s dedicated athletes, but it highlights an important point for career development professionals: the importance of identifying transferable skills and aligning them with new career paths. Canadian Olympic athletes are fortunate because they have support for moving on to the next step in their career development journeys. The Game Plan program, a collaboration between the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC), Sport Canada and Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network (COPSIN) , provides athletes with career counselling, networking opportunities, and skill development workshops.
Key takeaways from this program include early intervention, with career planning starting well before retirement from sport; holistic support, addressing mental health and identity shifts alongside practical skills; networking emphasis, leveraging the Olympic community for career opportunities; and continuous learning, encouraging ongoing education and skill development. These are all foundations of a great career development program that anyone can benefit from.
For Olympians, career transitions often involve a significant identity shift. This challenge isn’t unique to athletes; many people, with careers that have a high level of very specific skills, strongly identify with their careers. Career development professionals need to be prepared, while being careful to stay within their scope, to address the psychological aspects of career changes, including coping with the loss of a long-held professional identity, maintaining motivation in a new, unfamiliar field, and translating the drive for excellence into new contexts. Clara Hughes’ transition into mental health advocacy shows how personal challenges can become professional strengths, a powerful lesson for all career transitioners.
Many Canadian Olympians currently competing in the Paris 2024 games are already thinking ahead. Interviews with athletes show a growing awareness of the importance of parallel career development. Commentators are more and more highlighting the achievements that happen off the field in work and education. I couldn’t imagine working though a post-secondary degree, while holding down and job, and training to compete in a sport at the highest level. While that it understandably overwhelming, staying future focused will make their career transitions that much easier.
By looking closely at Olympic athletes’ experiences, we can see that they can be applied to everyday careers. As part of practise, Career development professionals encourage clients to identify and articulate their transferable skills; and if they’re having difficulty with that, a skills assessment like the Career Ability Placement Survey, the Transferable Skills Scale, or the Ability Explorer can be invaluable tools. In addition, promoting continuous learning and skill development (even at career peaks), foster resilience and adaptability in the face of change, emphasize the importance of networking and personal branding, and address the psychological aspects of career transitions proactively.
As career development professionals, we can draw valuable lessons from the journeys of Olympic athletes. Their experiences in transitioning from sport to new careers highlight the universal challenges and opportunities in career development. By focusing on transferable skills, providing holistic support, and addressing both practical and psychological aspects of career changes, we can better guide all professionals through their career journeys. The resilience, adaptability, and dedication demonstrated by Olympians works as a great model for career development in all areas of work. As we watch the successes in Paris, we also need to celebrate the less visible but equally important victories: successful career transitions that allow people to thrive long after their “retirement.”
The lessons learned from Olympic athletes’ career transitions are important to keep in mind for career development professionals. By applying these insights, we can become champions of career resilience, helping clients navigate their professional journeys with the same determination and adaptability shown by Olympic athletes. The world of work may not award medals, but with the right guidance, every career transition can be a personal success.
Brad Whitehorn – BA, CCDP is the Associate Director at CLSR Inc. He was thrown into the career development field headfirst after completing a Communications degree in 2005, and hasn’t looked back! Since then, Brad has worked on the development, implementation and certification for various career and personality assessments (including Personality Dimensions®), making sure that Career Development Practitioners get the right tools to best serve their clients.