The Final Score
The conclusion provides some final observations about the longitudinal research itself and its short- and long-term effects on the women involved. It briefly touches on the few areas of the sport marriage that have seen improvement in the past few decades, discusses the conscious decisions the women make to continue normalizing the career-dominated marriage, and reports on how the marriages fared over time. It also describes the women’s personal empowerment as a result of their participation in the research. Finally, it summarizes the advice and suggested keys to a successful sport marriage that the wives in both studies offered, based on their lived experience. This overview essentially describes how and why the wife of a male professional athlete must adapt to realities if she wants her marriage to survive her husband’s career and retirement.