Dual Career Development Perspective: Factors Affecting Quality of Post-sport Career Transition of Employed Olympic Athletes

Although Olympic athletes are celebrated for their sports achievements, they often face serious difficulties in their post-sport career employment. Factors of development that are affecting the quality of post-sport career transition of Olympic athletes are important to acknowledge in the dual career (DC) development perspective. Due to the side lining of academic activities, athletes are often not well prepared for the labor market. If they do not gain sufficient financial background in their careers, it can lead to a lack of proper economic inclusion of athletes in their post-sport career employment and further impact their lives. Career transitions of athletes have been the subject of research in different aspects of DC support (e.g., athletic, psychological, psychosocial, academic/vocational, financial), but most research is linked to the student-athlete DC perspective. Therefore, the aim of our research was to examine the impact of factors directly contributing to the quality of the post-sport career transition in Slovenian elite and Olympic athletes and the social class position and employment of these athletes after the termination of their sports career. From DC support practice, we learned that although athletes often have a proper level of education, their post-sport career transitions were not successful. To fill this gap, 168 elite athletes (Mage = 33.34, SD = 13.1) from Slovenia were asked to complete online questionnaires. The results showed a significant contribution of education and DC support-related finances (e.g., employment of athletes in public administration) to the quality of post-sport career transition. Regarding developing a national DC model and based on empirical research, this study identifies the social class position and employment status of former elite athletes from Slovenia. It also identifies opportunities for further research on the quality of the post-sport career transitions and perspectives on DC support. Understanding how different factors contribute to the integrated development of individual athletes to reach their potential in sports, education, and their post-sport career employment is important for theorists, DC practitioners, and stakeholders working with DC athletes. To develop a sufficient mechanism, DC support providers should consider supporting education along with the financial support of athletes during their sports careers and recognizing study-training ecosystems, based on good practices to successfully transition to their post-sport careers. These findings can also be useful for athletes and their athletic triangle support network (e.g., coaches and parents) as a support in the decision-making.

Twins with Craniosynostosis: An Unidentified Variant/Twin Research: Kangaroo Care for Premature Twins; Developmental Delay in MZ Twins; Osteosarcoma in One Identical Twin; Controversies in Twin Pregnancy Management/Media Reports: Twin and Triplet Olympians; Twin’s Rescue from a Crocodile; Twin Pandas in Japan; Twin Surrogacy; Identical Twins in Pennsylvania

Craniosynostosis involves the early closure of one or more joints connecting the bones of an infant’s skull. A case of young monozygotic (MZ) male twins with an unidentified variant of this condition is described, followed by a summary of relevant published reports. This overview is followed by descriptions of a kangaroo care program for premature twins, developmental delay in an MZ twin pair, osteosarcoma in one MZ twin and controversial issues in the management of multiple pregnancies. Media reports of twin and triplet Olympic athletes, a twin’s rescue from a crocodile, the birth of twin pandas in Japan, a case of twin surrogacy and the birth of identical triplets are also presented.

Social Media Education Provided by National Governing Bodies of Sport: An Examination of Practices for Youth Olympic Games and Olympic Games Athletes

Social media provides athletes with many opportunities as well as challenges. Scholars have argued for proactive, educational social media training instead of traditional policy and punishment models, yet research on this topic is limited. Therefore, this study sought to understand the social media training/education national governing bodies (NGBs) provided to athletes ranging from Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to Olympic level, and to examine NGB communication employees’ perceptions regarding athletes’ social media use and their organization’s social media training. Utilizing uses and gratifications theory, a sequential mixed method was employed involving a survey of U.S. NGBs and in-depth interviews with NGB communication personnel. While most NGBs used proactive, educational social media training for Olympic athletes, few did the same for YOG athletes. NGB employees felt social media use posed significant benefits or gratifications to athletes, and education and training helped to enhance those benefits as well as minimize the challenges, or failed gratifications, athletes experience on social media.

Vocational careers of retired Olympic athletes from Switzerland: A person-oriented study

For many high-performance athletes, competing in the Olympic Games is a major goal. Achieving this goal requires more than ever substantial investments of time and personal resources towards the sports career over several years. Thus, some athletes neglect other areas of life (e.g. education), which can pose a problem for the time after high-performance sport, while other athletes pursue a dual career. Previous studies have shown that former high-performance athletes achieved higher levels of education and better vocational positions than the general population. Due to the advancing professionalization and commercialization of high-performance sport, the question emerges whether these results are valid for athletes that are more recently retired. In addition, cross-cultural generalisability of these findings are of interest. For this purpose, 341 former athletes representing Switzerland at the Olympics were surveyed about their athletic, educational, and vocational careers. It turns out that these athletes obtained more degrees of higher education than the general population. Relative to their siblings, they have higher school-leaving certificates and work in more prestigious occupations. Following the holistic-interactionistic paradigm, person-oriented analyses was performed and revealed nine – mostly satisfactory – vocational career patterns. Hence, involvement in high-performance sport facilitates rather than hinders a successful vocational career.

COVID-19 Importation Risk From Olympic Athletes Prior to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for 1 year and sparked an unprecedented outbreak in Japan in early July 2021 due to the relaxation of social distancing measures for foreign arrivals. Approximately 11,000 athletes from 205 countries would gather at the Tokyo Olympics held from July 23 through August 8, 2021. Based on the prevalence of infection in different source locations and athlete numbers, we estimated that seven countries would introduce least one infection of COVID-19 to Tokyo and at most eleven unidentified infections after the three requested COVID-19 tests.

Prehospital management of exertional heat stroke at sports competitions for Paralympic athletes

ObjectivesTo adapt key components of exertional heat stroke (EHS) prehospital management proposed by the Intenational Olympic Committee Adverse Weather Impact Expert Working Group for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 so that it is applicable for the Paralympic athletes.MethodsAn expert working group representing members with research, clinical and lived sports experience from a Para sports perspective reviewed and revised the IOC consensus document of current best practice regarding the prehospital management of EHS.ResultsSimilar to Olympic competitions, Paralympic competitions are also scheduled under high environmental heat stress; thus, policies and procedures for EHS prehospital management should also be established and followed. For Olympic athletes, the basic principles of EHS prehospital care are: early recognition, early diagnosis, rapid, on-site cooling and advanced clinical care. Although these principles also apply for Paralympic athletes, slight differences related to athlete physiology (eg, autonomic dysfunction) and mechanisms for hands-on management (eg, transferring the collapsed athlete or techniques for whole-body cooling) may require adaptation for care of the Paralympic athlete.ConclusionsPrehospital management of EHS in the Paralympic setting employs the same procedures as for Olympic athletes with some important alterations.