Retiring from elite sports in Greece and Spain

  1. Dimoula, Fani 2
  2. Torregrosa, Miquel 2
  3. Psychountaki, Maria 3
  4. González, M.D. 1
  1. 1 Universidade Lusíada do Porto
    info

    Universidade Lusíada do Porto

    Oporto, Portugal

    ROR https://ror.org/04ehtgm24

  2. 2 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
    info

    Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

    Barcelona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/052g8jq94

  3. 3 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
    info

    National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

    Atenas, Grecia

    ROR https://ror.org/04gnjpq42

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Journal:
The Spanish Journal of Psychology

ISSN: 1138-7416

Year of publication: 2013

Issue: 16

Pages: 1-11

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1017/SJP.2013.18 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: The Spanish Journal of Psychology

Abstract

The main objective of the present study was to compare the athletic retirement of elite Greek and Spanish athletes in terms of (a) pre-conditions of retirement, (b) transitional period, and (c) consequences of the transition. For this purpose, elite athletes from Greece (n = 76) and Spain (n = 57) described in retrospect their experience leaving competitive sports through the Retirement from Sports Survey (Alfermann, Stambulova, & Zemaityte, 2004). Separate one-way ANOVAs and chi-square tests revealed differences and similarities between the transitional processes of athletes from the two countries. More similarities than differences were detected in the retirement of Greek and Spanish athletes. Based on these commonalities, we proposed a Southern European perspective on the topic. According to the present results the main characteristics of this pattern could be the lack of retirement planning, high athletic identity after the sports career, and predominance of relocation in the sports world after retirement.

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