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The athlete’s journey: transitions through sport
The athlete’s journey: transitions through sport

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3 Case study 2: Kristian Thomas

In the next activity, you will explore the story of another Olympic medallist – former gymnast Kristian Thomas [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] who retired after the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Activity 3 Kristian Thomas: switching identity

Timing: Allow about 25 minutes

Watch the video below in which Kristian Thomas talks about his retirement and life after sport. As you watch the video, reflect on what helped him to have what he described as a positive and smooth transition.

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Transcript: Video 3

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[TEXT ON SCREEN: Kristian Thomas was part of the British Gymnastics team that won a historic bronze at the 2012 Olympic Games. He captained the British Gymnastics team at the 2016 Olympics and retired from the sport shortly after Rio. Kristian is a #More2Me Champion.]

KRISTIAN THOMAS:
I think for me being an athlete and I guess when I first started out in the sport and it got a little bit more serious, I was very much tunnel vision one focus and that was results driven. It was on getting to a certain score. It was doing or being selected for certain competitions.
And nothing really, I guess, external to actually gymnastics really mattered to be honest. For me, it was round about two years before Rio. I started thinking in my head that Rio potentially would be my last competition. And if that was the case, then I need to have an escape route really.
I need to have another focus that was outside the sport. I need to come out the sport in a position where I'm able to move on with my life and for it to be moving into another positive as opposed to retiring that's a negative perhaps. And so yeah. I started to put things in place and probably about two years before retirement, I would say.
I knew that there was help and I knew that there was support available to me, particularly through the EIS and through the performance lifestyle advisor. I guess just get a bit more knowledge of what we actually had available to us and just, I guess having those general conversations as well, just that I hadn't really had. What are my interests? What potentially might I like to do for the future? Little things like that I hadn't really given much thought of, which seems crazy, really. But I guess when your sole focus is winning medals and representing your country, it wasn't really something that I'd ever thought too much of.

[TEXT ON SCREEN: After competing for Team GB at the Rio Olympics in 2016, Kristian retired from competitive gymnastics aged 27.]

I think the experience of retirement is very personal and it's very different for every single athlete. And some athletes have had negative experiences, some have had positive. And for the whole, I'm pretty pleased to say that mine was a fairly pleasant sort of retirement. And I think a lot of that was potentially because I knew I was going to something straightaway.
I came back from Rio, I think, August and in September, I started university. So it gave me a complete new focus to go into. And I think that for me was probably one of the biggest reasons that I was able to make that transition quite smoothly. My messages would be for the younger athletes that are in elite sports would be to utilise their support services, their support services through their governing body, through the EIS that they can use. And it hasn't got to be a decision where that's your concrete plan. But at least, it's a step in the right direction. You've had those conversations. You've got something put in place. And also, just look in the area of the time is when is the best time to actually maybe do other things.
It hasn't got to impact your training. I think that's always a negative for the athletes. They always think that having something else potentially could impact my training and so that's the first thing to get dropped. But actually, research is telling us that it's the other way around and that actually having another focus, having something else to look forward to that actually then helps with your training. So just go out there and try new things. Have those conversations.

[TEXT ON SCREEN: Kristian is studying for a BSc in Strength and Conditioning at the University of Wolverhampton. He is an athlete ambassador for British Gymnastics and the British Gymnastics Foundation. In 2018 he was elected to the British Olympic Association’s Athletes’ Commission. Kristian is also Head of Recreation at Park Wreklin Gymnastics Club and delivers motivational talks in schools.]

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Discussion

Kristian appeared to be very focused on just gymnastics until two years before he retired, when he began to plan for life after sport. Like Lizzy, Kristian had a chosen retirement and was able to plan when he retired and had the support of a performance lifestyle advisor. He felt that his transition was made easier because he had a new focus (university) immediately after he retired. This was important as he was able to switch his identity from ‘athlete’ to ‘student’. Kristian highlights an important point in the video – that everyone will have a unique experience of retirement. Some athletes will have a positive retirement and some athletes will have a negative retirement.

Both Lizzy Yarnold and Kristian Thomas appeared to have positive experiences of retirement and life after sport, but is that the case for all athletes? In the next case study, you will explore a young footballer’s story.