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<p>This study used a qualitative interview design to explore the experiences of seven Swedish female elite athletes and their career retirement. The athletes were engaged in three different sports; track and field (athletics), handball and golf and five of them are former professional or semi-professional athletes. The process of their athletic role exit was based on the theoretical findings of Ebaugh (1988) and her four phases: First Doubts, Seeking Alternatives, The Turning Point and Creating the Ex-Role. The findings reveal that for these female former elite athletes Seeking Alternatives already starts before the First Doubts and that possibly the athletes at an early stage have insights of the discontinuity of their athletic career. The importance of transferring their role residual to future paths in life was stressed among the female athletes in order to be able to have a smooth transition process. Furthermore, gender issues were discussed indicating the emergence of family life and lesser financial support than male athletes to be factors of importance for positive adaptation to the role exit as well as the awareness of Seeking Alternatives. In general, the results suggests that the athletes did not experience as severe difficulties in the role exit process as much earlier research indicates.  </p>

This study used a qualitative interview design to explore the experiences of seven Swedish female elite athletes and their career retirement. The athletes were engaged in three different sports; track and field (athletics), handball and golf and five of them are former professional or semi-professional athletes. The process of their athletic role exit was based on the theoretical findings of Ebaugh (1988) and her four phases: First Doubts, Seeking Alternatives, The Turning Point and Creating the Ex-Role. The findings reveal that for these female former elite athletes Seeking Alternatives already starts before the First Doubts and that possibly the athletes at an early stage have insights of the discontinuity of their athletic career. The importance of transferring their role residual to future paths in life was stressed among the female athletes in order to be able to have a smooth transition process. Furthermore, gender issues were discussed indicating the emergence of family life and lesser financial support than male athletes to be factors of importance for positive adaptation to the role exit as well as the awareness of Seeking Alternatives. In general, the results suggests that the athletes did not experience as severe difficulties in the role exit process as much earlier research indicates.

The purpose of the study is to examine the participants experienced motivation during subeliteathletes careers, as well at the end of their career. The purpose is also to disclosewhich factors that influenced their decision to end their career in sports. In order to investigatethe purpose, twelve qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted. The participants inthe study were twelve former sub-elite athletes who were active in their sports between theages of 15-20. The result of this study revealed that sub-elite athletes experienced bothinner motivation and external motivation through their career. The result showed that theparticipants experianced inner motivation through the satisfaction of the three psychologicalbasic needs in SDT. The result showed that the participants experienced moore externalmotivationat their career end, this because the participants didn’t satisfy the three basicpsychological needs as before. The result also showed that there are various factors thatinfluenced the participants’ decision on a career end, for example; increased demands fromcoaches. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka sub-elitidrottares upplevelse av motivation underkarriären samt vid karriäravslutet. Syftet ämnar även att undersöka vilka faktorer subelitidrottarnaupplevde influerade deras beslut att avsluta sin idrottskarriär. För att undersökasyftet genomfördes tolv kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Deltagarna i studien var tolvföre detta sub-elitidrottare som varit aktiva idrottare mellan åldrarna 15–20. Resultatet frånstudien visade att sub-elitidrottarna upplevde både inre motivation och yttre motivation underderas karriär. Resultatet visade att deltagarna upplevde inre motivation genomtillfredsställelsen av de tre psykologiska grundbehoven inom SDT. Resultatet visade attdeltagarna upplevde mer yttre motivation vid deras karriäravslut, detta då deltagarna inteuppfyllde de tre psykologiska grundbehoven som tidigare. Resultatet visade även att det finnsmånga olika faktorer som influerade deltagarnas beslut om ett karriäravslut, t.ex. ökat kravfrån tränaren.