This paper investigates high-performance athletes’ development of their financial literacy and self-management skills and the related organisational support available to them during their athletic careers. The data were collected from 20 retired high-performance athletes (10 male and 10 female) representing six different countries (Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, and the UK). Thematic analysis was applied to the processing of the data and five themes emerged: (1) Funding battles: financial challenges and misjudgements; (2) Coping Strategies; (3) Support from sponsors, parents, and sport organisations; (4) Development of Financial Literacy; and (5) Life After Sport. The data indicates that athletes experienced financial challenges due to a lack of organisational support, reduced or terminated funding, and limited opportunities to access sponsorship. Typically, athletes developed their financial literacy and self-management skills by ‘self-help’ or ‘trial and error’. The findings contribute to both literature and practice by providing empirical evidence on the coping strategies adopted by athletes in order to overcome financial challenges and on the methods used in order to develop their financial literacy and self-management skills. These findings inform sport organisations and governing bodies to develop support schemes for high-performance athletes as well as deepen our knowledge of athletes’ career development and transitions focusing on the financial aspect.

This paper reports the results of analysing desk-based data on organisational support for high performance athletes to develop their financial literacy and self-management skills when transitioning out of sport. There are two research questions: (1) Do sport organisations provide support schemes or other interventions such that high-performance athletes develop their financial literacy and self-management skills? and (2) Do sport organisations provide financial support schemes for high-performance athletes’ retirements? If so, what do they involve? Desk-based data collection was applied to 23 sporting organisations; these comprised 21 national organisations representing 19 countries, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Oceanic National Olympic Committee (ONOC). Fifteen of the 23 organisations, representing 14 countries, provided some support or interventions on financial planning and self-management within their career assistance programmes. The findings also indicate that most organisations in 17 different countries did not provide any financial support for athletes’ retirements. While a number of sport organisations have developed appropriate interventions to assist high-performance athletes to develop financial literacy and self-management skills, such schemes appear only to be provided to high-performance athletes who have competed at the highest level e.g., Olympics, world championships, etc. Support for athletes at lower levels should also be developed and delivered by national governments, or by national sport organisations.