Zoë Doyle – World Champion – Life Coach
As an athlete, mother, coach, wife, friend, and creative, I wear many hats. I know the importance of maintaining balance. When we go all in on one role, other parts inevitably get neglected.
Last year, I briefly considered giving up competition. After reflection, I realised that my athlete identity is too big a part of me to walk away from. The strength and meaning I gain through sport are vital. What I recognised, however, was that the purpose I found in sport was changing. That evolution, while uncomfortable, is natural and expansive.
As Brad Stulberg writes in Master of Change:
“Embracing life’s fluidity actually turns out to be empowering and even an advantage. No doubt change can hurt, but it comes with all sorts of benefits.”
Identity: A Complex, Evolving Self
Identity is a dynamic blend of roles, values, beliefs, and skills. Athlete identity specifically refers to the degree to which someone identifies with the role of athlete.
At its best, this identity fuels motivation, discipline, resilience, and a sense of belonging. But it can also pose risks, especially during transitions such as injury, career change, or retirement. A healthy identity is expansive and integrated—resilient enough to adapt as roles evolve.
The Dual Nature of Athlete Identity
Athlete identity provides purpose, structure, community, and wellbeing. Yet research consistently shows the risks of over-identification.
A systematic review by Park et al. (2013) found that athletes with a strong athletic identity often struggled with transitions and experienced identity loss upon retirement. Similarly, Stephan et al. (2003) showed that strong athletic identity predicted more difficult adjustments if retirement was unplanned.
When athlete becomes the only story of who we are, we risk what psychologists call identity foreclosure (Lally, 2007). This makes us vulnerable to crises during injury, performance slumps, or retirement, sometimes leading to anxiety, depression, or perfectionism (Webb et al., 1998).
The Body and the Self
Athlete identity is closely tied to the body. When sport ends, the embodied self changes. Douglas and Carless (2009) found that retired Olympians often described a deep sense of bodily loss — their body no longer defining them in the same way. This shift can trigger grief but also opportunities to reimagine the self beyond performance.
Building a Healthy Athlete Identity
So how do we embrace the benefits of athlete identity while avoiding its risks?
- Core Values: Brad Stulberg describes rugged flexibility — values anchor us while we adapt to change.
- Psychological Flexibility: Carless and Douglas (2013) show that when athletes view transitions as developing into something new, they report greater authenticity, self-worth, and resilience.
- Relationships: Maintaining strong connections outside of sport helps buffer identity shifts.
- Diversification: Exploring roles and interests beyond sport builds a rounded sense of self.
- Transferable Strengths: Skills such as resilience, discipline, and focus extend well beyond performance.
What We Learn from Master Athletes
Master athletes — those who compete into midlife and beyond — provide valuable lessons. Unlike elites who often face abrupt endings, masters actively craft identities that evolve with age, values, and circumstances.
Stevenson (2002) found that master swimmers negotiated identity not just through results but through community and belonging. Hookway et al. (2024) described masters as developing socially infused self-concepts — resisting ageing stereotypes while grounding their athletic identity in legacy, relationships, and contribution.
Other studies (Allen-Collinson, 2012; Smith, 2019) show that masters often shift from performance-driven goals to socially meaningful ones, such as mentoring, role-modelling, or sustaining community engagement. Their identities are flexible and expansive, balancing self-expression with service.
Voices of Master Athletes
Conversations with fellow masters echoed these findings.
- Strength: The strength I gain will stay with me forever.
- Flexibility: Goals evolve — from performance to coaching, from medals to milestones.
- Perspective: Celebrating both everyday wins and long-term legacy.
- Role Modelling: Inspiring children, peers, and women to defy age stereotypes.
- Community: Finding joy and belonging in sport as much as in achievement.
Identity Is a Living Thing
Identity is not fixed. It grows and deepens as we do. By nurturing multiple aspects of ourselves, we build resilience, purpose, and authenticity.
Athlete identity can be both empowering and limiting. The key is integration: honouring the athlete within, while creating space for the human beyond.
As Steve Magness reminds us in Win the Inside Game:
“It’s clarity on all aspects of our Self.”
And as Pete Carroll puts it:
“The essence of being as good as you can be is you got to figure out who you are … maximise your authenticity and be connected to that true essence of who you are.”
Master athletes embody this principle, showing us how to embrace change, sustain community, and redefine success across the lifespan.
References:
Allen-Collinson, J. (2012). Narratives of sporting lives: Master athletes and ageing. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 4(2), 236–254.
Carless, D., & Douglas, K. (2013). Living, resisting, and playing the part of athlete: Narrative tensions in elite sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14(5), 701–708.
Douglas, K., & Carless, D. (2009). Abandoning the performance narrative: Two women’s stories of transition from professional sport. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 21(2), 213–230.
Hookway, N., Palmer, C., Dwyer, M., & Mainsbridge, C. (2024). Becoming and being a masters athlete: Class, gender, place and the embodied formation of (anti)-ageing moral identities. Sociology of Sport Journal.
Lally, P. (2007). Identity and athletic retirement: A prospective study. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8(1), 85–99.
Park, S., Lavallee, D., & Tod, D. (2013). Athletes’ career transition out of sport: A systematic review. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 6(1), 22–53.
Smith, J. (2019). “Still racing”: Masters athletes’ identity and healthy ageing. Leisure Studies, 38(4), 490–502.
Stephan, Y., Bilard, J., Ninot, G., & Delignières, D. (2003). Repercussions of transition out of elite sport on subjective well-being: A one-year study. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1(2), 192–207.
Stevenson, C. (2002). Seeking identities: Towards an understanding of the athletic careers of masters swimmers. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 37(2), 131–146.
Webb, W. M., Nasco, S. A., Riley, S., & Headrick, B. (1998). Athletic identity and reactions to retirement from sports. Journal of Sport Behaviour, 21(3), 338–362.
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