There is a lot of evidence showing that injuries lead to absence from training or competition and ultimately termination of a career. Current structure and organisation initiatives do not fit the need of athletes when they are faced with different challenges during their dual career. There is a need for better support services with an emphasis on injury prevention and rehabilitation.
The purpose of this master's thesis was to identify the health status of former elite athletes and the characteristics of their sport careers. The sample included 65 former elite Slovenian athletes from 24 different disciplines, aged between 19 and 65 years. We acquired the data with the help of a Sport Career Termination Questionnaire (SCTQ-II). The data was processed with SPSS software. We used descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Chi-squared test and Pearson and Cramer correlation coefficients.
We analysed the following groups of variables: demographics, health status, sport career characteristics, sport career termination characteristics and athletes' support services.
The results show that sports injuries are an important factor influencing the termination of an athlete's career. We discovered that there are statistically significant differences in reasons for career termination that depend on gender, age and education. We also discovered that athletes who receive better medical support also gain better knowledge in injury prevention.
There is a need for an interdisciplinary approach to injured athletes to find alternatives and avoid injury-caused retirement. We recommend meticulous monitoring of athletes during their careers, as well as after their retirement. We also recommend close cooperation between medical and coaching staff.
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