Abstract
Research about the Olympic Games has primarily focused on preparing athletes for competition. Less attention has been paid to what occurs post-Olympics and specifically, athlete well-being during this time. Research that focuses on gold-medallists, moreover, is understudied. This research attempted to, 1) explore the gap in empirical research of Olympic champions, 2) describe the impacts of media and appearance demands, and 3) elaborate how mental health is influenced during the post-Olympics period. This qualitative research occurred in two phases. The first phase utilized an autoethnographic design due to the primary researcher’s personal experience and reality. The second phase involved the purposeful recruitment of four (n=4) additional Canadian Olympic gold medallists to participate in digital, semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse and organize the autoethnographic accounts of the primary researcher and the participants’ interviews. The findings were organized around 3 overarching themes. These include: 1) fulfilling the “ultimate dream”; 2) attempting to manage requests and increased celebrity; 3) influence on health and wellbeing. The findings of this research contribute to the discussion on the post-Olympic games experience and elite athlete well-being. Implications from this work are relevant to National Sport Organizations, integrated sport science teams, and educators/policy makers to support athletes in the lead up to, during, and after their Olympic campaign.
