‘My Sport Won’t Pay the Bills Forever’: High-Performance Athletes’ Need for Financial Literacy and Self-Management

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.