Ageing Athletes
A special aspect of sporting maturity is that it happens so early in life. An athlete’s career is played out in fast-forward, when they are still young. Professional and emotional maturity are wildly out of sync. Many sportsmen and sportswomen feel that their sporting careers were practically over before they felt at their most confident outside their special fields. By the time they’ve grown up, their careers are gone. The period of critical decision-making and the exercise of power arrive frighteningly early. Only when they retire do they become young again as they rejoin civilian time.