Shared Understanding in Transition: Retired Athletes' Experiences of a Structured Peer-Support Programme

Retirement from high performance sport can disrupt identity, relationships, daily structure and access to familiar sources of support. Although career assistance and professional services are important components of transition provision, less is known about how retired athletes experience facilitated peer-support programmes. This qualitative study examined how retired Australian Olympic and Paralympic athletes made sense of shared lived experience within the Retired Athlete Peer Support programme, particularly in relation to coping, belonging and social connection. Eight athletes representing six sports participated in semi-structured online interviews after completing six weekly 90-minute group sessions. Reflexive thematic analysis was guided by critical realism, moving between reported experience and plausible relational and organisational explanations. Six interrelated themes were generated: organisational transition rupture, validation as recognition, psychological safety, identity continuity and belonging, coping as recalibration, and restored relational agency. Organisational rupture, including abrupt career endings and limited follow-up, formed the context against which participants interpreted the programme. They attributed its value not to shared athlete status alone, but to experiential recognition interacting with facilitation, clear boundaries and cross-sport relational distance. Participants associated these conditions with greater willingness to disclose, normalisation of transition difficulties, reconsideration of earlier experiences, a reworked connection with athletic identity and greater choice in approaching future relationships. Readiness for peer support varied across stages of retirement. Structured peer support may therefore provide a relational component of integrated transition provision, complementing rather than replacing career assistance, professional wellbeing services or clinical care. Longitudinal and comparative research is needed to examine outcomes, timing and transferability.