When Stephanie Rice announced an end to her swimming career in April 2014, she tried to avoid the word 'retiring'. To her, it suggested the end of everything, as if she, at the age of just 25, was off to live out her days on a beach somewhere.
In truth, the Olympic champion had no idea what was in front of her.
Speaking on sports podcast The Howie Games, the now 33-year-old said she languished for almost four years in a sort of professional "no-man's-land", with nowhere to direct the drive and passion she'd felt for her sport.
"I applied for jobs, and when I put on the résumé 'three-time Olympic gold medallist', I never got past the first application stage because I'm sure people look at it and go, 'That's cute, but what skills do you have and what experience do you have in this space or sector?'
"I don't have any skills that transfer, and that is really hard. Because you've literally worked so hard to refine those skills to be amazing and the best in the world, and now that means nothing."
During that period, when people asked Rice what she was doing with her life beyond the pool, she had no answer.
"I was lying the whole time, saying wishy-washing things like, 'Oh, I still do a bit of speaking and I do some brand ambassador work and a little bit of coaching'. Literally, those three things would take up five days of my year," she said.
"Really what I wanted to say was, 'I have no idea. I have no direction. I'm lost.'"
Professional athletes, and the risk of 'identity foreclosure'.
Life after retirement is notoriously fraught for professional athletes.
Australian basketball legend Lauren Jackson previously told Mamamia's daily news podcast, The Quicky, about her struggles after a devastating knee injury prematurely felled her career in 2016.
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