"You can't tee them up for retirement because we have to go out and win gold medals…": A Foucauldian Exploration of Olympic Coaching Logic and Athletic retirement

Introduction: Despite decades of research into the phenomena of athletic retirement, many modern athletes continue to report difficulties in adjusting to life beyond sport. As a result, the issue of athletic retirement has become a significant concern for those working within high-performance settings. However, there remains a distinct lack of critical attention regarding how key actors within athletes' lives (e.g., coaches) shape and impact upon their capacities to adjust to post-sport life. Methods: In this paper, we address this gap in research by presenting qualitative data from interviews with eight coaches working in the context of Olympic sport in the United Kingdom to examine their perspectives regarding the athlete retirement process. Results and Discussion: Drawing upon Foucault's conceptualization of disciplinary power-knowledge, our analysis illustrates how Olympic coaches' perspectives and experiences of athletic retirement can be linked to the modernist logic and normalizing pressures that characterize Olympic level coaching environments.