How an open mind, a willingness to learn from your mistakes and leveraging your experiences can pave the way to a smooth transition to life after sport

Winter Olympian James Matheson OLY is the first athlete I have interviewed who is still competing at the elite level, as a world class Mogul skier. And what a conversation we had! James has a podcast called The Athlete Collective that explores how leaders, visionaries and friends from the athlete community found their mojo off the field of play. Very similar to The Wide Open Road. During our conversation James flipped the script and asked me a few questions about my own experiences and what I have learnt over my 30 plus years of corporate life which has included a couple of transitions of my own. As James embarks on the 2022 Winter Olympics in China this coming February he had the time to share his experiences on life as an elite athlete, the importance of a long term mindset, coping with ‘failure’ and preparing himself for retirement at the ripe old age of 26. As the first athlete to still be competing this is an enlightening and uplifting conversation which we intend to pick up on The Athlete Collective Podcast in the second quarter of next year.