Who is Eligible?
A Sport Canada carded athlete or National Training Group athlete
Athletes who are deemed by their NSO to be at the senior national team level — in a Paralympic, Olympic, Pan Am or Para Pan Am discipline are eligible and have full access to Game Plan services:
Webinar Education Network
Program Prizing & Bursaries
Smith School of Business Scholarships
Mental Health Hotline
Institute / Centre Events & Special Events
Category One athletes who retired from sport within the past two years
If you are a Category One athlete and have been retired from sport within the past two years you are deemed eligible and have full access to the following Game Plan services:
Webinar Education Network
Program Prizing & Bursaries
Smith School of Business Scholarships
Mental Health Hotline
Institute / Centre Events & Special Events
Athletes who have been retired for more than two years
Category One Athletes retired from sport for more than two years are eligible for some Game Plan services and are encouraged to register to learn more and access alumni benefits.
Webinar Education Network
Program Prizing & Bursaries
Smith School of Business Scholarships
Mental Health Hotline
Institute / Centre Events & Special Events
Benefits to Athletes
For most dedicated competitors, it can be challenging to manage sport and non-sport commitments. But when athletes wrap their entire identity around sport, it doesn’t just affect how they manage life transitions beyond the podium – it can also negatively impact their performance as an athlete.
Research suggests that athletes who engage in non-sport development, such as education or professional training (while actively training and competing), can actually achieve better results both in sport and in life. Instilling a focus on non-sport pursuits within an athlete’s training and competition schedule has been known to help maintain motivation, decrease the risk of burnout, reduce non-sport distractions, and allow athletes to prolong their athletic career.
Here’s what elite athletes have cited as benefits of engaging in career development activities:
Reduced frustration and pressure resulting from exclusive focus on sport
Enhanced mental engagement to help overcome the physical challenges of training and performance, which helps to maintain an interest in and commitment to sport
Sense of security having a post-sport career plan, resulting in better athletic performance
Wellbeing and balance derived from recognizing that sport can be complemented by outside pursuits, yielding stronger overall athletic performance