Ep.018 Athlete Story PodcastStarting your own nonprofit after sports - Athlete Story ft Berit Nielsen LegrandI want to introduce you to a series of athletes who are making an impact after sport. We’ll start by meeting Taekwondo champion Marlene Harnois. After ending her sports career in a bit of drama – ranked no. 1 in the world, she decided to go to Africa. We met in person at International University of Monaco for this chat.After winning the Olympic bronze medal, Marlene Harnois found herself deselected from the French team even though she was still ranked top of the world. She tried to see how she could keep competing but when the leadership got dirty and personal, she decided to retire.This time was hard on Marlene. But what do champions do? They move on. And so did she, as you’ll hear in this chat about retirement, and creating new opportunities for yourself by giving first.

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You can also watch a video version of this interview here.

READ the transcript of full interview by clicking here.

Anja: The lessons you learn from a sports career often come from what’s around the sport. That’s from the game itself, sometimes you land on a mass of broken systems and power and politics and you have to make the best of it. Today we’ll meet Marlene Harnois who found herself in the middle of this kind of leadership mess around the London Olympics. She didn’t just manage to win an Olympic bronze with that, she took it beyond herself and did so much more.Stay tuned. This is Athlete’s Story and I’m your host Anja Bolbjerg from World Top 10 Skier in Logos and Free Ride Skiing. Now, wait until Life After Sports, I invite you to join me and other former athletes here on Athlete’s Story for resources to help you repurpose your sports career for new exciting opportunities after sports.After winning the Olympic bronze medal, Marlene Harnois found herself deselected from the French team even though she was still ranked top of the world. She tried to see how she could keep competing but when the leadership simply got dirty and personal, she decided it was time to retire. This full picture of the broken system she was operating in and the leadership conflict of interest didn’t really get exposed til years later when other stories like this surfaced. All this time was hard on Marlene, but what do champions do? They move on, right, and so did she as you’ll hear in this chat about retirement and creating new opportunities for yourself by giving first. Let’s welcome Olympic medalist, decorated Knight of the Order of Merit by the French president, Champion for Peace of the Peace and Sport Organization, and yes MBA candidate at the International University of Monaco. Without further ado, Marlene Harnois. Hi, Marlene.Marlene: Hi.Anja: Thanks for coming, I’m so happy you could make it.Marlene: Thank you very much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.Anja: Before we dive into a little bit of your sports story and all the merits, I’d like to hear about the time when you retired because you retired right after getting a bronze medal at the London Olympics, right?Marlene: Yes. London Olympics, well Olympics has always been my dream. I started taekwondo as a little girl. I was four-years-old in Canada. When I was 14-years old I was invited by friends to come and train here so I moved to France. I was always carrying around this Olympic dreams and I won two titles as a European Champion,