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.

Brisbane Lions Personal Excellence and Wellbeing Coordinator Marianna Crow has spent a significant amount of her career in education. The perfect preparation for assisting AFL players be the best they can be on and off the field of play. Part of Marianna’s role is to work with players as they start the process towards exiting the game with purpose and intent. In this conversation Marianna explains the importance of starting the transition process by learning about yourself and setting aside time for self-reflection long the journey. Understanding your likes and dislikes, what interests you and ensuring AFL players leverage the resources they have to help them prepare for the day when their careers come to an end. Marianna explains the anxiety players can feel if they’re not prepared and provides a terrific, step by step guide on a process all athletes can follow to ensure they give themselves the best opportunity of successfully transitioning to the next phase of their lives.

Olympian, dual Commonwealth Games and triple World Championship cycling representative Gracie Elvin OLY enjoyed a long and successful career in elite road cycling - one of the world’s most physically and mentally demanding sports. Having started her career mountain biking Gracie progressed to become a mainstay of the elite Mitchelton Scott team for eight years. Whilst competing at the elite level Gracie all but completed her Bachelor of Applied Science Degree and co-founded The Cyclists Alliance, a foundation that provides holistic support to professional female cyclists during and after their careers. With COVID-19 severely disrupting Gracie’s 2020 cycling season, this enforced break provided her the time and space to think about life after sport and led to 2021 being Gracie’s ‘gap’ year. Gracie shares her thoughts on having distractions away from elite sport, the enjoyment she derived meeting and learning from successful people not involved in professional cycling and the importance the support of family and friends has been on her elite sporting journey.

Dual Winter Olympic medallist and aerial skier Lydia Lassila is an Australian sporting icon having won Gold at the Vancouver 2010 Games. Lydia’s sport of choice was a brutal test of physical and mental courage where a small mistake could lead to drastic consequences. A big believer in having distractions outside of sport Lydia was recovering from a ‘blown out knee’ when she started sketching the first designs of what became BodyIce (https://bodyice.com/)– a range of joint specific ice and heat packs developed to help her own recovery from injury. As she evolved as an athlete Lydia had to find new ways to stay at the top of her game physically and mentally which led her to Yoga and ultimately the creation of Zone by Lydia (https://www.zonebylydia.com/). Lydia’s story is a wonderful example of learning to compartmentalise, finding passions outside of sport, having a lifelong learning mindset, not identifying herself an ‘just’ an athlete and simply “getting on with it”.

Newly appointed Hawthorn Football Club coach Sam Mitchell had a storied playing career and was relentless in his pursuit of on field success, for him and his team. Sam’s approach to getting the best out of himself on the field lead to winning four AFL premierships, five best and fairests and the 2012 Brownlow Medal. The hard work he put in well and truly paid off. After finishing playing he transitioned into coaching, firstly as an assistant at the West Coast Eagles, then the Box Hill Hawks and now the Hawthorn Football Club as senior coach. In this wide ranging conversation Sam shares his stories about the peer pressure inside the changerooms to have something to “fall back on”, the small number of mentors that helped him balance the on and off field, being self sufficent when it comes to getting the best out of himself, the selfish life of an AFL footballer, how fatherhood changed the way he thought about AFL football and remaining curious.