Sasha Cohen: An Olympian’s Guide to Retiring at 25

[Sylvia]

It was interesting to read more about the pros and cons of USOC's ACE program in this article ("Finding New Meaning After An Olympic Career") that leads off with Rachael Flatt: https://www.theatlantic.com/educati...g-new-meaning-after-an-olympic-career/553004/
Excerpts:

Even with her superior education, Flatt struggled after retiring from skating in 2014. “Leaving a sport feels like a divorce: You’re cut wide open and have a gaping hole,” she said. But neither U.S. Figure Skating (the national body that governs the sport) nor the U.S. Olympic Committee (the entity that coordinates Olympic activities for U.S. athletes) had much to offer in the way of post-retirement support, Flatt said, emphasizing that the USOC’s mission is simply to win as many Olympic medals as possible. “Once they’ve retired, athletes can feel like they’re an afterthought,” Flatt explained. “If you don’t have an education or training to guide you, you’re kind of out of luck.”

Other nations with robust Olympic teams often provide their athletes with more substantial support: In Canada, for example, top athletes receive an annual income of up to $18,000 as well as a subsidized college education.* By contrast, the U.S. adopts a hands-off approach to its top athletes. “We [Americans] emphasize individualism and individual responsibility more than any other country in the world, so we leave it up to the athletes to figure things out for themselves,” said Jay Coakley, a sociologist and the author of Sports In Society.

“We are able to take each individual situation and work to provide an array of programs and opportunities based on need,” [ACE director Leslie] Klein said. Plus, she added, offering this support sends the signal to athletes that the USOC cares. So far, roughly 1,700 athletes have used ACE services, including more than 50 from this year’s Olympic team [including Nagasu].
What limits ACE are its size and funding. It’s not clear how much money ACE receives from the USOC—a USOC representative said the organization does not release the budget of each department—but its staff is relatively small: Klein runs the program with three career coaches and two administrators. Though athletes applied for $1.6 million in college tuition grants, ACE could only afford to give out $237,000—“a big gap,” she said, between what athletes want and what ACE provides.

 

[Sylvia]

Rachael Flatt update: https://twitter.com/cbulik/status/969476100375154689
She is moving to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this fall to start her Ph.D. in clinical psychology with Cynthia Bulik who (I looked her up online) is the Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine there. Go Rachael!

 

[Enchanted]

^ That’s great!

I hope skating parents planning to home school their children read Sasha’s article. I’m sure there are cases in which home schooling has been successful but I’ve been rather surprised by the amount of home schooled athletes in some countries.

 

[AxelAnnie]

Certainly if they could fund skating, they could have funded Columbia... (Maybe not both though.)



Seriously! Give the woman credit for her own skills. Her knowledge of finance isn't solely from her former husband at all.

Most certainly it is not. I heard her talking about investing several years ago. She was awesome.
What does funding Columbia have to do with her admittance?
Does anyone ever wonder how so many famous child stars get into Yale. It isn't on grades from their tony prep schools.

 

[Sylvia]

Sasha Cohen participated in the Athlete Panel earlier today in Arlington, VA, at the Athlete Career and Education (ACE) Olympic and Paralympic Summit 2018, "an interactive, multi-day event focusing on personal and professional development": https://www.teamusa.org/athlete-res...ram/life-skills/olympic-and-paralympic-summit

Photo of Sasha and the panel: https://twitter.com/olgiebear1/status/989137822157279234

Great opening session at ACE Summit! Wonderful career transition insights from @ WomensSportsFdn Athlete Advisory Panel member @ LaurynCwilliams and her awesome colleagues @ SashaCohenNYC , @ candaceable , @ SteveMesler and @ JeremyBloom11 ! # ACEYourSummit2018

ETA another photo of the athlete panel: https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/989243765943660544

Sasha with fellow Olympian and freestyle skiier Jeremy Bloom yesterday: https://twitter.com/SashaCohenNYC/status/988952518825775104

 

[Sylvia]

Advice For Your Career And Life From 5 Olympic And Paralympic Legends (Candace Cable, Jeremy Bloom, Lauryn Williams, Steve Mesler and Sasha Cohen): https://www.teamusa.org/News/2018/A...nd-Life-From-5-Olympic-And-Paralympic-Legends

Cohen was defined by her life on the ice until she was 25 years old, first as a competitor and then as a professional skater. When she found her life on tours and performing in shows was no longer fulfilling her, she knew it was time to step away. Attending Columbia University was a new challenge and may not have given her all the answers, but it gave her valuable time to experiment. “I was able to be a person,” Cohen said.
Rather than be a skater, she could experiment. She took a variety of classes in different fields, made mistakes typical of any college student and relished not having to be defined as an athlete. She graduated without a clear goal, but now has a successful career at Morgan Stanley because she gave herself permission to figure it out.

 

[Japanfan]

Good for her for navigating her ass out of the expected future of coaching no-name skaters at a no-name rink somewhere.

I find this a bit harsh. I think lower level coaches can find a lot of satisfaction in their work, whether they are coaching competitive or recreational skaters. They are teaching both skating and life skills, often have motivated, hard-working students, and the job has a fun social aspect to it.

And, all elite coaches have to start somewhere, usually as no-name coaches.

 

[Japanfan]

I did read her autobiography written at the time she was still competing. It had been lent to me and at the time I commented it was very poorly written. Now I understand why.

I don't know what you mean by "now I understand why'.

Figure skaters aren't writers usually. I would expect very few among them to ability to write a good book - as the subset of a subset of the general population that doesn't have strong writing skills.

The publisher of the book should have hired an editor to bring the writing up to publishable quality. It's not Sasha's fault if this didn't happen.