“However, no one was preparing them for life beyond sport or showing them how they could exploit their sporting success to further their career.
“On the programme, we get athletes to ask questions about themselves and apply the same principles that made them successful in their particular sport to the next stage of their life” adds Longwell.
“Time management, lifestyle choices, and decision making are some of the challenges they have to consider. Some are good at making the transition which needs to be smooth.”
Katie Mullan, Ireland’s 26-year-old hockey captain, who has successfully dovetailed her sporting career with a medical engineering degree has first hand experience of the Sport Institute’s Business into Sport programme which is akin to an amalgamated version of a speed dating session and the television series Dragons.
“Some of the squad preparing for next year’s Olympic Games went along to different meetings which gave us the platform into the business world,” says Mullan.
“People were there because they wanted to be. Hockey isn’t a full-time sport in Ireland so the squad is used to combining work commitments with the different aspects of sporting life.
“We tried to show how our drive and determination could be used in work. Hopefully employers would see the long term benefits of having Olympians on board. Most seemed supportive.”
Include business investor Paul Rothwell on that list.
“I’d only heard of the hockey women after Ireland did so well at the World Cup,” admits Rothwell.
“I met Katie and Shirley McCay. They were impressive talking about leadership and about the highs and lows of a seven days a week commitment to their sport.
“At the end, Shirley told the gathering that any athletes they chose to employ could do as much in two days as others might achieve in a week.
“It was the most powerful 30 second pitch, I’ve ever heard. I nearly got up on my feet and cheered.”