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Our aim in this invited commentary is to stimulate discussion among sport psychology researchers and practitioners regarding the unique developmental challenges and possibilities that Olympic and Paralympic athletes are undergoing during their final – extended year of the Tokyo 2020 quadrenium. We begin the commentary with COVID-19 pandemic (C-19) context setting, proceed with discussing transitional and holistic perspectives on athletes' Olympic/Paralympic journey, outline three potential pathway scenarios and "C-19 as a possibility-provider" coping (meta-) scenario for Olympic/Paralympic athletes, and finalise our commentary with a summary of messages intended to invite further discussion and collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors of this paper share how they developed and validated an applied framework termed the career-long psychological support services in Swedish handball (CPS-H). The CPS-H is grounded in career research within Swedish handball and examples of efficient career assistance practice complemented by applied experiences of the first author. The authors used a heuristic approach to sketch the CPS-H initial version, which later was validated in three focus groups with end-users (handball players, coaches, and sport psychology practitioners) and transformed into the validated CPS-H. Promoting a combination of the proactive, educational, whole career, whole environment, and whole person approaches, the framework is structured as having interrelated parts addressing questions: where (changes in the contexts), when (ages, career stages), what (athletes' needs and potential working issues), who (support providers), why (philosophy shared by the stakeholders), and how (forms of services) of psychological support. The authors further reflect on the CPS-H and its implementation and provide general and stage-specific recommendations for support providers. Although the CPS-H is contextualized in a specific sport and culture, some lessons can be applicable across countries and sport boarders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a comprehensive update of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) Position Stand on career development and transitions of athletes issued a decade ago (Stambulova, Alfermann, Statler, & Côté, 2009, ISSP Position Stand: Career development and transitions of athletes. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 7, 395–412.). A need for updating the 2009 Position Stand has grown out of the increasing inconsistency between its popularity and high citation, on the one hand, and its dated content that inadequately reflects the current status of athlete career research and assistance, on the other. During the last decade, sport psychology career scholars worked on structuring the athlete career knowledge and consolidating it into the athlete career (sport psychology) discourse (ACD). The aims of this paper are to: (1) update the decade-long evolution and describe the current structure of the ACD, (2) introduce recent trends in career development and transition research, (3) discuss emerging trends in career assistance, and (4) summarise in a set of postulates the current status and future challenges of the ACD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(a) To provide a state-of-the-art critical review of European dual career (DC) research (2015–2018, English language), (b) to position the current DC (psychological) research within the athlete career sport psychology discourse and within the European DC discourse, and (c) to identify research gaps and future challenges. These objectives were formulated after an appraisal of nine existing review-type papers contributed to the European DC discourse. This review has been informed by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta Analyses (Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, Altman, & The PRISMA group, 2010) and recommendations on presenting results of the state-of-the-art critical review by Grant and Booth (2009). Following an extensive literature search across several databases, 42 research papers were used for appraisal, synthesis, and critical analysis of the current DC research. Major tenets of the cultural praxis of athletes' careers (Stambulova & Ryba, 2013a , b ; 2014) were used as a critical lens in the analysis. DC research contributes to and connects the European DC discourse and the athlete career sport psychology discourse. DC in sport and work, DC "costs", DC development environments, DC athletes' mental health and well-being, DC support and training of the support providers constitute the major gaps in current DC research. Filling these gaps presents future challenges for DC research to adequately support practice and policy making within the European DC discourse. • Forty two peer-reviewed dual career (DC) articles from 2015–18 were reviewed. • Mapping and narrative syntheses revealed progress and gaps in current DC research. • Tenets of cultural praxis of athletes' careers were used as a lens for critical reflections. • European DC discourse and athlete career (psychology) discourse were found to overlap. • DC term has been established, and a holistic lifespan perspective informed most studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the psychological description of the sports career, including the history of the topic in Russian sport psychology before and during perestroika, two theoretical models of the sports career (synthetic and analytic), and conclusions drawn from the empirical research of sports careers of more than 200 Russian athletes representing different sports specializations and levels of achievement. Seven predictable crises of elite sports careers are considered from the perspective of typical problems and difficulties of athletes in each crisis, general symptoms and possible circumstances that reinforce crisis symptoms, ways to resolve a crisis, the influence of a crisis on sport performance, forms of "payment" for failure to resolve crises, and ways of providing psychological assistance to athletes in crisis periods of the sports career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Call for Papers for this Special Issue (SI) we encouraged researchers to share their original studies addressing various transitions in sport life in different contexts and athletic populations; we also invited relevant theoretical and methodological contributions based on a dialogue between transition researchers representing different sport sciences (Kiuppis and Stambulova [1]). All the authors contributed with the research-based applied messages illuminating different aspects of helping athletes to strive for career excellence in sport and life. " Athletes' Transitions in Sport and Life: Positioning New Research Trends within Existing System of Athlete Career Knowledge.". [Extracted from the article]

The specific objectives of this study were: (a) to identify adjustment patterns in the junior-to-senior transition (JST) based on athletes’ dynamics of adjustment during a two-and-a-half-year period, and (b) to describe the athletes’ demographic, personal and transitional characteristics at the beginning of the JST that were related to the different adjustment patterns. This quantitative longitudinal study consisted of five measurements conducted approximately every six months over a two-and-a-half-year period. One instrument was used to measure the transition variables and three instruments to measure personal characteristics. In the first measurement, 101 club-based Swedish athletes with the mean age of 16.51 (SD = 1.32) took part. The latent profile analysis on athletes’ perceived degree of adjustment provided three profiles with different patterns in the JST. Profile 1 had a progressive adjustment pattern, whereas the second profile had a regressive adjustment pattern, and the third profile had a sustainable adjustment pattern. The descriptive statistics and Cohen’s d indicated that there were differences (with variation in magnitude) between the three profiles at the first measurement in terms of how athletes perceived different transitional characteristics. Keeping a primary focus on sport (but also having attention to other spheres of life), high athletic identity and motivation to reach senior level were characteristics relevant for both progressive and sustainable adjustment patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a summary of the positive and less positive experiences of several authors on their context-driven sport psychology practices (CDP) in the form of nine postulates. The definition of CDP as sport and exercise psychology practice covers reciprocal interactions between consultants, clients, adn the cultural and subcultural contexts they are into. The authors also claim that CDP helps improve consultant-client relationship.

The purpose of this study was to explore a temporal structure (i.e. sequence of phases and relevant psychological content) of the junior-to-senior transition in Swedish ice hockey players. The study was a qualitative exploration of the junior-to-senior transition process designed in three steps. First, the athletic career transition model coupled with a holistic developmental approach and analysis of the Swedish ice hockey context were used to create a conceptual fourphase (preparation, orientation, adaptation and stabilization) junior-to-senior transition framework and interview guides. Second, seven active semi-professional ice hockey players were interviewed about their junior-to-senior transition experiences and asked for their feedback on the conceptual framework. Finally, based on the empirical data and the participants' feedback, the conceptual framework was transformed into an empirical model of the junior-to-senior transition. In the empirical model 'Phases in the junior-to-senior transition of Swedish ice hockey players', the authors provided a summary of the players' transition experiences (i.e. perceived demands, resources, barriers, coping strategies and outcomes) within each of the four (i.e. the preparation, the orientation, the adaptation and the stabilization) juniorto-senior transition phases. Further, the authors discussed the empirical model in relation to theoretical frameworks and previous research and also provided methodology-, future research- and practice-oriented reflections addressed to researchers, coaches and sport psychology practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Transnationalism, as part of the globalization processes, has transformed the lifestyle and the course of athletes' careers. This presents previously unexplored challenges encountered by student-athletes in combining athletic and academic pursuits. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework for the taxonomy of transnational dual careers (DC). Design and method Narrative inquiry from the life story perspective was used to elicit and analyze career narratives of six transnational athletes (3 male and 3 female), generating about five interview hours per athlete. The developmental transition from secondary to higher education was chosen as a key transition to classify the DC pathways. Additional insights into DC mobilization across international borders were gleaned by employing the typologies of sport migrants developed in the sport labor migration research. Results Three patterns of transnational DC were discerned from the narratives based on the direction of geographic mobility and the core migration motive underpinning the storyline. Within the present dataset, the taxonomies are: (1) Within EU mobility: the sport exile DC pathway; (2) Mobility to the U.S.A.: the sport mercenary DC pathway; and (3) Mobility to the U.S.A.: the nomadic cosmopolitan DC pathway. Conclusions The identified transnational DC paths are not exhaustive, and highlight possibilities of individual development, unfolding through the matrices of social structures in a given location. Further research with a diverse set of transnational athletes is needed to test and expand the proposed taxonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The paper presents a national level Swedish project aimed at examining adolescent student-athletes' dual career experiences (including sport, studies, and private life) during their first year at national elite sport schools (Swedish abbreviation RIGs will be used) with a particular focus on development of their athletic and student identities. The developmental model of transitions faced by athletes (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) and the athletic career transition model (Stambulova, 2003) served as underlying frameworks. Design A longitudinal mixed-method research design was used with autumn-to-spring quantitative and qualitative parts. Method Sixteen year old student-athletes, representing 27 sports and 33 RIGs ( n = 261 in the first and n = 250 in the second measurement), completed three quantitative instruments. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 participants. Results Results revealed (a) significant changes in the participants' transition/adaptation variables from the first to the second measurement accompanied by rather high perceived quality of adjustment at RIG both at the beginning and at the end of the educational year; (b) significant contributions of the transition variables to the perceived quality of adjustment with personal resources as a key predictor; (c) significantly higher athletic than student identity in both quantitative measurements, but with inter- and intra-individual differences with regard to balancing the two shown by the qualitative data. Conclusions The study contributes to deeper understanding of dual career experiences of Swedish adolescent athletes; the authors provide recommendations for psychological dual career support services at RIGs and outline future research in the Swedish dual career model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian Olympic Men's Boxing Team was once among the most successful contingents in the world in its sport discipline but then lost this prominent status. At present, Canada's Boxing Team has begun preparation for the 2016 Olympics with the “Own the Podium” (OTP) Program providing financial support to the National Boxing Team and targeted Olympic candidates expected to podium at the 2016 Olympic Games. The authors reveal in this paper the first step of the project “Psychological Support for the Canadian Olympic Boxing Team in Meta-Transitions through the National Team Program” aimed at planning for the boxers' progressions through the 2013–2016 Olympic cycle. Integral to this program, the athletes' progressions are supported through the development of a system of National Team Psychological Support Services (NT-PSS). Within this submission, the authors further develop a vision of the 2016 Olympic Games as a career transition and consider how the Canadian Men's Boxing Team's staff, located within a broader national sport system, proactively map six meta-transitions for the boxers throughout the 2013–2016 Olympic cycle and plan the NT-PSS' content accordingly. The forthcoming meta-transitions are seen as turns between the phases of progressing Olympic cycle: (A) entering the National Team Program, (B) entering major international tournaments, (C) Olympic qualification, (D) focused preparation for the Olympics, (E) to the Olympic podium, and (F) to the post-Games. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this review article, a content area of athlete career in sport psychology is analyzed through the cultural lens: that is, through paradigmatic perspectives of cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology, and cultural studies. Based on previous review papers, but mainly on the chapters of the anthologyAthletes' Careers across Cultures, we identified three dominant (North American, Australian, and European) and two emerging (Asian and South American) cultural discourses in the career topic. These discourses are characterized by research foci, theoretical frameworks, and career assistance programs in action. Our critical analysis of career research and assistance around the world further indicates a need for more contextualized and culturally competent career projects, which blend theory/research, applied work, and lived culture into cultural praxis. To satisfy this need, a new paradigm termedcultural praxis of athletes' careersis suggested. In conclusion, we emphasize the importance of review papers in negotiating emerging terminology, values, principles, and approaches underlying the career topic, and share some ideas for future reviews in career research and assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The multicultural landscape of contemporary sport sets a challenge to rethink sport and exercise psychology research and practice through a culturally reflexive lens. This ISSP Position Stand provides a rigorous synthesis and engagement with existing scholarship to outline a roadmap for future work in the field. The shift to culturally competent sport and exercise psychology implies: (a) recognizing hidden ethnocentric philosophical assumptions permeating much of the current theory, research, and practice; (b) transitioning to professional ethics in which difference is seen as not inherent and fixed but as relational and fluid; and (c) focusing on meaning (instead of cause) in cross-cultural and cultural research projects, and cultural praxis work. In the paper, we first provide an overview of the concepts of cultural competence and ethics of difference. Second, we present a step-by-step approach for developing a culturally competent project rooted either within cross-cultural or cultural research. Third, we focus on cultural praxis as a project that blends theory, research, and lived culture of practice. Finally, we summarize main points in nine postulates and provide recommendations for enhancing cultural competence in the field of sport and exercise psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the Soviet notion of volitional preparation through the lens used by the prominent sport psychologist Avksenty Cezarevich Puni (1898-1986). First, we provide an English translation of Puni's theoretical and practical tutorial on volitional preparation in sport. Then, we discuss how Puni's model was grounded in the socio-political and cultural particularities of his era and suggest some ways it might be used to stimulate future research and theorizing on the development of mental toughness. Finally, we offer some possible applications of the model for practitioners in preparing athletes for the rigors of competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]