Balancing elite sport with study or work can feel impossible, but for many athletes it’s the most sustainable way to keep performing at their best whilst building a future beyond it. A dual career is not a compromise; it’s a smarter way to manage ambition.
We spoke with three athletes at different stages of their sporting journeys - rower Lauren Miller, sprinter Shemar Boldizsar, and MMA fighter and former GB taekwondo athlete Mohammed Nour - about what has worked for them, what hasn’t and how they stay motivated when they’re juggling two serious commitments.
Lauren did not set out to be a rower; she grew up swimming, ran track and tried triathlon, before a friend persuaded her to attend college tryouts for rowing at the University of Minnesota. “I went with her kind of begrudgingly, wasn’t sure if I liked it, but stuck with it,” she recalls. After graduating, she moved to upstate New York for a year to test a near full-time training schedule while stitching together small part-time jobs to cover rent and groceries. This taught her as much about herself as it did about performance: “I felt really insecure financially and felt unsure about the direction of my career. At the time, I thought I was done with the elite level training.”
Stepping back to complete an MBA gave Lauren a clear professional pathway outside rowing. She stayed close to the sport as a graduate assistant coach, then tested her fitness. “I did a few standard workouts to see where I was at and I was just as fast as I was three years ago, even though I was doing a third of the volume,” she says, which led her to call her old coach in late 2022.
She re-entered elite training while starting a corporate role at Medtronic and, in 2023, made the USA team and won a gold and two silvers at the Pan American Games. After spine surgery in March, she is rebuilding with the 2028 Olympic cycle in view. She has a clear understanding of the mental load that comes with running two serious commitments at once: “Do I ever feel that people question my dedication either in rowing or in my job because of the other one? Literally every day, but most of the time it’s just me putting that pressure on myself.”
The upside is equally real, because financial stability reduces day-to-day uncertainty and the skills she is developing travel in both directions. “At work I am praised for my tenacity, work ethic and my ability to work with people and lead through people very well. That’s not something I learned in my MBA, but in rowing.”
Shemar’s route into athletics was gradual, supported by parents who encouraged him to try several sports before he settled on sprinting. “Athletics was the sport I liked the most, but I wasn’t the fastest.” It was a coach who spotted his abilities on the track. “Five or six years ago, he told me I’d make it to the top,” he remembers. This prediction found its proof when he won gold at the U23 European Championships in 2019.
Alongside training, Shemar works at his local sports centre as a personal trainer under a manager who understands his high-performance training demands and helps make his schedule workable. “If I’m working late, I do my training in the morning and then work late, and vice versa,” he explains. He volunteers on weekends as a volleyball coach and values the way his day-job team operates. Family support also made a decisive difference when he chose to fully commit to sport: “Once they told me we’ll just adapt to you and help you out that just that was like a breath of fresh air.”
His advice to athletes considering a dual path begins with communication. “You’ll always find time, as long as you have the right communication, voice your thoughts and opinions and don’t bottle them back,” he says.
Mohammed is a former GB Taekwondo athlete who recently transitioned to MMA. This has opened the door to a very different relationship with pressure, where he is pursuing the sport because he is passionate about it. His approach is paying off, and he has won all of his fights so far. In parallel, he has been following a dual-career schedule that treats training and professional growth as parts of the same plan. Whilst training in taekwondo, he earned a first-class degree in Computer Science. Now, he splits his days between training blocks and focused work, including a part-time role with ACT Community and building an AI-powered CV building platform.
The balance is practical as much as psychological. “It is expensive to be an athlete,” Mohammed says, and the weekly reality is that it’s about trying to make ends meet. Support for athletes, in his view, is a system of interlocking parts rather than a single fix. “It’s like the cogs in a machine. If one cog fails, then the whole machine will break down.” His advice to those thinking about studying or working alongside sport is pragmatic. “It’ll be hard, but it’ll be worth it at the end.” For those in heavy training he suggests a different cadence: “I would say take the part-time route as well. You qualify with the same degree and gain the same experience, but you have half the workload.”
Across three different paths, a few lessons stand out:
Build boundaries early: Athletes thrive when they know their limits. Protect your recovery, keep lines of communication open and make sure both your coach and employer understand what’s non-negotiable.
Talk about your schedule: Most employers, universities and teammates want to help, but they need to know how. Be upfront about your training demands, competition travel and exam seasons. Clarity builds trust.
Translate your skills: The skills you learn in sport, like discipline, resilience and leadership, is exactly what employers want. Be ready to explain those strengths with examples, not just words.
Keep the love for your sport: Dual careers can be demanding. Joy is what sustains performance when pressure builds. “Once you love something, you’ll do anything to do it,” says Mohammed.
Plan for the long game: Stability reduces stress. Study or work can provide that security and make you a better athlete in the process.
You don’t have to figure it out alone. A good dual-career plan includes:
A coach who understands your performance goals and recovery needs.
An employer or university contact who can help you plan around key competitions.
Peers or mentors who’ve walked this path before and can share practical advice.
A community that connects you to learning, jobs and wellbeing support.
ACT Community brings together athletes, mentors and employers who understand the realities of balancing performance with progress. Inside the Community, you’ll find:
Courses on burnout, identity and transition
Career and CV tools designed for athletes
Real stories and mentors who get it
You can start with a 14-day free pass and explore the tools, courses and connections that make a dual career possible.
Join ACT Community and take the next step in your journey.