Former college basketball star Canyon Barry isn’t the only Olympian who has to balance a 9-to-5 job with preparing for Paris. But Barry, a basketball scion with a bachelor’s degree in physics and The master’s degree in nuclear engineeringwas probably the only athlete on Team USA to deliver a high-level work presentation. Mongolia at 2 am. – that afternoon at his home in Florida – last month, as he also prepared for the Olympics.
“It’s definitely a chore at times,” said Barry, who plays 3×3, in an interview that started 30 minutes late… because he had to take a work call. “I’m so lucky [my employers] are willing to work with me. It’s part of the Olympic spirit to do everything you can to be successful and pursue that dream.”
Dozens of elite athletes need to put on their work boots before lacing up their sneakers to realize their Olympic aspirations. Sports psychologist Mark Aoyagi said working athletes face an exceptionally difficult challenge.
“It’s certainly not ideal,” said Aoyagi, a professor at the University of Denver. Graduate School of Professional Psychology. “That’s especially if you’re comparing yourself to other countries where some athletes don’t have jobs – they’re paid by the government. When you see a Russian athlete or a Chinese athlete getting paid, it can be a challenge.”
In stark contrast to the flashy promotions touting famous athletes that will fill the airwaves in the coming weeks, many performers on the Parisian stage will be unknown Americans who work full- or part-time jobs to support their high-profile endeavors.
“How do you do that? Athletes are great at compartmentalizing, keeping one part of their life and their experiences from another,” Aoyagi said. “On a mental and emotional level, this is key.”
Barry, son of NBA Hall of Fame Guard Rick Barryhas a strict regimen: waking up at dawn to do weight training and yoga, going to the L3Harris Technologies headquarters in Melbourne, Florida, to work, and then going to the gym to practice basketball after leaving the office.
The long days, Barry said, are not much different from his time as a College of Charleston Graduation it is a University of Florida graduate studenthaving to make the most of 24 hours while playing NCAA Division I basketball and taking high-level STEM classes.
“It definitely required good time management skills,” he said. “It’s something I learned in college athletics. As you can imagine, a lot of those courses were challenging while trying to balance what is basically a full-time job in college basketball. But it prepared me for the real world and being able to manage my time and really figure out how to be efficient. Sometimes you don’t sleep much, but you do what you need to do.
Still, Aoyagi worries that even the best-organized athlete in a stress-free, non-physically demanding job can be a slow-stepper.
“When you are an athlete where a hundredth of a second is the difference between getting on the podium or not or the difference between gold and silver, the person who stands eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, for many years, will be at a disadvantage to those who only need to worry about training and recovery,” said Aoyagi, who previously worked at US Track & Field.
In addition to Barry, other active athletes include:
- Nic Fink, who was a college star at the University of Georgia before earning his master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Tech. He works full-time remotely in Dallas for Quanta Utility Engineering Services.
- Fencer Kat Holmes, a Princeton alumnus who goes makIt is his third trip to the Olympics and is packing her bags for Paris amidst a grueling academic schedule. She is about to be a doctor soon, as a student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai In New York City.
- Gold medalist in sprint canoeing Nevin Harrison, who helps pay the bills working on weekends in O country themed bar Moonshine Beach in San Diego.
- Mechanical Engineer and climber Jesse Grupper, wasremote workjust to a Harvard laboratory when he’s not scaling walls to potential Olympic glory.
- Breaker Sunny Choi, who last year left her role as director of global creative operations at Estée Lauder’s skincare arm.
- Gabby ThomasWho won bronze in the 200 meters in Tokyo. She works at a health clinic for the uninsured in Austin, Texas.
- Parafensor Elle Geddes, who breeds horses in South Carolina.
- Fencers – and models of clandestine work – Anne Cebula It is Miles Chamley-Watsonwho could be found strutting down the runway or posing for cameras when they weren’t on the runway.
- Former Stanford water polo star Dani Jackovich, operations coordinator for swimwear manufacturer Delfina Sport and data analyst at water polo technology company 6-8 Sports. Jackovich will be on the water this summer for Australia and could face a American team with 6-8 co-founder Maggie Steffens.
Holmes, the fencer, said her best time management tools are old-fashioned pen and paper.
“I sit down and write down every due date as far back as I can,” Holmes recently told CNBC. “When I’m done, I risk it and know I don’t have to deal with it.”
While athletes are well-trained to forget a bad game or individual play, that doesn’t mean they’re well-equipped to deal with even the more mundane daily work headaches that can add stress, Aoyagi said.
An athlete may be able to shake it off one moment, one play, or one day later. But a simple unresolved workplace dispute, if left unresolved, can have a lasting impact.
“Athletes are usually good at [compartmentalization]but they’re often not good at coming back to unpack it,” Aoyagi said. “If all you do is store things, they will end up exploding at the worst possible time.
“One of the main things we teach is how to unpack and process this. How do you deal with those emotions that you compartmentalize in the moment so you can move on to the next thing?
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