On Elite Athletes’ Life Course

This study reviewed the lives of some elite athletes with an analysis framework of Life Course Theory by cases studies. Athletes’ life course was analyzed by being nterviewed. During the process, the author went over the transition of China’s society and the development of China’s sports from the 1950s by understanding athletes’ experience and arranging their materials. Profound thinking was stimulated by each ransformation of these athletes. Meanwhile, the track of China’s sport development vas reflected by their experiences and turning points in their career.From the perspective of Life Course Theory, the form of an elite athlete’s career Nould be affected by time, society, relatives and individual subjective initiative. As athletes who were trained by the whole nation system to compete for the country, they ire special group with special life track. This thesis gave a description on the prospect and the forming mechanism of an elite athlete. It surveyed the careers of elite athletes from a macro perspective of society while presented their style from the micro )erspective of sports. Also, the special life course track was analyzed to figure out the lifferent features between an elite athlete and a common person. At same time, some analysis were made on the problems existing in the development of competitive sports and the training of the athletes to bring some inspiration to the development of competitive sports.Such four different types of life course were presented from the historical aspects as social development, life course constructed by significant persons, effects caused by important life events and individual subjective initiative in order to explain ndividual cases and analyze the forming mechanism. Elite athletes’life course was constructed by significant social events, time and space environment, social systems and mutual-contact lives. The various mutual relationship between individual subjective initiative and elements mentioned above formed the prospect of elite hthletes’differentiated life course.From the synchronic perspective, this thesis analyzed the mechanism and continuous condition of this track for elite athletes’"public life course stage" (entering earns, professional sports career, retirement and employment) form the perspectives of track, transformation and continuity within the framework of Life Course Theory.From the perspective of the four analysis paradigms of Life Course, the causes of elite athletes’ career were explored. The factors of competitive sports system, social system, economic system, cultural environment, geographical environment, social event, family, coach, and team played an the role of construction and affection in elite hthletes’ life course, while individual subjective initiative had the function of econstruction.Such characteristics of elite athletes’life course were found by analyzing elite hthletes’ sports track as the premature of elite athletes’professional development, the nseparable consistence between speciality and profession, disorder in study pursuit, lilemma of cultural education caused by deficiency of system, conflict on cultural education and sports training, isolated island period in socialization of athletes’ career is well as the inevitability of re-employment.According to research, the need of elite athletes’ cultural education was not the same as normal education, especially capacity education. Therefore, the educational ideology of need-oriented education should be established. Education could be provided for elite athletes from such four modules as basic capacity, basic knowledge, basic technology and professional technology according to their need. Management by credit and various teaching forms could be adopted based on athletes’inadequate, scattered and irregular study time to explore invisible course. Such coutermeasures were put forward as promoting proper socialization of isolated island period, created a employment environment for elite athletes after their isolated island period, established a multivariant cultivate model to remove isolated island period based on the policy of getting rid of the current problems occurring in the socialization of isolated island period.