Several studies have shown that athletic retirement can lead athletes to experience identity disruption, or in narrative terms, to `narrative wreckage`. However, less is known about processes that support adaptive changes in athletes' narrative identities. This study uses Career Construction Theory, a narrative approach to career development, to examine how individuals' construct a continuous sense of self during the transition out of elite athletic careers. Sixteen Swiss elite athletes (eight women, eight men), representing both winter and summer sports, participated in narrative interviews within three months of announcing their athletic retirement. The data were analysed through a three-phase thematic narrative analysis. We identified five higher-order life themes (strive, autonomy, contribution to the collective, contentment and self-discovery) that unified and added meaning to athletes' stories about their careers. Importantly, in the final phases of analysis, we observed that all participants' stories involved a life theme change which informed the decision to retire and proactively began the process of narrative adaption. These changes were shaped via the three types of character arcs that we identified across the dataset that described how athletes' goals and motives evolved throughout their careers and ultimately explained why retirement provided continuity in their narratives despite objective change. The three character arc types (Maverick, Ember and Merrit) are conveyed through composite vignettes to enrich the findings. We discuss the implications of our findings for narrative career counselling for retiring athletes and processes that support identity continuity in athletic retirement.
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