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Racing the Sunset: An Athlete's Quest for Life After Sport

Racing the Sunset: An Athlete's Quest for Life After Sport

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Author: Scott Tinley
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Category: Book

List Price: $14.95
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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 5 reviews
Sales Rank: 148338

Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.5 x 1

ISBN: 1592286631
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.4257092
EAN: 9781592286638
ASIN: 1592286631

Publication Date: March 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: SHIPS TODAY!!!!!! BRAND NEW BOOK

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
What happens when the fans stop cheering and it's time to grow up? Facing change just might be the hardest game in town.



Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Great reading, even better writing   September 30, 2007
Dr. Lee E. Brown (California)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is a superb introspective look at the fear an athlete feels when the sound of clapping is silenced. This is a true literary gem that takes a qualitatively research based look at a problem too often ignored. I highly recommend this book to anyone who ever suddenly changed stages in life without benefit of a rule book to follow. You will find it engrossing and mind altering.


5 out of 5 stars Really interesting book about a fascinating subject.   August 16, 2007
Gaetan Lion
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Scott Tinley has experienced firsthand the challenging life transition from adulated winning sports star to over-the-hill retiring athlete. Being introspective, he studied athlete retirement in depth. He threw himself into this project with as much intensity as he engaged in physical training for triathlons. On the way, he acquired two masters' degrees, one in writing and the other in sport psychology. And, he is currently studying on a Doctorate. Tinley completed this book in 2003 at the same time he finished an 18 month long seminal research paper on athlete retirement at San Diego State University. His research became the knowledge foundation for this book.

The book is excellent. Tinley has a breezy writing style that renders the book very easy to read. While his research paper is very interesting. The book is a lot more fun. This is because the book reflects his firsthand experience of his sports career from childhood till his transition into academia. Instead, his research paper is focused on 16 other athletes and covers exclusively their post retirement experience.

The professional athlete post-retirement transition is psychologically brutal. Athletes typically face this transition with no college degree, no professional skills, and little financial wherewithal. Tinley uncovered much research disclosing startling facts about athletes' retirement. Fewer than half of pro athletes get to choose when they retire.
The divorce rate for retired athletes in the major professional leagues is over 60%.
Retirement is especially harsh on NFL players. This painful transition is compounded by NFL careers being the shortest at less than five years in average. The suicide rate among retired NFL players is six times the average. Offensive and Defensive linemen have a 52% greater risk of dying of heart disease than the general population. Also, two thirds of football players retire with a permanent injury.

Tinley was not spared the psychological ordeal of the retired sports star. When he retired, his income decreased by 90% (take out a zero as he puts it. That entails he made $100K a year as a triathlete). He experienced marital problems. He suffered a long bout of depression and tried several anti-depressant prescription drugs (Prozac, Zoloft) without much success. He sought therapy. And, he gradually pulled himself together thanks to his success in academia as a student, college teacher, psychologist researcher, and writer.

His own research indicates an inverse relationship between money earned as a pro athlete and successful post retirement transition. Two opposite examples of this are Bjorn Borg, who never quite recovered his footing after retiring from a very lucrative tennis career. His life has been plagued by a succession of failed marriages, palimony suits, depression bouts, and bad business decisions that have nearly jeopardize his financial independence. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Tinley mentions Eric Heiden the five time Olympic gold medalist in 1980 who goes back to Stanford goes on to med school and becomes a successful orthopedic surgeon. "To me what is mythic about Eric is the seamlessness of his transitions between professions, between lives." Eric says "What I do now is so much more meaningful." Tinley states that big money is really a curse. It renders the individual so much more invested in their sport image that the upcoming retirement triggers a devastating identity crisis from which many never fully recover. And, he feels the key to surviving the retirement transition is how you perceived yourself beforehand. The more your self-identity had an obsessive single dimension as a sport star, the less prepared you are for retirement and the more you will suffer psychologically.

If you enjoy this book, I also recommend John McEnroe's You Cannot Be Serious and Boris Becker's The Player. McEnroe is a good example of a sport star that has become very successful in post-retirement. Becker is an example of one who is still fighting his demons. Both books make for very interesting and entertaining reading.



2 out of 5 stars Sorry Scott   February 6, 2005
Derek Truscott (Edmonton, AB Canada)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Sorry Scott; I wanted to like this book. I have read pretty much everything you have written and will probably continue to do so, despite this book. Why? Because of all you have done that I can only dream of. And read of thanks to you. But with "Racing the Sunset" you have tried to go into creative non-fiction and take us beyond your experiences. Good on ya! But gee Scott, it really needs another re-write. It reads like a not-quite-finished draft. I don't know if this is a problem of editing, as another reviewer has suggested, or of writing. Read Bill McKibben's "Long Distance" if you haven't already and please keep writing.


4 out of 5 stars Worthy reading   January 22, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I've been a Tinley fan (as a writer) for years and looked forward to reading this. It provided an excellent insight into Scott Tinley, and the way that he's approached his triathlon, and life. The way that he contrasts his ups and downs is excellent. The talks with other athletes and the empathy shown with other retired athletes speaks volumes to the character of the man.

Unfortunately, there were a few times when a particularly well made point was undone by possibly poor editing. An example for me was when he was complaining about air travel - with which I can heartily concur, but then ruins the point by following it up by stating that he was travelling first class. (You should try it economy!) It ends up coming across as whinging.

Nevertheless, I found this book an excellent read, and provided a unique insight into something we often don't see - athletes who never really learnt to "grow up" because they never had to.

One thing worthy of note is to try and read it from Scott's point of view, and to not impose our own individual values on his comments. If you can achieve this, you can get past viewing it as a whinge, and see it for the gem that it really is.


5 out of 5 stars rebel with a cause   October 23, 2003
bill katovsky (san francisco, california USA)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful

before you can race the sunset, you first need to get a jump on dawn, and mr. san diego has been racing the rosy-fingered hues of early mornings for two decades as he defined, shaped, sculpted this athletic calling now known as triathlon. as the founder of tri-athlete magazine, i used to resent the fact that this bona-fide beach boy with cornflower silk hair and chiseled bod knew how to write--and write well. "jocks" shouldn't be known as true authors. tinley, the man he describes in this heartfelt confessional memoir, is still testing himself against seen and unseen obstacles. the memoir is both a trip down memory lane in the aero tucked position and a homage to the retired jock syndrome (rjs). every athlete must face that time in his or her life when age takes its toll. but that is not a call for surrender. tinley doesn't go DNF on us. nor does he want to. his writing the book was an act of courage--a private correspondence with a very public self.

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