Welcome to the Athlete Story Podcast 

Check out episodes below!

I'm your host, Anja Bolbjerg. This show is for you as a former athlete. We talk about themes related to your career, lifestyle and success in life after sports.

Clicking on an episode below will take you to the show notes with the podcast player, relevant links, full transcription and video version of the podcast.

Some people have an MBA to lean on - You have your Athlete Story. Own your sports career!

Transitioning from athlete to entrepreneur
When transitioning from athlete to entrepreneur, R Sasikumar notes how it was initially difficult to lose that sports mentality of external competition. Once he understood that the only competition was the “person in the mirror,” Sasi was able to truly master entrepreneurship and create several successful businesses within the sports industry.
Setting the bar high
Marc Hauser's inspiring journey to draw attention to renewable energy of the jet stream through a record breaking skydive into the jet stream shows the benefits of setting the bar high. It also shows how you can overcome fears through taking action and moving forward even with a goal that seems endlessly far away and take the path which has risk and requires bravery. Because that’s “where the magic happens.”
Breaking up with your sport – and staying friends
In this episode, Rachel Boardman talks about her physical difficulty in trying to become a professional swimmer. She also touches on the mental struggle of not knowing what to do with her life after sport, which led her on an illuminating journey halfway across the world.
What can having a mentor do for you?
“Transitioning into employment after sports is tough. Sometimes you need a mentor to help you describe the values you have as an ex-athlete. " says Pernille Vaaben Nielsen on this episode of Athlete Story Podcast, who took on a mentor. she tells us how having a mentor aided her professional development following retirement from handball.
Land your dream job in sports industry
In this episode Brian Clapp from Workinsports.com gives us his tips on how to land you dream job in the sports industry. This is actually one of the sessions from the Successful After Sports Summit that I've chosen to bring on the Athlete Story Podcast, to give you a sample of the summit. Brian has read thousands of job descriptions in the sports industry and we couldn't have asked for anyone better to give us tips on this.
Rethinking and rebranding of a sport
A sport is an offer, like any activity or product out there, it has to compete with other offers for people's time, attention and money. Sports marketing people of course know this but it's usually not top of mind for Federation's or athletes. The sports who understand this, they tend to grow and those who don't, they tend to slow.
Redefining moments
A chat with Paralympic Silver Medalist & Public Speaker about creating a new normal after a forced transition and about sharing the lessons of your story to help others.
Starting a nonprofit organisation after sports
The is the second part of the series with athletes who are making an impact after sport. Today's guest started her own nonprofit in 2015. After a career in finance, former athlete, karate blackbelt and water skiing champion, Berit Nielsen Legrand, started The Animal Fund
Making an impact after sport
I want to introduce you to a series of athletes who are making an impact after sport. Today we’ll meet Taekwondo champion Marlene Harnois. After ending her sports career in a bit of drama - ranked no. 1 in the world, she decided to go to Africa. We met in person at International University of Monaco for this chat.
AFTER THE GAME – sports documentary
Do you love a good sports documentary? AFTER THE GAME is an upcoming sports documentary following a coach and two athletes on a basketball team from the late 1990’s and then catching up today to see how sports has influenced their mindset and who they are today. In this episode you’ll meet the filmmaker herself, April Abeyta.
Athlete Personal Branding 2019
Today we'll be looking at ways for you to make money leveraging your sports career and building your personal brand. Even if you've been retired for a while.
Retiring from sports – against your will
In this Athlete Story with former competitive dancer, Chrissy Papetti. we talk about retiring from sports when you are no where near ready for it. In fact, that's a very common scenario - that either injury or lack of results or finances make that decision for you as an athlete. That leads to a sense of unfinished business that you have to deal with.
Using athletic grit for online business success
If you’ve ever thought about starting an online business or leveraging the internet to get your message or services out there then you want to listen carefully to this episode with junior Olympic Champion Rachel Ngom who had to end her sports career in volleyball early due to a severe rib cage injury.
Story Selling as Athletes – A way to generate value from your sports career
Storyselling is the main theme for this Athlete Story episode with former bobsled pilot, Tom Johansen. Inspired by the Walt Disney movie, Cool Runnings based on the startup of a Jamaican bobsled team, Tom decided to build a Danish Bobsled Team. He already had a career in sales, but was so inspired by this pioneering adventure that he took action.
Storytelling for athletes
I love ending the year with this episode with my friend, Emmy Award winning Michael Baltierra from ESPN's storytelling show, E:60.I really do believe that one of the most important assets you have as a world class athlete is the journey you've been on, going above and beyond – and even deep down under - to become the best at your sport. You may have won a medal or a title and that's awesome – but it's the investment you put in and the lessons you got back that will stay with you – and that you can use and contribute with to help other people if you want to share. That's the basic philosophy of Athlete Story and what I'm here to help you tap into.
Athlete Transition – presenting yourself without your sports gear
When you’re quitting sports and you’re trying to find your new way there’s this bit of doubt of, “Who am I actually? I’m the athlete but I’m also a lot of other things.” Everybody is used to seeing you as the athlete. You will have all these doubts coming in on, “How do I even present myself as the non-athlete?”
Career Coaching
Career Coach Mark Moyer will takes us behind the scenes of recruiting and show us how the job search game really works. Why is it usually a waste of time to send out job applications and how do you find out what kind of job would even fit you?.
Athletic Mindset
How can you use your athletic mindset to face challenges beyond sports?In this episode Adventure athlete, Matthew Harlow Wetschler shares his incredible story and how he has managed to find himself and thrive in a life where most of what he cherished was taken away in an instant. How what saved him was: Knowing his core values and his athletic mindset. We start with a flashback to his life with sports before his deadly accident.
Media Training Tips For Athletes
If you are looking for public speaking tips and media training tips for athletes, then this episode of Athlete Story is for you. My guest is world renowned expert in media training, TJ Walker and the media training tips that TJ will give you are tailored specifically to you as an athlete.
Valuable lessons and transferable life skills from sports
Olympic gold medallist Joe Jacobi is a whitewater canoe slalom athlete turned executive business coach. He has made a whole framework for business coaching out of the images and physical concepts from his sport. In this episode of Athlete Story he shares the lessons from his beautiful sport of navigating river currents.
Brainspotting. Psychology for athletes II
Traumas can come from all parts of your life and to different degrees – but in sports we are particularly exposed to trauma from injuries, defeats, humiliations. This is often overlooked in psychology for athletes. Even if you don’t really consider yourself traumatized, it is worth knowing that any deeply distressing or disturbing experience is a trauma. It is stored in the brain subconsciously with all its connected emotions, leaving you with an imprint that can come back to destabilize you and cause a lot of trouble when you least expect it.
Sports and performance anxiety. Psychology for athletes I
Have you ever been in a situation where you thought : How can I do so well in training and still not perform in competition ? You know that it is something going on in your head that you are not quite in control of – but what is it ? Where does it come from. How can it impair your ability to perform even though you have the skills ?
Balancing risks and rewards in sports – Inspirational Athlete Story
In this Athlete Story interview you will get tips on how to keep momentum in difficult situations and find flow in a high risk environment full of obstacles from winner of the Freeride World Tour 2012, Reine Barkered. As you will see, that’s essentially what he does for a living. He shares his view on planning and how going high speed in extreme terrain is not merely about taking risk and hoping for the best – even if it may look like that sometimes.
Dare to put yourself out there – Inspirational Athlete Story
Prepare, then dare to put yourself out there ! Fear of failure won’t get you anywhere! That was what I took away from my Athlete Story session with Nicole Sydbøge, 2-time world champion and winner of the World Games in Jiu-Jitsu. So much so that I will let this be the motto for this show.
How To Get Sponsored – For Athletes
What are the most common mistakes that athletes make when pitching a sponsor? And what are companies actually looking for when deciding whether or not to sign a sponsorship deal? Those are some of the questions you will get the answer to in this episode of the For Athletes series. You will meet a real sport marketing expert from the corporate world who’s been dealing with world class sponsorships for the past 30 years, Keld Strudahl
My podcast for athletes to air soon
I am super stoked to announce that soon my first podcast will air. I love listening to podcasts myself as it is convenient on the go or when I’m out riding the bike – or as a great way of chilling. So, I thought it’s time to make Athlete Story available as a podcast as well so that you have that possibility of listening in while on the go.

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