Athletes who became writers

Santosh,

Many athletes have released autobiographies. Ismail Nugroho recalls athletes who have devoted themselves to literary writing.

Athletes who became writers

Among professional athletes, there are many intelligent, talented and well-rounded people. Often after completing their sporting career, they become writers who want to share their sporting achievements and many years of experience, or even just fulfill their writing dreams.

Frequent reasons for changing career fields among athletes

There are cases when the need to change profession is caused not by desire, but by necessity, appearing due to unforeseen life circumstances. Even real money casino confirms this, where many former athletes come to rest. For athletes, such events become:

  • serious injury;
  • emotional burnout;
  • changes in marital status leading to depression or the need to pay more attention to family;
  • the onset of physical and psychological symptoms of overtraining and fatigue;
  • the onset of a non-athletic age at which all physical performance declines dramatically.

These circumstances lead to famous athletes becoming journalists, bloggers, commentators describing sports matches, and writers publishing books about sports. Sometimes the changes are more drastic.

Five famous athletes who became writers

There are not many former athletes who have achieved universal recognition for literary merits far from sports.

Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey

American writer, and playwright, born in Colorado. In his school years and during his college years he was involved in wrestling and football. His outstanding wrestling skills allowed him to become a champion of his state, which led to his enrolment at the University of Oregon. There he continued to compete on the mat, for which he received the Fred Lowe Scholarship, which is awarded only to the most outstanding wrestlers in the Northwest.

But a shoulder injury cut short all his plans for his athletic future. From that moment he decided to become a writer for which he entered a special programme at Stanford. Such a change of activity was not in vain. He was able to write such famous novels as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Sometimes unbearably eager”.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Famous American six-time NBA champion, and player of the Lakers basketball team. During the end of his sports career, due to his age, he decided to fulfil a long-held dream and started writing while working as a coach.

He wrote his first book “Giant Steps” in 1983. After that, he began trying his hand at different genres, turning out historical stories and works dealing with racial inequality. In 2015, the former brilliant athlete co-authored his first trilogy titled Mycroft Holmes, inspired by the works of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Jack Kerouac

The future writer, born in Lowell, Massachusetts, achieved his greatest success playing on the Lowell football team. Received a sports scholarship from Columbia University. However, constant clashes with the head coach and a serious tibia injury in the second game of the season ended his football career. In 1945, he began writing life notes and novels. The most famous among them were The Roads and The Dharma Tramps.

Samuel Beckett

He is an Irish writer and poet and the founder of the theatre of the absurd. He is a former outstanding cricket player who received the double honour of the Nobel Prize as: “the only Nobel laureate to have played first-class cricket” and “the only laureate to have an entry in the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac”. He took up cricket seriously as an undergraduate, playing as a player for Dublin University. Won two games competing with the Northamptonshire team. Afterwards worked as a lecturer and dabbled in writing.

Tom Wolfe

It is about an athlete who retired from semi-professional baseball because of the belief that he was not good enough at the sport. He was forced to doubt his professional qualities by the Giants, who played for the New York Giants, where he was fortunate enough to find himself after spending several successful seasons as a pitcher for the Washington and Lee University teams. After finally retiring from sports, he pursued a career in journalism and wrote more than fifteen books, leading him to eight literary awards.

These strong men did not give up after retiring from sports, continuing to pursue other talents that led to success. In the end, they left their indelible mark not only in sports but also in literature.

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