The D1 Dilemma: Life Post-University Athletics

By Asia Hamilton

Written November 6, 2025

Nobody really talks about the adjustment period post-D1 athletics. After four years, stuck in the routine of practice after class, running to make the bus with my spikes and laptop squished together in my backpack, taking flights every other week during season, doing homework in the hotel lobbies while mentally going over the right time to accelerate on my high jump curve for the competition the next day, I hadn't quite comprehended it was over.

Division 1 athletics offered me the perfect satisfaction to my pre-existing driven, competitive mind. It was nothing short of a fast-paced life. I had goals to chase, dreams to strive for, and nothing is better than track and field in visually seeing how close you are to getting there. So despite the days where I wanted to drop dead after workouts, or how exhausted I'd be after class (taking naps at any opportunity), the effort it took to return to the track and see those bits of progress everyday inevitably grew on me.

There was a lot that came with it, but I genuinely cared a lot about the sport. I loved it since I first joined in high school after my 9th grade basketball season. Like many (arguably most) track and field athletes, it wasn't my first sport. But it was the one that I grew attached to and happened to be pretty good at. So when I took it to university, I was all in. I wanted to break records and be the absolute best at my school.

While the ambition fostered an undying drive to get me through every year, the mindset came with highs and lows. Stubbornness was probably the worst enemy of them all, because when you really care, you do anything to make sure you see the 'best' version of yourself come to life. It naturally leads to a lot of rough patches, which led me to sports psychology, or talking through it with friends, and if I didn't have time, I moved on. Regardless of my results, I had to find resilience to show up to practice the next day and try again.

The thing is, that resilience and ability to bounce-back after years of competing don't disintegrate once you're handed a degree. It doesn't vanish after you're sent off to the 'real world.' And if you're in a grey area like me of 'I don't necessarily plan to continue, but I also don't want to say I'm giving it up yet,' you question where all that energy, time, and spirit you channeled into your sport go now.

The first few months after my graduation, there were withdrawals, which I think of as 'displaced ambition.' That need to chase something and constantly want to accomplish something are still very present qualities in you. So for the first time in a long time, the ambition felt directionless. I had this strong inner passion for something I wasn't actively doing anymore. That previous fuel I had, that old dream to go to the Olympics, left a void of uncertainty in my head.

It's an interesting dilemma for post-graduate athletes, because really, you have all the remaining tools to continue with your sport afterward. Your competitive spirit is still intact, the routine of practice is still locked in your head, and you're likely still very physically capable of maintaining muscles you hadn't lost -- assuming you have the resources to do so.

Initially, it's not easy to navigate your life without factoring the steady practice schedule you grew used to. Yes, you may have plans to work-out a few days a week, as I do, but you're not surrounded by a team anymore, and you're not targeting sports-specific workouts unless you want to. It's undoubtably freeing to some degree, but the complete one-eighty takes you by surprise at first.

When you grew up playing sports your entire life like me, it's hard to accept being seen as anything else. In many casual places, people told me I looked like an athlete (mainly because I am quite tall), but nonetheless, it was hard to wrap around saying I was a former athlete yet. I just got here, and the word "former" felt like it was for people who have not only finished doing their sport, but accepted they are onto other things now. So, for me, it was hard to accept being done with something I was still very seen as.

A few weeks ago in the gym, out of nowhere, a couple asked me, "what sport do you play?" And that's when I told them, "oh, I did track and field. I just graduated, though." I wasn't used to that. It's usually just "track and field" and that's it. But it led into a conversation about how one of them was also a former athlete themselves, which was actually quite refreshing to hear, and then they asked about what I'm doing now.

Add a little salt on the wound, why don't you?

They were super nice, but between them and other people who've asked, the question fuelled my internalized crisis of "that's true... what am I doing now?" Not only was I still finding acceptance about being a 'former' athlete, but I also had an entire life to figure out outside of that.

It's interesting because at the end of my four-years, I was ready to let go. I wanted to give the real world a chance. I was over the hustle of juggling practice and school, and my degree felt like a pass to finally explore my life as I wanted to. I wanted to see what my life looked like without a particular sport in it, at least for a while before I decided to return to it or not.

It's a "running away is easy, it's the leaving that's hard" type of situation.

I was put into sports since I was a child, but deep down, I always waited for a moment like this, to reap the benefits of my trained discipline. And guess what? As graduated athletes, we did. We earned our free time to pursue hobbies, or find work to build toward our dreams, anything we wanted but didn't have time for is right there now. Sure, it feels like it comes at a partial loss of an 'engrained' athlete identity, particularly if you choose not to continue. But ultimately, post-graduation means you pave life on your own accord.

Plus, that competitive drive and staying on-top of everything is a huge benefit in the workplace, as I've found so far. Our mentality doesn't go away, it evolves and adapts into new spaces. It understands the hustle, it knows how to speak with objectivity, and it possesses a flame that makes us desire to go far in whatever space we're in.

For myself, I had plenty of unexplored passions outside of my sport, and it's been nice giving them a shot. My desire to be the best at something is expanding into other domains. I was actually on a set a few weeks ago, venting to strangers, and someone asked about my plans regarding track. Even though I'm pretty stern on stopping for now, I'm still somewhat in a state of uncertainty, so I tell him there's a chance I may continue to train and try for the Olympics... if all else fails in life.

And his eyes widen while he says: "so your backup career is going to the Olympics?"

Which, when you put it like that, is not a bad backup option at all.

All in all, whether you plan on continuing with your sport after graduation, are in the in-between like me, or are just done, you have all the resources needed to begin life. You did well, and you should be proud. D1 is not easy. Any degree of balancing sport and school is not easy. But for those who graduated as a student-athlete, that's pretty cool, and you're allowed to take time off until you figure out where you're headed. If you already did, that's cool too. This was all based on my personal experience.

Maybe I won't put my spikes away just yet, but I will look at them and remember where they brought me. They're enough to remind me why I hold resilience, push through mental and physical pains to get through anything. They're a reminder of how I was able to dig through hardships to accelerate forward, and how I will continue to do so -- just maybe with a new finish line, this time around.