Aim for amateur success first, before you try to become a professional

Developing into a professional athlete might seem like a far-off goal, but if you have passion, determination, drive and talent for your sport, you too could become an Olympic champion. Although most professional athletes retire in their early to mid-thirties, many don’t start until their early 20s and go on to great success.
Dame Kelly Holmes says ‘You can only become an Olympic athlete by being a club athlete first. No one can just say ‘I’m going to go and be an Olympic athlete’, it’s a long journey and you have to really want to do it.’

In the beginning
When you’re first starting out, you need to work out what sport you have a passion for, and if you’re not already a member, join your local club. You should aim for amateur success before you try to become a professional, but it could be a long process, Jessica Choux from UK Sport says, ‘on average it takes six to eight years for a promising sportsperson to get to the point where they can deliver medals on the world’s senior stage. It’s a long hard journey, and only those who are tactically aware, physically and mentally strong and able to make significant sacrifices will survive. Athletes who are already involved with a sport should speak to their coach to find out whether they have the potential, with hard work and dedication, to one day become a world class athlete.’ UK Sport also run fast-track development programmes every year in which talent assessment events are held, and if successful could lead to a full-time funded training programme.

Money money money
When you know you’ve got what it takes to become a professional athlete, you’ll need to get funding in the form of sponsorship to allow you to concentrate on sport full-time. There are many schemes in the UK that provide funding, the National Lottery provides many of the funds that allow clubs to continue their work and over the last seven years it has given £3.7bn to local sports clubs, from grants of £500 to £50,000. The Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme provides an annual grant of up to £3,000 if you combine higher or further education with sport, and Sports Aid Grants are designed to help with the increasing cost of training for a young person showing talent in a sport.