The experience ofmotivation at Swedish sub-elite athletes : Sub-elite athletesexperience of motivation during their career and at the end of their career

The purpose of the study is to examine the participants experienced motivation during subeliteathletes careers, as well at the end of their career. The purpose is also to disclosewhich factors that influenced their decision to end their career in sports. In order to investigatethe purpose, twelve qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted. The participants inthe study were twelve former sub-elite athletes who were active in their sports between theages of 15-20. The result of this study revealed that sub-elite athletes experienced bothinner motivation and external motivation through their career. The result showed that theparticipants experianced inner motivation through the satisfaction of the three psychologicalbasic needs in SDT. The result showed that the participants experienced moore externalmotivationat their career end, this because the participants didn’t satisfy the three basicpsychological needs as before. The result also showed that there are various factors thatinfluenced the participants’ decision on a career end, for example; increased demands fromcoaches.Syftet med studien var att undersöka sub-elitidrottares upplevelse av motivation underkarriären samt vid karriäravslutet. Syftet ämnar även att undersöka vilka faktorer subelitidrottarnaupplevde influerade deras beslut att avsluta sin idrottskarriär. För att undersökasyftet genomfördes tolv kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Deltagarna i studien var tolvföre detta sub-elitidrottare som varit aktiva idrottare mellan åldrarna 15–20. Resultatet frånstudien visade att sub-elitidrottarna upplevde både inre motivation och yttre motivation underderas karriär. Resultatet visade att deltagarna upplevde inre motivation genomtillfredsställelsen av de tre psykologiska grundbehoven inom SDT. Resultatet visade attdeltagarna upplevde mer yttre motivation vid deras karriäravslut, detta då deltagarna inteuppfyllde de tre psykologiska grundbehoven som tidigare. Resultatet visade även att det finnsmånga olika faktorer som influerade deltagarnas beslut om ett karriäravslut, t.ex. ökat kravfrån tränaren