Rosie MacLennan: "world-class" Game Plan will be a boost for Canadian Olympians

Preparing athletes for life after sports has become a crucial topic recently, and that's part of why the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee are launching Game Plan, a new "wellness and transition" initiative featuring partnerships with groups like professional services firm Deloitte, financial services firm RBC and HR/mental health services firm Morneau Shepell to help Canada's high-performance athletes succeed off the field both during and after their careers. Canadian trampoline gymnast Rosie MacLennan spoke to Yahoo about the new program Thursday, and said it's going to be a vital piece to help her and other athletes.

"I think there is incredible potential," MacLennan said. "I think they're taking a really well-rounded approach and kind of going at it from a bunch of different directions through their Five Pillars [career management, networking, education, skill development and health]. I think it will also create an opportunity for athletes to use it in a way that is most beneficial to them, because we're all a little different, our needs are all a little different. I think it has incredible potential to benefit athletes not only off the field of play, but on the field of play, while they're still competing and training, and also as they transition to whatever their second career might be."

The 27-year-old MacLennan, who won Canada's only gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, is still at the top of her game (she won PanAm gold this summer, plus world championship gold in 2013 and silver in 2014), so she's not fully focused on post-career plans just yet. This program isn't just about taking care of athletes after they compete for Canada, though, but also helping those who are still competing. MacLennan said these programs should be immediately helpful to her and other active athletes.

"Personally, absolutely," she said. "I think athletes constantly juggle the idea of what might be next and when the right time to make that transition is. For me personally, I know that having my education (she has a bachelor's degree in physical and health education from the University of Toronto, and is working on a master's in exercise science there) to fall back on and taking some steps to prepare myself for what might be after jumping (to a new career) helps alleviate some of the stress and anxiety that I feel during training."

MacLennan said she's experienced post-career fears before, particularly while she was in the midst of training for the 2012 Olympics.

"Before London, I went through a very tough period of anxiety and stress, possibly even temporary depression in a sense, because I didn't know what I was going to do when I came home from London," she said. "It impacted my training, it impacted my motivation. Having people around me to help support some of the decisions that I made and help me make those decisions about what I was going to do when I got back home helped me focus on the task at hand, helped me focus on day to day training leading into the Games, and ultimately when I was there, helped me compete at my best."

She said many current athletes do worry about what's next, but that this program should help even those who don't want to think about post-career plans until they actually retire.

"Everyone is a bit unique depending on their scenario, and I think some athletes perform best when they focus in on training and block everything else out, and that's perfectly natural as well," MacLellan said. "But, even for those athletes who may not access these resources during their career, knowing that those resources and that support is there for when they choose to transition after is going to be incredibly beneficial as well, just having that knowledge of that support network."

MacLellan said post-career fears may be particularly challenging for Olympic athletes, given how much of their life and their identity is spent preparing for a relatively short spotlight every four years.

"It can be tough," she said. "It puts an incredible pressure on a short amount of time. I think a lot of athletes, if they keep a positive perspective and kind of keep in mind why they're doing their sport, because they found a passion for it and really love the day-to-day training, that can alleviate some of the pressure. For my sport, for example, it all comes down to 30 seconds. That 30 seconds determines whether you move on to that next step, whether you succeed or fail at a gold. It's tough for athletes to wrap themselves up and wrap their whole identity in their performance and their results. Having something to help them realize they're valued for more than their physical capital, and having something that can help garner a broader sense of identity can be really healthy for athletes, both during their career and after."

She said she thinks the Game Plan program will also be valuable to younger athletes who are considering trying to compete for an Olympic spot, helping answer some of the worries about what this will mean for the rest of their life.

"For younger athletes, when they're choosing whether to pursue that next step, whether it's joining the national team or trying to train for the next Olympics, I think a program like this can actually also help keep athletes in the sport longer, because they're not as worried about gaining that more common, typical experience in the workforce," MacLennan said. "They're gaining skills that are going to be transferrable to that next step for them."

MacLennan said her own decision to pursue high-performance sport wasn't particularly difficult, but that's partly because her sport allows her to train in one location and get an education while she was at it. Still, she said she did consider a shorter career.

"It wasn't a tough decision for me, because with my sport I'm very fortunate to be in one place for a lot of the year, so I could pursue education at the same time," she said. "A lot of athletes don't have that same luxury, they're chasing the snow or chasing the sun, but I think for me, there were definitely times leading into my first Olympics [Beijing in 2008] where I figured 'Okay, I'll go to one Olympics and then I'll join the workforce, get work experience, build a career.' It was really after Beijing where I set my sights on London where I realized that being an athlete was my first career. I was really proud of that and really happy with that choice, but I think it is hard for athletes in Canada; I don't know that it's a common thought that being an athlete is a career in a sense, people question that, because it's not the typical route. I think that makes it tougher for athletes to commit and make that choice. I think having more conversations around that in itself, and also athletes' comfort knowing that they can develop skills for whatever life comes next, will make that easier."

MacLennan said she doesn't have a definite post-career plan yet, but she's looked into various options, and she's looking forward to taking advantage of this program to check out others.

"I don't know for certain what I want to do," she said. "I did an internship with the Canadian Olympic Committee quite a while ago and really enjoyed that. I worked with Canadian Tire for a year and a half on their sports partnership team and enjoyed that experience. I know that for the next year I want to focus on training and preparing for Rio [2016] and doing as well as I can there. While I'm not entirely sure what my next step will be, whether I go for another four years, whether I hang up my shiny spandex, I'm more confident now that I at least have some experience under my belt to help make that decision. But I think it will take a long time of kind of exploring what's out there, and I think that's why Game Plan is so important, cause it will help athletes explore those opportunities before they actually get confronted with it."

MacLennan said the career management pillar of GamePlan particularly interests her.

"The ones I'm really excited are the career management parts, seeking guidance and opportunities to speak with people in different fields and kind of see what the day-to-day life is like in various realms, and hopefully exploring or learning about what skills I might need to pursue a certain task," she said.

GamePlan will be about physical wellness for athletes as well as mental health and preparation for careers, and MacLennan said that should be key too.

"I think their holistic approach to health is very critical and very timely," she said. "I'm very excited about that as well."

Overall, MacLennan said this program looks like one of the best worldwide, and it should be a huge benefit for Canada's athletes.

"I think it's an incredible program," she said. "I've been involved in it from the beginning, talking to Deloitte when they first started interviewing athletes, and I think it's a world-class, gold-medal standard that hopefully will spread to other countries as well. It's exciting to see what they've come up with and I'm really excited for where they take it. All in all, I'm pretty excited for what it will do for current, past and future athletes."