LIFE AFTER SPORTS: LEGAL ASPECTS OF SOCIAL GUARANTEES OF EX-ATHLETES

Sport is a very important component of our life. Many people play sports as a hobby, on an amateur level. However, for some people, sport is a part of their life, and they are engaged in sports activities at a professional level. The work shows the positive and negative sides of sports as a profession. In particular, after leaving the “high-performance sport”, outstanding and famous athletes become coaches, businessmen, political, public figures, etc. However, a completely different plot of life awaits people who receive injuries that are incompatible with further engaging in professional sports at the height of their career. If they do not achieve permanent excellent results, and do not reach the “Olympus of glory”, they become useless to anyone. To alleviate these consequences of athletes who are forced to end their professional careers due to injury, European countries have certain social support programs that help athletes cope with crises. At the same time, evaluating our legislation, we can note that at the moment in the Russian Federation there is no well-established system of social support programs for professional athletes who are forced to leave the “high-performance sport”.