The Ghana Olympians Association (GOA), in collaboration with the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) and the GOC Athletes Commission (GOC-AC), hosted a career transition and mentoring workshop titled “The End Is Really the Beginning ooo” on January 5, 2026, at the Media Center of the Accra Sports Stadium.
The workshop aimed to help athletes prepare for life after their competitive careers, focusing on developing academic and professional skills, building networks, and finding mentors alongside their sporting pursuits.
Dr. Fred Awaah, National Sports Authority board chairman, advised athletes to make savings, especially in insurance.
“Some efforts, even if the premium for a month is GHc 100.00, make that little effort to put it aside today. You may not see the significance of GHc 100.00, but the future is unknown. You may be making steps thinking that the future would be good but wherever there is good we must make provision also for what, the bad. Insurance covers you in bad days, are we together?” he said.
He added, “We’ve seen a lot of you, especially those in this soccer fraternity, they drive the Bugatti’s, they drive the limousines, the Mercedes, the range rovers, have all of the beautiful girls around them, but they are seasonal without an investment. When your active play life is gone, there are tendencies you can become what poor, that which covers you is the level of investment you have been, and that includes an insurance policy.”
Richard Akpokavie, GOC president, was impressed with the turnout. “Very impressed, we had over 50 athletes here. That’s a good beginning because the last time this was held was in 2016 when Professor Doodo was the president and I was the secretary general. So, we’re bringing it back, and for the first time, we have 50 people. That’s really good.”
He continued, “From the beginning, I’ve talked about athletes at the core of what we’re going to do, and this is one of the things we are doing as part of our strategic plan, because the athletes are important and we need to prepare them for competition and after competition. Right now, these young people, they’ve learned things that will help them their whole life, and the whole essence of it is that you only have a short life in sports, and so after sports, what else would you do? So, we are preparing them to become better citizens of Ghana and not become a burden on anybody in Ghana like others have become, unfortunately.”
Christopher Essilfie, Ghana Modern Pentathlon Association president, explained the program’s purpose. “I guess it’s no secret that our athletes, not only in Ghana, but athletes around the world, after their career, or active sporting career, a lot of them get into challenges where their career, especially after athletics or football or anything, they don’t know what to do afterwards because generally, you realize that after about 30 years, a lot of them stop really earning from sport.”
He added, “The Olympian Association took it up on itself to try and build their capacity, the awareness created, build capacity, and through mentorship, handhold some of these athletes in preparing towards life after active sports.”
Prof. Andrew Owusu, Ghana Olympians Association president, said the session was worth it. “Absolutely. I think, you know, when I think about what we covered today, these are things I wish somebody had told me or I’d be exposed to coming up. And too often, you know, athletes give a lot for the country and for their federations. And I think this is the least we can do in terms of helping them think about the life after sports and helping them start to prepare for that.”
Christian Nsiah, a GOA member, said athletes showed much interest. “If you look at the whole interactive atmosphere, even after the event was over, even during the break, they were coming to us asking questions and even seeking more guidance from Judo to Taekwondo to Rugby. Everybody was asking questions. And I think that this is just a start, right?”
Dignitaries present included:
- Dr. Fred Awaah, Board chairman, National Sports Authority
- Prof. Francis Doodo, Former president, Ghana Olympic Committee
- Richard Akpokavie, President, Ghana Olympic Committee
- Kassim Muniru Mohammed, Secretary General, Ghana Olympic Committee
- Bawa Fuseini, Deputy Secretary General, Ghana Olympic Committee
- Charles Osei Asibey, President, Ghana Armwrestling Federation
- Rafatu Inusah, Board Member, Ghana Olympic Committee
- Nana Adu Mankata ll, Board Member, Ghana Olympic Committee
- Samuel Ayer, Board Member, Ghana Olympic Committee
- Rev. Richmond Quarcoo – Board Member, Ghana Olympic Committee
- Veronica Commey, Deputy Director General Technical, National Sports Authority
- Gideon Hammond, Deputy Director General Administration, National Sports Authority
