Abstract
The presented paper aims to explain why some young elite athletes who showed extraordinary sport talent in childhood may change their lifestyle and withdraw from competitive sport during adolescence. Methods of qualitative research (especially interpretative phenomenological analysis and multiple case study) were used as the methodological framework in the examination of development of five young elite athletes who decided to withdraw from elite sport.
A paradoxical relationship between success during childhood and continuous participation in the competitive sport has emerged from the analysis. Some factors related to early success (e.g. early specialization, pressure to achieve or performance goal orientation) seemed to negatively influence ongoing participation in sport during and after adolescence, above all because of changing motivational dynamics.