Dancers and athletes share strikingly similar challenges in their career and life transitions. Personal identity tied to profession, loss of community and team, and mental health are some of the challenges that athletes and dancers navigate in their transition from high performance.

Annamay Oldershaw Pierse swam for Canada in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics. In 2009 she broke 4 World Records. In 2010, Annamay was bit by a mosquito and got Dengue fever, which ended her career. Annamay is currently an elementary teacher with the Halton district school board.

Starting at 16:10… After a fifteen-year dance career, during which he was a First Soloist with the National Ballet of Canada and performed principal roles on Broadway, Chris Body went back to school. Now he works as a Physician Assistant (PA) at Toronto General Hospital.

Hear Annamay and Chris’ inspiring stories on this episode of CareerBuzz.

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