Background: There are studies in the literature scrutinising the reasons for dropping out of sports in terms of physiological, psychosocial, and surrounding factors. In addition to these, it is a fact that there are athletes who end their sports life immediately after beginning their undergraduate education. At this point, the reasons for students to leave sports during their undergraduate education remains a matter to be discovered.

Aim: To this end, this study aims to reveal the factors that cause these persons to leave sports.

Methods: This research was conducted through the qualitative research method, utilising the phenomenology design. The participants of the study were eleven former national athletes who left sports after beginning their undergraduate education. The participants were selected by criterion sampling method from purposive sampling methods. The data were obtained through face-to-face interviews composed of semi-structured questions. The data acquired were analyzed by the content analysis method.

Results: Five main themes were composed in the study: training, social life, health, psychology, and school. It was observed that the participants failed to balance their school and sports life due to heavy and intense training, socialisation needs, unexpected injuries, nutritional problems, psychological fear of failure, and inability to achieve the success they desire.

Conclusion: The study results revealed that the participants decided to leave sports not for a single reason, but as a result of a process during which multiple reasons accumulated. In this context, measures can be taken to facilitate their academic and sports life in order to prevent national athletes from leaving sports. These measures may include enabling them to continue to school where they do sports, providing them with distance education and exam opportunities, and enabling them to better integrate into campus life. In order to prevent early specialisation, long-term athlete development models may also be implemented.

Keywords: National athlete, undergraduate students, dropping out of sports