Professional Athletes Professional Athletes Professional athletes compete in athletic events. Professional coaches help athletes prepare for competition. Professional athletes spend much of their time training for competition. They practice their sport, lift weights, and talk to coaches.
Some athletes train full time, while others work part time to support themselves.
They may occasionally talk to young athletes to give them encouragement. In team sports, professional athletes are usually selected from college drafts, picked as free agents, or moved up from amateur or part-time status. Many professional athletes never reach the highest ranks. They often drop out after several years in the lower levels of professional sports and start in some other occupation. For some athletes, their visibility helps them move into another career, such as sales or business.