2025 National Careers Week I Brodie Summers

This week is National Careers Week, and Snow Australia is celebrating by inviting our community to share how they balance their career journeys with a passion for sport.

Competing at Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022, moguls skier Brodie Summers is now balancing his time between a full-time corporate role and multiple elected positions within the sporting industry. 

As a recently retired professional athlete, the two-time Winter Olympian shared that his transition to ‘normal life’ included many hurdles, but the support from his community helped him land on his feet again.

“I mean the initial transition wasn't without its challenges, which I think is pretty common for a lot of our athletes going through the transition,” Summers said.

“I suppose one of the hardest things to get over is the identity piece. I think a lot of athletes struggle with this - myself included. 

“Going from seeing yourself, and everyone around you seeing you as this one thing that is all about sport and being an athlete, to stepping away is challenging. 

“But I think getting past that and getting comfortable with the notion that you're going from being in the top couple of percent in the world in your sport, to back to ‘bottom of the pile’ so to speak in whatever you're planning to do next, was probably one of the key challenges I had to overcome in my journey through that transition.

“I was quite fortunate as I was able to land a role at PwC as a casual associate, which gave me a bit of flexibility to dip my toe in the water a little bit and progressively work my way into a corporate career while still doing the things that are important to me from a training perspective and getting to spend time with family. 

“But during this transition period there was definitely a lot of support, and I was working quite closely with [OWIA People & Performance Manager] Alana Rybicki during that transitional phase, which was really helpful for having a sounding board for what I was thinking and someone to go through what my approach was and give feedback.

“But then the other thing that I did, which I think was really helpful - which I would definitely recommend a lot of any athlete does when they're kind of going through the same process - is just reach out to people that have done it before.

“There's a lot of retired athletes who've gone through the journey at some point in their past, and there's a lot of learning that comes from going through that. 

“So like for myself, I reached out to a whole bunch of different retired athletes and just met up for coffees or lunch, just to catch up and give me an opportunity to ask for advice and any key learnings that they got from navigating the experience themselves - which was certainly helpful for for framing my thinking and helping me to kind of plan my approach.”

On top of his corporate career, Brodie has recently been appointed Chair of Australian Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission, Chair of Snow Australia’s Freestyle Skiing National Discipline Committee, as well as being a member of the Australian Sports Commission’s Win Well Strategy Leadership Group - making his life post-competition just as busy. 

“It has definitely been busy in addition to a full-time corporate career - but it’s good and I really enjoy it and I think it’s an important opportunity to give back,” he said. 

“When you're an athlete, even though you might not necessarily recognise it at times throughout your career, you are supported by a whole bunch of different people, individuals and organisations, which without them you wouldn't have been able to do the things that you did or got to do. 

“As I was getting towards the end of my career, I started thinking about these things a little bit more and speaking to a few different people who were involved in various capacities across Australian sport and overseas as well, and thought it sounded like a good opportunity to try and give back.

“But at the same time, it also helps me stay connected to sport, which when it's been a big part of your life for so long, it's hard to say goodbye to it and go ‘cold turkey’, so it's something that really appealed to me. 

“For me, it was always important to try and stay connected, and this is a way that I get to do that. 

“We recently had a few meetings in Sydney and it’s really refreshing to get an opportunity to connect with other athletes even though a lot of us are retired - we’re in sync with each other and we speak the same language and share a lot of values. 

“It’s amazing how a lot of us didn’t know each other at all during our athletic careers but now we're working together on the Athletes Commission and we integrate with each other so seamlessly, which is great.”

With his background in being a high performance athlete, Brodie is able to bring a unique perspective to these positions and do his part in supporting the next generation of athletes. 

“The core function of the Athletes Commission at the AOC is to lend that athlete perspective and make sure that the athletes voice is heard in all decision-making forums around whatever the AOC is doing at the time,” Summers said. 

“So having that that perspective is certainly important and really valuable, and in relation to the National Discipline Committee it's also really important to make sure that the athlete voice is central because at the end of the day, if we're making decisions regarding the sport, and we're not considering athletes, then in my mind we've failed. 

“We need to create an ecosystem that is supportive of athletes and therefore attractive to athletes to make them want to commit themselves to participating in the sport for the long term.”

On the other side of the coin, Brodie is also working in a full-time role as an Assistant Manager of Project and Infrastructure Advisory at BDO.

“I originally started in assurance at PwC, but that didn't last very long,” he said. 

“I then came across an opportunity in infrastructure advisory and I thought that sounded much more up my alley.

“I studied finance at university, and there was an opportunity to incorporate a lot of the commercial and financial learnings that I had from that and apply it to sort of real world projects. 

“When I first started out, I was fortunate to work on some of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Venue Projects - one of them being one of the stadiums up in the Sunshine Coast. 

“That was a nice way to stay connected to sport, even though I wasn't an athlete, I was able to kind of bridge my understanding of high performance sport facilities and environments as an athlete, with the commercial principles and analytical side of a project.

“Bridging those two things, and then in a few years time getting the chance to see the venues delivered and go and watch a few games there one day will be a great full circle moment. 

“As for what my future holds, you speak to any athlete - even if they retired - they probably are still very goal-oriented individuals, so I think what I want to do is continue to become more involved in projects that interest me and allow me to stay connected to sport.”