Competitive sports cost time and energy - but they are rarely seen as a good reason for a gap in a CV. And this is the case although sport promotes qualities held in high regard in business: discipline, ambition, teamwork. Flanked by companies, the Stepping Stones to the Future initiative of the German Sports Aid Foundation wants to challenge this assumption and make it easier for athletes to launch careers - through a mentoring programme, applications by means of passwords, and short internships that can be reconciled with training. This supports the athletes, enabling them to work towards their professional future the way they work for medals, and promotes the preservation of high-performance sports. I