How is life different and what are some pro’s and con’s?
If your flat mates aren’t high performance athletes, being an athlete in NZ quite self-driven. Studying full time while competing in high performance sport certainly isn’t easy. Its very time consuming, quite tiring and sacrifices generally need to be made. In saying this I wouldn’t have it any other way! It definitely sets you out of the rest of the field. The university is really accommodating for you to travel away for sporting competitions and trainings (provided you’re organized and let them know early enough!). The UCSA also offers grants for athletes who are going away on sporting trips which is really helpful.
I would recommend using this time to make the most of your study, uni and sporting commitments. If you’re serious about all of these it’ll be a huge year but you’ll also learn so much from it!