The area of athlete career development and transitions has traditionally been dominated by a Western perspective, an imbalance which has had a considerable influence on shaping career studies in sport psychology more generally. This presentation is based on our edited book “Athletes’ Careers across Cultures”, in which we employ theoretical tenants of the cultural turn to approach career as a socially and culturally constituted context in which the development of athletes occurs. Briefly outlining how culture has been studied in career transition research, we position our discussion within the metaphor of waves. The cross-cultural wave is representative of the universalist approach to career in the study of similarities and differences in cognitive, emotional and behavioral functions of athletes in different countries. Cross-cultural career studies are typically carried out within the positivist epistemology, using different questionnaires about athletes’ beliefs and attitudes (e.g., Dimoula, Torregrosa, Psychountaki, &González, 2012; Alfermann, Stambulova, & Zemaityte, 2004; Stambulova, Stephan, & Jäphag, 2007). The wave of cultural mindset is located within a constructivist paradigm of cultural psychology. Cultural researchers have challenged the extant career models, which suggest that athletes across cultures undertake similar career pathways and experience comparable career transitions (e.g., Carless, & Douglas, 2009; Douglas, & Carless, 2009; Schinke, Ryba, Danielson, Michel, Peltier, Enosse, et al., 2007). In our discussion, we focus on the emerging ‘third wave’ to explicate how culture functions as discourse in the context of athletes’ careers. Culture as discourse operates through common sense assumptions embedded in social institutions, such as national sport federations and academic institutes, enabling athletes to access certain contextually contained skills and practices whilst simultaneously restricting, even denying, the development of others. We therefore argue for the need to open sport psychological knowledge to culturally diverse intellectual traditions, perspectives and concerns, which will allow researchers and practitioners to better understand local problems within the dynamics of cultural diversity in athlete career development and assistance.