About

I started this work in 2017. The first thing I noticed was how transactional it all was.

Athletes were treated like interchangeable parts. Sign them, move them, sell them, replace them. But an athlete is a person, with dreams, goals, strengths, weaknesses, and a life that doesn’t fit in a spreadsheet. I couldn’t justify making a transaction out of human effort and human development then. I still can’t.

I know what’s on the line because I wanted it too. For years, my only dream was to walk into an Olympic stadium under my country’s banner. That’s what athletes carry. Not assets. Not data points. Human lives.

We Are Privateers exists to bring a shred of humanity back into sport. The name has changed along the way. The reason hasn’t. The “we” matters, because this work has never been mine alone.

In practice, that means walking alongside athletes in the sport and in the life that comes after it. It means supporting development where the talent has always been but the pathways haven’t, and standing up for athletes who have no one in their corner.

The through-line is the same each time. Build a real relationship. Care about the person. Help them stay themselves inside a system that would prefer they didn’t.

— Adam

The Athlete-Centric Model

Most of the industry calls this athlete management, or being an agent. I don’t use those words. They describe someone managing an asset. I support a person.

The model is simple. Everything revolves around the athlete, because they’re the one competing and the one who needs support. Your job is to have their back and no one else’s interests in mind.

It sounds obvious. It has become forgotten knowledge.

In December 2024, the International Testing Agency invited me onto a global panel on the relationship between athletes and the people who support them. I was asked for the most important principle. I said trust. Without it, you don’t get the honest conversations the work depends on. The room’s response told me something. Plenty of people there had known this once, before the protocols and contracts buried it.

Trust gets built one way. You treat the person in front of you like a person. You learn their hopes, their goals, and who they are away from the competition. You stay when the results are good and when they aren’t. You answer the phone.

It also changes what matters. I want my athletes financially secure, and commissions are part of how this works. But they aren’t the end game. The better questions are how my athlete is doing right now, what they need that no one is giving them, and what life looks like alongside sport and after it.

That last question gets forgotten most. For many in this industry, the job ends when the career does. For me, that’s when it matters most. The goal is a transition that feels like a doorway rather than a cliff, with someone still there afterward.

Sport is increasingly reduced to data, rankings, and values. Data has its uses, but it can’t capture who someone is. That only comes from relationship. At the start, the Olympics were human against human. If that’s still what’s happening on the field, the support behind it should be human too, and not reserved for the few who already have the most.

I don’t get it right every time. But that’s the goal.

The Athletes I’ve Walked Alongside

Sára Mihalik — Sprint Kayak World Champion. European medalist.

Sára and I started working together when she had no major achievements yet. That’s important. This work isn’t about attaching to already-successful athletes. It’s about believing in someone’s potential and investing in the relationship long before the medals come. She uses the industry’s word for me below. Read what she actually describes, and you’ll see why I prefer a different one.

Despite living on the other side of the world (I was based in Hungary at the time, while he was in Canada), and despite the difficulty of finding sponsors in the sport of canoe sprint, Adam still managed to help me alleviate my financial challenges. Through his management, I was able to access equipment and nutritional supplements at discounted or no cost, and he also helped establish partnerships with organizations willing to provide financial support. But perhaps most importantly, he didn’t just “give me the fish” — he taught me how to “use the net.” He showed me how to manage and represent myself as an athlete, a skill that I continue to use even after retiring from professional sport. In that sense, he guided me through one of the hardest transitions any athlete faces: life after sport.

Even more valuable than his professional support was Adam’s unwavering human presence. From the very beginning of our cooperation to the end of my sporting career — and even beyond — he was always there. During the difficult seasons when even some of my coaches gave up on me, Adam stood by my side, helping me climb back to the top. He supported me quite literally around the clock, often during his own late-night or early-morning hours due to the time difference.

When I eventually decided to transfer from representing Hungary to competing for Finland, Adam once again played a key role. The process was complex and emotionally demanding, but he made it much easier — both by handling the administrative side of the transfer and by providing the emotional support I needed at that time. Thanks to his help, I was able to rise from one of the lowest points in my career and return to the World Championship podium.

In summary, Adam is not only an exceptional manager — organized, proactive, and resourceful — but also an extraordinary human being whose empathy and commitment make all the difference.”

— Sára Anna Mihalik
World Champion, Canoe Sprint and Marathon

Sára now works with Salzburg Global, bringing what she learned on the water into a whole new part of her life: the discipline, the resilience, the way of showing up. She made the leap that so many athletes dread, and she made it on her own terms. I couldn’t be prouder of her.

The relationship didn’t end when her competitive career did. That’s the point.