02/04/2026
National Girls & Women in Sports Day 💙
Something people may not know about me…
When my competitive skating career ended due to injury, I didn’t just lose a sport – I lost a huge part of my identity!
What surprised me most is where that ending led me next.
After skating, I went on to study at the University of Minnesota, earning a degree in Women’s Studies with a focus on women and girls in sport.
I worked closely with the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, studying topics like voluntary and involuntary exit from sport, feminized sports, and the often-unspoken realities of life after competition.
At the time, I didn’t realize how much that work was also helping me heal.
I was living the very experience I was studying—navigating identity, loss, and the disorientation that can come when the sport you love is suddenly no longer available to you. The research gave language to what I felt in my body. It offered clarity, context, and compassion—for myself and for so many athletes whose stories too often go untold.
And alongside all of that, I hold deep gratitude.
Gratitude for the privilege of loving a sport the way I did. For the early mornings, the discipline, the heartbreaks, the breakthroughs, the setbacks, and the successes. All of it shaped who I am—how I move through the world, how I listen, and how I support others now.
What I learned—both on the ice and in the classroom—continues to guide my work today.
Because sport doesn’t just live in the body.
And transitioning out of it isn’t just physical.
My approach has always been about supporting the whole athlete—mind, body, nervous system, identity—helping them build inner resources that can carry them not only through sport, but through life beyond it.
Today, I’m honoring the girl I was, the sport that shaped me, and the athletes I now have the privilege to support—on the ice, on the field, and in all the chapters that come after.
*photo from Wisconsin State Journal
