Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and Mary Cain all share something powerful in common: they’ve bravely opened up about their mental health journeys, using their platforms as elite athletes to advocate for change. Their courage is paving the way for a healthier, more supportive sports environment—especially for those facing mental health challenges.
On today’s episode of The Appetite, Kara Bazzi, LMFT—co-founder and Clinical Director of Opal’s Exercise+Sport program—chats with Katie Steele, former Division I runner at the University of Oregon and now a mental health therapist and co-author of The Price She Pays. Together, they dive into Katie’s new book and the critical conversation about athlete mistreatment and mental health.
Links:
Katie’s book: The Price She Pays
Connect with Opal:
Thank you to our team…
Editing by David Bazzi
Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.
Sound engineering by Ayesha Ubayatilaka at Jack Straw Studios
Transcription by Rev.com
Kara Bazzi (00:04):
Hello and welcome to the Appetite, a podcast brought to you by Opal Food and Body Wisdom, an eating disorder treatment clinic in Seattle, Washington. It is a podcast about all things food, body movement, and mental health. I’m Kara Bazi, a co-founder, clinical director, and the director of the Exercise and Sport program at Opal, as well as your host for today. On today’s episode, I’ll be having a discussion with Katie Steele, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and now co-author of The Price. She Pays a book she wrote alongside Tiffany Brown and Erin Strout. This is a particularly special interview for me as Katie’s story and career path have a lot of overlap with mine. Katie and I both struggled with a difficult sport experience in the context of Division one collegiate running, which ultimately led to our future careers in the field of mental health where we treat athletes who need mental health support and engage in efforts to create a more inclusive and healthy sport world. A difference though, I’ve thought a lot about writing a book and she’s actually done it. So needless to say, I was super eager to read her book and look forward to talking about it today on the podcast. So let’s get our conversation started. Welcome, Katie.
Katie Steele (01:18):
Thank you for having me. I’m thrilled to be here and to meet you finally face to virtually.
Kara Bazzi (01:25):
Yes, we were both just saying that we’ve been eager to meet each other, so this is very fun for both of us. Okay, so I’m going to get us going by reading the very last paragraph to the epilogue you wrote in your book, and it was sort of a personal letter of sorts you wrote. Our hope is that in another 15 years, this book will be obsolete. Female athletes will be developing grit, tenacity, and drive under the systems that are made for them, thriving in sports that are inclusive, empowering and honoring their unique talents that are a collection of stories, however difficult they were to tell made all the difference. So I recognize athlete’s stories or the heart of your new book, which never would’ve been written if it wasn’t for your own sport journey and your own sport story. So let’s start there and give the listeners a chance to learn more about you and your story.
Katie Steele (02:21):
Yeah, similar to you. It’s funny, it was like decades ago. Anytime I go to even share a snippet of the story, and I knew you were going to ask this question, I should not be surprised. And yet immediately my palms start sweating because it’s so visceral still, even though it was decades, multiple decades ago. So the nutshell version was I loved running, I loved exercise, I loved how I felt. And going into my senior year, that passion turned opportunity and I got the chance to kind of choose where I wanted to go to school. And I chose the University of Oregon for the relationship that I felt with the coach. And that coach ended up leaving and a new coaching staff came in and they were different and had different expectations. I had a different relationship with them, and there was a very clear moment that I remember where that love of running, I began running for approval.
(03:19):
And so at that juncture, it seemed like things really started to shift. Alberto Salazar was kind of unofficially on the coaching squad, and he kind of took me under his wing and he really saw me and he took time and it felt like he really understood me. And when I kept describing I can’t find my fifth gear, I can’t find my fifth gear, he swooped in and it felt like he really wanted to help me and referred me to this doctor in Texas who prescribed me thyroid medication. And it gave me hope. It gave me a lot of hope. It made me feel valued, it made me feel understood. It validated some of what I was experiencing. And then there were these gaps. And what I know now that I didn’t know then is that trauma is a fascinating thing. And so I only remember pockets of the experience, but at one point I had structured the story.
(04:14):
I had a linear understanding of how it went and when Alberto came into the picture and when I went to this doctor in Texas, and ultimately I ended up transferring to Florida State, which Alberto helped me do. I of course got a stress fracture for the tendons and ligaments in my ankle. There had also been a coaching change there, and the mind body connection is amazing. I wasn’t taking care of what I was needing internally, and my body literally broke. So I hustled up, tied a bow on my athletic and academic tenure in college and headed home, a broken little bird. Broken little bird. So sad, so shameful, so embarrassed. And I fast forward about eight years, ended up in this fertility doctor’s office and he had this massive chart. I mean, this will also date me, right? It was paper, a paper chart. And he was thumbing through all of these records and he looked at me and my husband was in there and he looked at me and he goes, you know, were treated for a thyroid condition that you never had.
(05:16):
I was like, what? No, what? That doesn’t make any sense. He said, you passed out, your roommate took you to the er, you passed out while you were driving, you ended up at the hospital. And my husband looks at me, he goes, how come you never shared any of this with me? And I said, I literally didn’t remember. I didn’t remember. And so at that point, my focus was having kids. I wanted to have a family, I wanted to be a mom. And so I tucked it away and when stories would come out like Kara Gouchers or Mary Kay’s, I would write letters and then I would put it back in the box and I would move on. And I was lucky that the fertility treatment worked and we have three kids. And that one point in 2021, I was on a buddy’s podcast and it was interesting.
(06:03):
It was just this little podcast, but it cracked it all open. And it was that moment that I was like, I have to do something with this. People are suffering and this is my story isn’t unique. And Tiffany ended up saying that when we started writing. She said, the fact that your story isn’t unique, even though it’s so impactful is the story. And that’s how the price she pays came to be is there’s too many stories. There’s too many experiences that women and girls are having in the name of sport that is leaving them with trauma to heal from or wounds to heal. That so many, not all things in life are preventable, but a lot of these things that are happening in athletic systems are preventable.
Kara Bazzi (06:50):
Oh man. Well thanks for sharing that. And you’re in company with somebody with also a similar different but similar story. And what I feel so encouraged by is just how many more stories are being voiced now I know back we were in the same era, I think. So I graduated my program in 2001, and back then there was a lot of silence. We weren’t hearing these stories. I remember feeling kind of alone in it and alone, once I went into the field of mental health, I also just felt really alone. And so I just think there’s something and knowing there’s so many people that were suffering and now just there’s more coming out and more action being taken, and that’s really encouraging. So that’s another piece of our identities that we share is going into the mental health field, going into that pathway after having these experiences as athletes. And I would be curious to hear more about how your work as a therapist has shaped your understanding of your own story and working with athletes who are going through a healing process.
Katie Steele (07:55):
And I’m so sorry you had a similar experience. I think that is the part that sharedness is you don’t want anybody else to have to experience. And there is something of, okay, we are in this together and we as a collective, any change that’s going to be generated, we all need each other and we can band together and we can normalize this and we can hopefully, I think both of our missions is we can do something different so that the next generation doesn’t actually have to go through that so that when they step away from sport, they aren’t using their core experiences sport as their motivator to generate change. Right,
Kara Bazzi (08:34):
Totally.
Katie Steele (08:35):
So I appreciate you sharing that. And I am totally spacing. You actually had a question and I took it
Kara Bazzi (08:43):
Left field. That’s okay. Yeah, just asking about that, the decision to go into the mental health field and what it’s been like, how has your perspective grown and changed as a result of that identity of becoming a mental health therapist?
Katie Steele (08:58):
Yeah, I mean it’s so interesting. We story things in our head how it makes sense now. So I believe I went into the field because I know that’s what I needed as an 18, 19-year-old athlete, and I didn’t have access to it. So I really went into the field wanting to work with adolescent female athletes. There’s a massive gap, this understanding of how an athlete wiring is a great thing in sport, but can be really difficult in daily living. And so wanted to support and hold space and normalize the process in which these gals were going through. So that was what I ended up going into the field for. And as a systems therapist, there was an element of that of I love and feel so lucky that these gals are trusting me on their individual journeys. And in that process, I couldn’t just see that experience.
(09:55):
There was this element of how can we be addressing the system? The system needs so much work, to put it really bluntly, we need to be working at this from a systems level as well. So in awe of these individuals doing the work. And what if the system was able to make some adjustments? Could we actually see a change in what’s needed on this individual basis? And so that’s how my work has kind of morphed in that way of really now wanting to do, I still work with individuals. I love that process. Somebody letting you into the underbelly of their world. There’s nothing like it. I have so much admiration for anybody who’s willing to dive into their own stuff because we all have stuff. We all have stuff. And I really am passionate about the systems work as well.
Kara Bazzi (10:53):
Yeah, I don’t know about you, but I think from our generation, generationally, we didn’t challenge authority as much. That was part of, I think our wiring or in the context of when we were raised, but I feel really encouraged by Gen Z and their willingness to challenge authority and speak up. So to me, that brings a lot of hope of the system change because I think there’s just going to be more of a collective of these Gen Zers that are going to demand more and be vocal about it and not be as afraid of challenging authority to the point where I don’t know that some of the systems and the people in leadership will be able to do some of the things that they’ve done over the course of these years. So to me, that’s where I actually see the needle turning. And then we can, I think those of us that have maybe some more years in wisdom can support that effort, can support these kind of having, I guess just more numbers, more mass to make this change. I dunno, what are you observing?
Katie Steele (12:10):
Oh, I mean, I know this is a podcast, so people can’t see the visual, but I’m nodding just a hundred percent agree with you. This generation, gen Z, they are changing the framework. We see it. We see it every day. I’m sure you see it at your clinic. I’ll walk into the lobby and two teenagers who are in school together are exchanging phone numbers versus if it was our era and somebody was like, how about a counselor? How about you go see a therapist? How about treatment? You’d walk in, you’d put your head down, there’d be this shameful element of like, oh my gosh, but what if I see my neighbor? And meanwhile, I look at all of these teenagers making eye contact with their peers and their neighbor and owning who they are, and they are extracting the shame. And so this level of embodiment and trust in self is absolutely going to change the system. No doubt in my mind, I see it and I look at them. And so when we were writing the book, coaches would say to us, you’re just trying to make sports soft. You’re trying to make sports soft. This generation of athletes is already all this criticism. Oh
Kara Bazzi (13:16):
No, they’re telling
Katie Steele (13:18):
You in a way that you don’t, you don’t get to stay in the status quo. So I agree with you wholeheartedly. It is such a privilege to get to be on the sideline and watch ’em because they are the ones that are generating so much hope and the change will come from them undoubtedly.
Kara Bazzi (13:33):
I know I just actually recorded a podcast on Monday with a high school senior from a local high school who just inspired me so much. She’s doing her podcast on Reds and trying to make that difference in interviewing a bunch of professionals in the community. And then my daughter’s a senior at a different high school, and we were at the district meet yesterday for cross country, and she came to cheer on my daughter and then connected with her and basically is trying to create this group of high school seniors to collectively work on this effort. And she’s going to the legislature. She’s trying to go to make political policy change. So it was very sweet to see her connecting with my daughter and getting fired up and figuring out who some of the other girls that are passionate about this and wanting to make a change and create a group of them. So cool.
Katie Steele (14:30):
Love that.
Kara Bazzi (14:30):
I would not have been doing that in my senior year. Again, I think there was a lot more, I don’t know, compliance and fear. And I mean, I think even as you’re describing, you unpacked your story a lot later. I mean, I didn’t know I had an eating disorder for four years while I was on my team having an eating disorder. They have so much more knowledge to help them and just bravery and willingness, less shame and more willingness to speak out. So very, very encouraging.
Katie Steele (15:09):
It’s awesome. And we know early intervention works, and that’s what they’re literally doing in the minute, real time versus decades later like, oh, that was bad. That was bad. Their level of insight and connectivity and their willingness to listen to it is out of this world. And so this early intervention, changing legislation, great. We just need to get out of their way and let them guide where we need to be. We interviewed seven year olds for the book, and I was like, dang, you all get it. You all get it. What? We just need to listen. We need to believe you. We need to let you all guide this.
Kara Bazzi (15:52):
Yeah. I also, I’m thinking of just the diversity of voices that you had that you interviewed and diversity of folks that you interviewed for your book. And I’m thinking about that too. I know we’re both part of distance running. Distance running historically has been a lot of white, cis thin women, female bodies, including the two of us. We hold a lot of privileged identities. I know I’ve learned a lot through just working with clients at Opal and hearing these differing experiences. And I was curious about what you’ve also taken away from that, especially through the interviews you did in your book, I know was part of, there was a lot of nods to that in the book.
Katie Steele (16:39):
And we acknowledge that we were three white women writing the book and the limitations that come from that, just our own vantage point and privilege and views, and really wanted to make sure that the book was able to be more comprehensive than what our reference point in the world was. And so we did, it was cross sport. We tried to make it as diverse of a pool as we possibly could. We did focus groups to look at from this social science perspective of what are some of the themes? What are we seeing? What’s unique to running? What’s unique to swimming, what’s unique to soccer, what’s unique to softball? And then see where is the overlap? And ultimately, what we found was a whole lot of overlap. And what we, Tiffany and I laugh about this now of thinking, we had this profound question at the end of each interview of what would you like to see be different? What do you think some of these solutions are? And the answers came back to we wish people would believe us.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
We
Katie Steele (17:45):
Wish they trusted us, we wish they us. There’s just fundamental needs of being seen, having this sense of belonging. And that was happening cross sport. And I don’t want to not underscore, we obviously saw higher rates of that with people of color, gender, non-binary. Right? There are heightened needs that absolutely need to be punctuated. And the collective dialogue was, believe me, trust me, people really are the expert of themselves.
Kara Bazzi (18:27):
Wow. Yeah. That’s really powerful to hear that theme come so strongly. Across all the folks you interviewed, what do you think is the barrier? What did you learn from them in that way? Age is it? Yeah, you hear,
Katie Steele (18:49):
Yeah. I feel like it’s always important to punctuate in. Their coaches have a lot on their plate. I get that right. And I think about it kind of like a bell curve. There are people that are causing harm intentionally, and that needs to be addressed immediately. There is no room for grace. There is no room for error that is abusive and that is outside the bell curve and under no circumstance. Then we have some of these people who are unintentionally causing harm. And that grouping, there’s room for race, there’s room for support, there’s room for education. And a lot of the time coaches’, plates are overflowing, parents’ plates are overflowing. And my really unfiltered response to your question would be people oftentimes lose sight of that athlete being a human. And this is their journey. And instead imposing their own goals, their own dreams, their own beliefs, instead of trusting and taking any time to be curious of what that individual athlete’s actual needs are.
(20:05):
Instead of, Hey, we’re at a division one school. Our objective is to win the national championship if we’re going to get there, here’s what you’re going to do. Here’s the expectation of you. So there’s no pausing, there’s no checking in. It’s just expected down to seven year olds whose parents think they’re the next Olympian, Olympian, they’re the next NHL player, they’re the next whatever, whatever, whatever. And so I think that we need to make sure that the leaders in these positions are able to regulate themselves before engaging with these athletes. Where am I coming from when it doesn’t mean, and I will make this abundantly clear, I’m one of the most intense people on the planet. So when people are like, you’re trying to make it suck, I kind of chuckled inside because I’m like, oh my gosh, I love expectations. I’m so intense. I could use some, dialing it down a notch, right? So this is not saying it’s free of expectations. This doesn’t mean that people just get to come in and coast. That is not what this means. It means there needs to be a level of consideration of the athlete beyond their performance.
(21:17):
Athletes want it more than anybody. So doubling down on them, oftentimes you’re going to get the counter effect of it for sport.
Kara Bazzi (21:29):
Totally.
Katie Steele (21:29):
So if we pause and we can get out of our own way and we can regulate as leaders, whether that’s a coach or a parent, our own nervous system to be able to have an element of curiosity about this athlete as a human, and we can form a bond. That’s what they want. That’s what makes them feel valued, seen any of us, quite frankly, like any other human on the planet. This isn’t just athletics, but we know that that can be the antidote to what we’re seeing in these athletic systems. It’s requiring athletes to then go on and do this healing journey.
Kara Bazzi (22:04):
I love that. I feel like that is really key. Everything you’re saying right now in terms of for someone on this that’s an athlete that’s listening, a coach that’s listening, a parent that’s listening is you don’t have to throw one out for the other, right? You’re not having to throw out expectations or goals or an agenda for listening and being curious with your athlete or your child. Both can coexist. That’s really what I hear you saying is it’s creating that pause. It’s creating that room to remember that they’re on their own journey too. And listening and getting curious about their experience is so valuable. And it doesn’t mean your own experience, doesn’t matter your own goals or expectations, but really making that pause and checking yourself. I’m coaching currently right now. I added that into my life this fall with my girls team in high school.
(23:06):
And we just yesterday were at districts and qualified for state. It was a big deal. But it’s interesting to just even be thinking about that in my role as mother of my two kids and as coach of this team of how do I hold that well myself of checking myself and being aware of where I get excitable, passionate, and just being a competitive person and how do I hold that well and really make space for the athletes and my kids and their experiences. So it’s tricky. I mean, from firsthand experience coming off of it from yesterday, it’s a tall task.
Katie Steele (23:53):
It’s a tall task. And I share those sentiments, right of your athletes are so lucky, and I know I am pretty intense, so would coaching be a good fit for me? I’m not sure. I had to fill in for my nine year olds, the assistant, my husband was coaching, I had to fill in as the assistant and I was like, dang, they’re nine. They’re like babies, right? It’s Sunday morning. There’s nothing on the line here. And it’s like, okay, cool. You have to soothe yourself. And what we know about mental health, most of it’s counterintuitive. What we think we’re doing to regulate is actually exacerbating versus what we actually need to be doing to dissipate the feelings is counterintuitive. And so I would even go as far to say that if in your family system or within your athletic programs, you can have clear expectations, there can be transparency, co-regulation, curiosity, attunement, you can actually have higher expectations of the athletes. And that’s the counterintuitive piece of like, oh, wait, if I know that they love gerbils, that’s going to allow me to have higher expectations. And it’s like, yes, because you have a foundation of trust and rapport,
Kara Bazzi (25:09):
A hundred percent. The other thing I wanted to pick up from what you said is the doubling down. And we talk a lot on our podcast about radically open dialectical behavior therapy related to treating folks with over control. And when we get into the higher level of athletics, we’ve talked about this, we have a higher percentage of clients who are over controlled and over control, over controlled athletes don’t need more over control. So our job is to make things a little looser, a little more fun, a little bit more open. And so I think that’s, again, I think a lot of coaches and parents are well-meaning, but the intensity or the overcontrol that they might be bringing could be working against working against their athletes and their overall wellbeing and their performance ultimately too. So that’s every time,
Katie Steele (26:01):
Every time for every athlete. And that’s going to present differently depending on how that human is wired. For some that might be disordered eating, for some that might be substance use for some that might mean they’re going to quit sport. For some that might be depression over control, an athlete wiring, we know this, we’ve seen the statistics of the percentage of athletes that go on to be Fortune 500 CEOs and run businesses and have C-suite positions. We know there’s a level of intensity there. So that inner critic of an athlete is so fierce already they’re going to drive themselves harder than anybody possibly could anyway. So oftentimes we have to teach athletes is Let me help you learn how to downshift. We want that intensity. We want you to be able to go into overdrive, but we want you to be able to choose that so that you can use that for key training blocks. You can use that for competition. And then when you go home at night, we want you to actually be able to downshift so that you can connect to other parts of yourself. Because when you do that, your overdrive is actually going to have more longevity,
Kara Bazzi (27:12):
Right? It’s like that classic, too much of a good thing. If we’re doubling down on the overdrive, it’s not serving them well. So we’re helping them with those other things like rest and care for their whole self and identity work. Yep, exactly. Well, let’s switch gears a bit and talk a little bit more about your book so that listeners can get an understanding of what is in your awesome book, starting with who is this book intended for and how would you describe its relevance to our listeners?
Katie Steele (27:48):
Yeah, the book, when we were trying to decide who’s going to be the target audience, and we kind of went between this parents, coaches, athletes themselves, and really wrote it from this perspective of, for a parent, if you’re a parent, especially in these formative years, what is your role? How can you support your athlete? What do these things mean? Knowing that if it was written in a way that a parent could access it, then it was going to resonate with a coach that a coach would be able to pick it up. And then once an athlete gets to the reading ability to want to read something like that, they would also pick it up wanting to try to capture as many folks as we could, knowing our parent inlet was probably going to be. Parents have a huge influence. They have, they’re oftentimes the gatekeeper and the decision makers starting at really young ages for kids.
(28:40):
And the part, and you said this earlier in this conversation, and I echo your sentiments, so grateful for so many of these Olympians and powerhouse athletes who are talking about mental health, and they’re naming it and they’re valuing it. The area in which I still felt so adamant about and really wanted to illuminate in this book is that we oftentimes hear the story in the minute. What we don’t hear is the impact we don’t hear. We hear the story of athlete experience and eating disorder. What we don’t hear is that when they hung up their gear, their athletic gear, the eating disorder didn’t just go away. The athlete continued to stay involved in their healing process, in recovery, whatever, that maybe learning about it post sport, it maybe was just an awareness that came when they stepped away, so then their healing started sport. So I think that’s the part that felt really important, is to make sure that people know the span of it and the impact that it has on these humans beings. It is so much bigger than sport.
Kara Bazzi (29:50):
Yes. Yeah. I think you did an excellent job with that. And it covers just for the listeners to know, it covers topics from puberty, anxiety, depression, abuse, eating disorder, substance use, social media, sport transitions, athlete coach relationships. So really, I mean, I think you guys did an excellent job of covering those pieces, describing them, helping a listener really or a reader really understand those things. And I feel, yeah, I was curious if you felt like there are particular areas that you think are most misunderstood or that need to be more illuminated. I mean, if we’re thinking about for the parent, do you think there’s a bigger gap or do you feel like all of them need equal amounts of attention or, yeah, I was curious about that.
Katie Steele (30:45):
The systems therapist in me is, let’s focus on parents and coaches. Athletes have so much on them. And so while I want to make sure that we equip and empower athletes to be able to be an advocate for themselves, what if we created healthy systems in which they weren’t having to be hypervigilant and noting, was that weird that they did that my coach had me do that with my body? Was that okay? Was it not okay? What if we created systems, family systems, sports systems where athletes’ wellbeing was prioritized? Right? So I don’t want to equip athletes so that they know what to be looking for, but I really want to see a systemic change so that the burden doesn’t have to be on the athlete that we’ve structured systems in a way that they can trust the system.
Kara Bazzi (31:34):
Right. Yeah. And to that note, do you feel like parents have bigger gaps than others of what you’ve noticed with your practice and hearing from the athlete interviews?
Katie Steele (31:45):
Yeah. Yeah. I had say right now my biggest emphasis and passion is parents because it is an athlete’s primary attachment figure. They are that kid’s parent. So how can we ensure that the attachment is preserved? But what we see so often is it’s severed because of sport. How many athletes say, I think I would’ve had a better relationship with my parent if I didn’t even play sports. That is so sad.
(32:18):
That is so sad. You watch a game as young kids through high school and all of a sudden they’re looking over at their parents of like, am I okay? Am I okay? Am I disappointing them? And then we’re like, oh, anxious attachment. What if your kid just got to be in their body and have fun and play and they didn’t have to worry if you were dysregulated? No, it’s our responsibility as parents. And I echo your sentiments, and I think part of my passion is being a parent and knowing how humbling of a task it is. You love these being more than anything. And we’re humans too. We have emotional experiences and how can we learn to regulate our emotions versus projecting that onto them? And what I love about the sports venue for this is there’s so many life circumstances that we have no control over. The sports system isn’t one. It is. We know what a role of a sports parent needs to be. There is no question about that. And so I think if we can help parents get to that place, the bond amongst parents and kid remain more intact, the bond within the athlete, the kid, that human, that individual remains more intact.
(33:34):
And those are, I mean, there’s nothing more powerful than that.
Kara Bazzi (33:37):
Yeah, nothing more powerful. Nothing more important. Yeah. Thanks for saying that, and I am excited for people to dive into your book to learn more about that. I actually was, I wanted to read this part at the end. You wrote about the athletes Bill of Rights, and here you are just now saying about this is really intended for the parents and for let’s work on changing the family system, the sport system, and not put the burden on the athlete. So I’m going to read this, and this is the bill of rights for directed to the athlete. But I think just as much given to the parent to understand to take this in as this is what an athlete has the right for. And so how can, as a parent or a coach, can you take in your role in helping seeing this through to fruition?
(34:33):
So I’m just going to read this out loud. So athletes’, bill of Rights as an athlete, you have the right to one, be treated with respect and dignity by coaches, staff, teammates, spectators and fans. Two, train and compete in a safe environment, free from exploitation, abuse, bullying, belittling, physical harm, harassment, violence, or threats from coaches, staff or teammates. Three, participate regardless of your identity as well as receive affirmation of your identity. Four, be understood as a whole person who has many distinct interests, activities, concerns, and identities separate from sports. Five, mental health support and treatment that is accessible as physical support and treatment, and gives you a voice and decisions that involve your mental health care. Six, transparency regarding team policies and procedures that are fair free from favoritism and conflict of interest, and allow you to report improper behavior, violations of SafeSport code without fear of retribution. Seven, inclusion and support during recovery from illness, injury and other setbacks. Eight, adequate time for basic needs like nutrition, sleep, and recovery. Nine, privacy concerning your mental health needs. Free from worry that coaches and staff might share your information without your permission. 10 coaching that is representative, qualified, compassionate, and takes your input and concerns into account. I dunno if there’s anything more you want to say about that. Katie, I know it was included at the end of the book. Is there any comment you want to make about the decision to include that?
Katie Steele (36:16):
Yeah, honestly, that was totally Tiffany. I want to make sure she gets complete credit for it. She really saw the need to make sure that we were distilling down the key takeaways, right? A book is a book. Not everybody’s going to read a whole book, but what do we know? What did we learn from all of these people who were so eager and willing and courageous to share their stories? What were those major themes? And those were them. And I love that she had the foresight to see the importance of including a snapshot of what are the things we can do that cost $0 to ensure a smooth and inclusive and athlete centered approach? And that was it.
Kara Bazzi (37:08):
Yeah. I love how direct it is, and it’s not baiting around the bush. It’s the clarity there of what we are aiming for. And I feel like that could be a list that any parent or coach could just sit with and reflect on. Honestly, also, in your final paragraph in the epilogue, you shared your hope, and I think both of us are speaking to, we’ve, throughout this conversation, have spoken to some of our own hope that we’re having. And I’d love to give you a little bit more space to talk about your current place of where you’re finding hope in this field and in this work that you’re doing with athletes.
Katie Steele (37:54):
I love that. And it’s such a good reminder, right? There’s hardship, there’s heartache, there’s trauma, there’s hardship, a lot of it. And there’s a lot of good, right? There’s a lot of good. And Tiffany, Erin, and I have said this over and over again, if we didn’t see the goodness, we wouldn’t have done this because there really is so much goodness. And sport is amazing, and so many of the people involved in sport are amazing. And so we don’t want the areas of growth to eclipse the goodness that is occurring. And we don’t want to ignore the gaps, the solvable gaps. And the most hopeful piece of it is the people. Absolutely. The people. Whether it’s the people that we’re getting to collaborate or the Gen Zs that we’re getting to observe, there’s so much goodness. There’s goodness in the game, and there’s goodness in the people.
(38:48):
And that’s where I feel elated and overjoyed and optimistic that we’re going to get to see these changes. We’re going to get to see generations stepping away from sport at whatever juncture that’s occurring for them, feeling excited and empowered and equipped with all of these amazing characteristics that are going to propel them into the world and hopefully continue to love movement and support themselves instead of needing to self preserve and step away in its entirety of this lifelong love, this lifelong connection. So I have a lot of hope, I have a lot of optimism, and it’s all because of the people that I’ve gotten to meet along the way in the process.
Kara Bazzi (39:34):
That’s exciting. Again, listeners can’t see your face on the screen, but the hope is illuminating from you. I love it. And I feel similarly. I feel really hopeful in a way that I haven’t, I didn’t in my early career. So yeah, it’s exciting. Before we close today, is there anything that you feel like we missed in this conversation that you really want to add?
Katie Steele (39:57):
No. I could talk to you forever. I feel like he could spend more time into the conversation, but I’m so grateful to meet you. Thank you for letting me into your community, and I hope we get to continue to cross paths.
Kara Bazzi (40:10):
Me too. Me too. Well, thank you for sharing, and if you’re interested in purchasing Katie’s awesome book, there will be a link in our show sheets. And if you’re interested in Opal and you want to learn more, please visit us at opal food and body.com. Thanks to David Bozzie for editing, Jack Straw Cultural Center for Sound Engineering, and Aaron Davidson for the Appetite’s Original Music. See you next time.
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