Part 1 of a 3 part series: Changemakers in Sport
What does it look like for a teenage athlete to step outside the “rules” of diet culture and toxic fitness culture? You’re in luck—tune in to today’s episode of The Appetite, part of our three-episode “Changemakers in Sport” series. In this episode, Hannah Bazzi, an incoming high school senior, speaks honestly and thoughtfully about her relationship with food, sport, and injury—and what it means to navigate these experiences with an informed understanding of diet culture and its impact. Hannah is joined by her mom, Opal Co-Founder and Clinical Director Kara Bazzi, LMFT. Together, they explore Hannah’s journey and the ways she uses her voice to create positive change within her community. Hannah is a true Changemaker in Sport—and we can’t wait for you to hear her story. 
Links:
Our Space in Sport – Aug 30th, Federal Way, WA
Starting Early on Body Wisdom:… – The Appetite – Apple Podcasts
Quick Comebacks: How to Deal w… – The Appetite – Apple Podcasts
Connect with Opal:
Thank you to our team…
Editing by David Bazzi
Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/
Sound engineering by Ayesha Ubayatilaka at Jack Straw Studios
Transcription provided by Rev.com
Kara Bazzi (00:06):
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 Bazzi, co-founder, clinical director, and director of the Exercise and Sport program at Opal, as well as your host for today. Today’s episode is part of a three-part series titled Changemakers in Sport, where we will be interviewing guests that are making a positive impact in the world. On today’s episode, I’m shamelessly bringing in my youngest daughter, Hannah, as a guest, to talk about her experience as a high school athlete who is navigating the world of diet culture and toxic fitness culture while competing in a sport that places high demands on her body. Hannah, who’s entering her senior year in high school, recently gave a talk to seventh grade girls about her journey and relationship to food, body, and sport.
(01:01):
As a young person, she has a lot of insight and development as an athlete that has led her to be a change maker in the community she’s a part of. Welcome, Hannah. Hello.
Hannah Bazzi (01:11):
It’s so good to be here.
Kara Bazzi (01:12):
I’m glad you’re here too. And just for the listeners to know, Hannah was actually on this podcast when she was in fourth grade. So if you’re interested in learning more about Hannah as a young person, you can go back to one of those previous episodes. So Hannah, why don’t you start by giving the listeners a little background about yourself, including some context about your sport history and where you are right now.
Hannah Bazzi (01:35):
Okay. Hello everybody. My name is Hannah and I am going into my senior year at Seattle Prep, like my mom said. So I have grown up and I’ve kind of run my whole life. I started running in fourth grade at Assumption St. Bridget, shout out ASV. And I grew up kind of running there, but I did every sport. I really loved volleyball. I liked basketball. I just kind of liked trying everything and wasn’t really. I didn’t find myself being super competitive, so I didn’t really want to commit to just one thing and I just wanted to have fun doing everything with all my friends. And beyond that, I also did painting and some other stuff and just enjoyed being young and doing all the things. So I ran throughout elementary school and then going into eighth grade, I was kind of deciding what high school I wanted to go to and I ended up choosing Holy Names, which is the school that my sister went to and ran at.
(02:33):
And my dad works at O’Day and so we kind of had some connection. That’s the brother school of Holy Dames, if you don’t know. Shout out O’Day.
(02:43):
I went to Holy Names, ran there my freshman and sophomore year. That was kind of my first time just doing one sport of just doing cross country and track. I loved it a lot. I liked the team a lot. I liked running there, but just kind of was a little bit uncontent or had some discontent with the school. I felt like it didn’t align with who I was as a person and what I wanted out of a high school experience. So I decided that I wanted to start on a new adventure, whatever that looked like. We were looking into some schools and Seattle Prep kind of came up and ended up feeling like a really good fit. So going into my junior year, I started going there and I’ve been going there since and I dealt with a lot of injury my junior year, but I’m finally healthy again.
(03:35):
So now I’m going into my senior year. So that was kind of a long-winded answer, but I’ve grown up running, I’m still running and I’m really excited to go into my senior year.
Kara Bazzi (03:44):
Yeah. It’s a big change. We’ll get into a bit about your injury as well later on in the episode. But to start, the listeners know that are familiar with the appetite’s content, we talk a lot about systemic influences of diet culture that shape our relationship to food, body, and sport. Obviously you were raised in my home where you were very aware of diet culture from a young age. So from your perspective, Hannah, where do you see diet culture and toxic fitness culture within your communities of friends and sport? What are examples of where you see this kind of in everyday life?
Hannah Bazzi (04:18):
Yeah. I kind of remember the first time that. Obviously, so growing up, my mom used to talk about this a lot with my family. And as a young kid, it kind of felt like something that I had heard about, but I hadn’t really experienced. But going into middle school, I started to experience more just kind of diet culture. I remember specifically my eighth grade, I was at a pool. It was like a beach club party and it was our last day of school. I remember me and a couple of the girls had gone up on this jump dock situation and we were all laying down and I remember one of the girls turning and looking at me and being like, “Hannah, you look so toned right now.” I remember being like, “What does that even mean?” It was just shocking to hear that and everyone was like, “Oh my gosh.
(05:05):
Yeah, you look so good. I feel so ugly right now.” I honestly was just a little bit embarrassed because I was like, “Why are they talking about me and my body this way? I don’t even know what they’re talking about.” Then just since then, I think as you get to be an older girl, it’s just something that you experience and come across a lot. I think especially with my friends, I’ve noticed it a lot of people just feeling really insecure in their bodies and kind of normalizing almost habits that are just not healthy for them. So things like people talking about weighing themselves a lot or restricting their eating or not having their period and then having people say like, “Oh, me too. It’s no big deal. We’re all kind of going through that.” But then hearing that and having the knowledge that my mom has given me and that I’ve heard from my family friends and certain people in my sport that have a lot of knowledge and just being like, “Wait, this isn’t the norm.” And then just trying to help them feel seen and heard and not take away from their experience, but also trying to move forward in a more positive way and give them as much as I can, the knowledge that I have and instill that onto them.
(06:25):
And then I think within sport, you get a lot of that of just she looks like a runner. I think I’ve heard that a lot of just putting people in boxes based on how they look. I know I’ve had that a lot with myself and even when the comments can feel positive, they can still have an undertone. One more story and then I will call it a day, but I remember being at a dinner with my friend for her birthday. I think this was freshman year. I remember eating this big bowl of pasta and I remember the parents actually of my friend coming up to me after and being like, “I’m shocked that you eat that much with how you look.” Just hearing that, I was kind of embarrassed. I was like, “Wait, was I not supposed to eat that much?That feels so normal in my family.” And just something that I had never thought about.
(07:13):
So I think there’s just being a teenage girl, there’s a lot that’s put on everybody and having the skills to deal with them, I think with those comments is really important and as much as I can do to give my friends the tools that I’ve been given to deal with those comments so that they’re not internalized.
Kara Bazzi (07:31):
So what are those tools? So how do you not internalize those messages and how do you create a barrier so that you don’t take that on?
Hannah Bazzi (07:42):
I think a lot of the times it’s me almost having a shield around you. I think I’ve talked about with people before, what are healthy thoughts or what are thoughts that we need to listen to and what are thoughts that we don’t need to listen to? And that’s the same with comments of it’s almost, okay, I think about it in this kind of idea of anxiety versus stress and how there’s certain stressors that come with anxiety that’s like, say we see a bear and we’re like, “Oh, I’m scared. There is a bear in front of me, I should be scared.” Versus you are walking and you’re like, “Oh no, what if this hits me?” Kind of thinking about things that are actually happening in front of you versus things that are being said that are being thought that aren’t a real threat. And I think that kind of comes into play with this diet culture of this isn’t a problem, but it’s affecting me as if it is a problem and I just need to look at it and be like, “That is their own insecurity or that is their own way they were raised or just their own ideas and that doesn’t need to affect me because that’s not something that I need to listen to.” So it’s that and then it’s also just, I think, hearing what they’re saying and responding in a way that is positive.
(09:02):
So for example, if they say that to me like, “Oh, you ate a lot for dinner tonight,” whatever, I can be like, “Yeah, I was really hungry. I’m glad I ate all that I needed too.” Just kind of deescalating it and putting them in their place without being negative of just being like, “Yep, I was hungry, that’s what my body needed, and I really enjoyed my meal.” Just kind of shutting it down without engaging it while at the same time not being disrespectful because it really isn’t their fault that they’re saying these things, even though it can feel hurtful. It’s just the fact that they weren’t raised with the knowledge that some people are around food.
Kara Bazzi (09:43):
I love that. And it just made me think of, your response made me think of our episode called quick comebacks.
Hannah Bazzi (09:50):
That was the word I was looking for because
Kara Bazzi (09:52):
I remember you saying that. A quick comeback of just how are you going to respond when people make those comments to you that are really espoused in diet culture. So I think you’re really good. I’ve watched you do that quite often of your quick comebacks with, I’ve seen you do that with family, I’ve seen you do that with friends. So I guess, Hannah, if diet culture, if the rules of diet culture aren’t what is guiding you, what does guide you? How do you decide what to eat? I love to hear both on the food and movement side. How do you decide what to eat? How do you decide what you prefer and when you’ve had enough, et cetera?
Hannah Bazzi (10:31):
Okay. So for me, it’s two things. Let me break it down for you. So the first thing is what I want to eat. So I love food as a lot of people do. And sometimes I want ice cream, sometimes I want pizza, and I try to honor my body because food I think can be such a amazing. I was actually telling this to one of my friends today who was kind of struggling with feeling some concerns around her body and I was like, “Food is just such an enjoyable experience.” I think that eating is so much fun. I think having a meal with people, there’s a community aspect to it all. So a lot of times I just try and honor what I want. And if that’s something that’s going to say I’m having a bad day and I want a cookie, I’m going to eat the cookie.
(11:14):
Trying to enjoy my food as best I can. And then two, just being a runner, I just try and get as much fuel as my body can have because I’ve learned that when you don’t eat enough, even if that’s unintentional or intentional, that affects your performance and that affects how you feel. So sometimes I really want to eat and sometimes that’s really enjoyable and sometimes I don’t want to eat. And the thing that feels the best for me is to not eat. And in those situations I have to be like, no, actually what’s best for me is to eat right now even though maybe I don’t want to. So that, and then also it’s just, I like having a balance. I like having maybe if I’ve eaten mac and cheese the last five days I want a carrot, but just honoring the balance and what I want.
(12:01):
And then on top of that, knowing that I always could use a little bit more and getting that too.
Kara Bazzi (12:08):
And we’ve talked about that on the podcast here too, when it comes to sports is that sometimes there is a role for mechanical eating and we know that a lot of athletes can be unintentionally under fueled because of just the demand and you’re an adolescent, you’re a growing body and the demand is really high. So I appreciate you talking about that part. And that is a place you’ve had to be more thoughtful. Is there anything else that you want to say about places you’ve had to be more thoughtful around food or needed support?
Hannah Bazzi (12:38):
I think that my big thing is I am a very busy person and so I feel like I’m always running from one thing to the next and that’s a whole nother thing that I’m working on. But I think that getting food when you’re on the go, it’s very easy to just forget. And honestly, that’s not intentional, but that just sometimes happens. And so I think really building in the time, waking up five minutes early to grab a piece of toast with some peanut butter on it or just being intentional about packing a lunch when I’m going to something or certain things like that, I think that that’s really important. And so I think I need some help there of just either that means I’m running really behind, I need my mom to make me a breakfast sandwich or something or just kind of going internal and knowing that I’m going to need that.
(13:24):
So yeah, that and then as well as I think iron and protein, I’ve worked on kind of just incorporating those into my diet a little bit more. So that’s not as quick, but that takes more time. And I think that’s really helped me be a stronger, more fueled person because sometimes it’s not, I mean it is more food, but also it’s just increasing the protein and the carbs and the potassium and specifically what you’re eating so that you’re getting not restricting, but you’re getting the foods that’s going to fuel your body the most.
Kara Bazzi (14:01):
Yeah. What would you say, actually we were just having this conversation in a group in Opal this morning about the role of social media around kind of both movement, like fitspiration stuff and also people’s relationship with food and how much messaging is out there and how it can distract from tuning in to your own preferences and wants. Is there anything you’d want to say about how you’ve navigated social media? I know that you’ve been on Instagram, you’ve been on Snapchat, you do engage in social media. So how do you manage all those messages coming at you? Because it’s really hard to do.
Hannah Bazzi (14:39):
Yeah, it’s a lot. I definitely can acknowledge that. And I think for me, it’s really easy to look at people. I get very easily influenced. And for the specific thing that I think that influences me the most is the girl who’s waking up at 7:00 AM and going to get her matcha and then going to the gym and then she makes her avocado toast and then she. And I think that is a very kind of glamorous life and it’s easy to be like, “Ooh, I want to kind of…” It’s almost like a romanticizing thing, like romanticize the way you eat almost in a weird way. And I think sometimes I slip into that, but that’s not realistic. Not every day, especially as a teenager, am I going to have time to make these beautiful meals and have all these amazing drinks and also that’s very expensive.
(15:33):
So I think that just acknowledging that that is what I’m seeing and maybe that is what I’m wanting and sometimes I can make a really pretty meal and enjoy that, but also that’s not going to happen all the time and that’s not realistic. And I think having people that keep you in check with that as well as just not believing everything you see. It’s again, kind of that wall where you can take the information in and you can learn preferences, you can try new things. I’m all for that, but just knowing that it’s not reality all the time and food is meant to be fueling, it’s meant to be enjoyable, it’s not meant to be perfect. So I think that that’s a big thing. And then also, I talked about this with the seventh grade girls, but following people, filtering things. So following the people that you’re seeing that are showing the real side of eating and life and just kind of all of the things.
(16:27):
So for me, there’s this girl named Spencer Barbosa, people probably know of her. And she, I think highlights a really realistic life and just people like that where you’re like, okay, I can see this. I’m seeing her and how she interacts with food and that feels similar to my own life and it’s enjoyable to watch and I feel like it’s not weighing on me. So just having a filter and knowing and not believing everything you see.
Kara Bazzi (16:55):
Yeah. I also appreciated you saying the thing about it being expensive and I think I just want to at least name the privilege that both of us have. We have financial privilege. We also are in thin, we’re thin-bodied people genetically, right? So we’re coming with a lot of privileges. We’re white, all the things. So that is a piece that I know that as being responsible of our privilege when we’re thinking about these topics.
Hannah Bazzi (17:24):
Also, you see, I think within your friends, the people that have the time to make that kind of reality and then what they’re posting on there. I have friends who will post on their private stories or whatever, like, “Look at this meal I made.” And it kind of feels sad that sometimes you won’t be able to do that for yourself. But again, that’s just your specific and life scenario right now. And yeah.
Kara Bazzi (17:52):
Right. Okay. Let’s switch a little bit more to talking about your relationship to sport and movement. Starting with, just start by saying, what do you love about sport? What brings you joy in this sport of cross country and track?
Hannah Bazzi (18:08):
I love cross country. I think that the community has been such a good part for me with sport. I got to run with my sister my freshman and sophomore year, and that was just the best experience of my entire life. Running with her was so much fun. We got so much closer. And I was talking about this with my team, but there’s something about knowing a girl as a training partner and knowing when you need someone to step in, when you’re not feeling so great, when you’re feeling amazing, and having these girls that are celebrating all the wins of this really emotional, really scary thing that we’re all doing together. It’s like this bond that’s just something that you’ve never experienced before, because they’re seeing you when you’re at your most unfiltered, when you’re crying, when you’re throwing up, when you’re celebrating, all of the things.
(18:58):
And so I just think that’s really special. And then as well as just I love working out. I feel like it’s caring for my body and I just really enjoy reaching for a goal. And there’s just a lot of wins. And obviously when you care about it a lot, there can be things that are really disappointing, but when you have other people to go through it with and you’re able to push your body, it just feels like a really big gift.
Kara Bazzi (19:25):
Yeah. Well, speaking of the disappointments, you had a major disappointment this year and that was your injury that ended up lasting for different iterations almost the whole year. So a year of surprise, disappointment, grief, celebration, growth, learning, the whole thing. I don’t know what you want to share with the listeners about that experience, but I would say watching you from my vantage point as your mom and somebody who’s been in the sport for years, I mean, it was all at the same time, heartbreaking, devastating, beautiful, inspirational, all of it. I mean, it was a lot this year. So what would you want to share with the listeners about your experience of injury?
Hannah Bazzi (20:14):
Yeah, there’s so much I could share. So, okay. Back in last August, it was my last day of training alone and the day I was dropping my sister off at college. I was in the weight room and I was lifting weights and I didn’t have shoes on and I had a 40 pound weight fall on my foot. I was out for about all of the cross country season. I came back at the end for five races and was able actually to perform pretty well because of doing a lot of training alone. Cross training. Yes. I was cross training alone. Just had gone to a new school, had never really been injured like this before. I was swimming from eight to nine on a school night. I was driving 45 minutes to get to this zero gravity treadmill to go run for 10 minutes. And one day it was broken and I still drove 45 minutes to get there and 45 minutes to get home.
(21:07):
And I would bike alone, a lot of basements, a lot of dark rooms that I was training in. I would erg. And then on top of that, trying to balance seeing my teammates still doing my schoolwork, showing up for my coach, all these different things. And then came back for those five races, went back to the doctors, was put back in a boot, finally was able to train for track again and then got a stress reaction to my shin. Came back for the last two races of track and then took another break and now I’m finally, I feel like almost healed. So it’s just been a really wild journey, but I think I’ve grown so much and I wouldn’t say I would change anything. I think I’ve gained a lot of resilience and I’ve kind of learned how much strength that I have because I was kind of put in one of the worst situations you could have as a runner and I had to do it alone.
(22:07):
And I have always been someone who’s been very motivated by others and motivated by compliments. I think that’s why also to connect it back to the eating thing, I think it can be hard when you’re getting praised for something that just like external validation is something that’s always been a big motivator for me and I had to really switch and become internally motivated. And I’m just actually really grateful for that because I think that will kind of set me up for my future in college and running later in life. And I actually found a lot of places of community, like at the pool and at all the PT places I went to, they all became my family. So learning how to get put in a bad situation, grow as a person, find new community, still learn to push myself. I got super into swimming. I had these goals every day in the pool of I was going to swim this far and I was still kind of learning that.
(23:06):
And then that was me proving to myself that I could handle it and that I could still be kind of happy without having this big thing be taken away from me. So yeah, it definitely sucked, but I’m really proud of everything that I learned from it.
Kara Bazzi (23:21):
I think it also, from my perspective, revealed that you did have a really big identity and a lot of things outside of your sport. So when I was thinking back to my own injury in college, I could see a big difference between my experience and yours in terms of just really having a lot of other parts of your life you could lean into. And again, it was super disappointing and devastating, but it didn’t crush you. It didn’t crush your sense of self.
Hannah Bazzi (23:51):
And that itself is a hard, it’s definitely still hard, but a positive feeling that I was just proud of myself for having put pieces into my identity that weren’t that. And then being able to lean more into those things was exciting and yeah, new in its own way.
Kara Bazzi (24:11):
I remember one of our low points was going to a sports med doctor and finding out about the stress reaction that was kind of related to your mechanics when you were coming back from your foot. And we were in that doctor’s office, heard that news, devastated, you were managing not crying there in the office. And I mean, it was just one of our hardest moments. And then we came out and we go into the elevator and you were super friendly with this guy that came into the elevator. There was
Hannah Bazzi (24:49):
This old man with a Titleist hat on and I had heard about Titleist because I have friends who golf. Shout out my friends who golf. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, Titleist.” And I was like, “I have someone who’s sponsored by them.” And I was talking to him. And honestly, it was just kind of like an escape a little bit, but it was like, I don’t know. I just –
Kara Bazzi (25:14):
Yeah, it was an escape. And yet to me, it was just this kind of wild moment of you really, I think, brighten this man’s day. And it just showed me, again, I think your character, your community forward personality and just really, not that you had to do. There’s zero pressure to be in a good mood, obviously. You could have been bawling in the elevator and that would have been totally fine. To me, it was one of those moments of like, okay, we just had devastating news that’s real and you just brighten this man’s day. And then we get in the car and you start crying and we’re in the tears, right? So it’s just kind of the beauty of both of those things being alongside each other in life.
Hannah Bazzi (26:04):
Yeah. I remember when I first got injured, my mom told me this is something that stayed with me and I’ve passed on to friends that I have to have, or I don’t have to, but it’s good to have pillars to lean on when everything feels like it’s kind of going south. And I feel like I did a lot of reflection during this time and I learned that that’s for me, my faith, my family, and then my ability to always be kind to others. And all other things can go south, but nobody can take those three things away from me. Literally nothing can change that. And so that was super powerful to me and that stayed with me through so much. And being a transfer, that stayed with me. I could be really struggling with friends. I could be really struggling with my sport. I could be really struggling with whatever, my health, but I have these things and that’s so empowering that I can always lean on one of those things.
(26:58):
And I think that’s a really good way of how I stayed grounded and persevered through something really hard that happened to me.
Kara Bazzi (27:05):
Yeah. I love that, Hannah. Well, you clearly have leadership qualities. Thank you. And you did this talk with the seventh graders at your former school. What are other things that you have done in terms of leadership opportunities or ways that you’ve impacted communities that you’re part of besides being in your, which is really important, being in the relationships that you are, because our impact starts with just the people that we are in community with in our day to day. Outside of that, what else are you
Hannah Bazzi (27:40):
Involved in? There’s a couple things. I think beyond just formal roles, I work at a pool. I’m a swim instructor and a teacher, and I try and be a leader there and foster the next generation of people that are coming in to work there. And then I try and be a leader on my team as best I can for the younger girls on both teams that I’ve been on. And then more formal roles that I have, I’m a link crew leader. I am fostering ninth grade students who are coming in, and I actually just came from that today of just kind of greeting them and bringing them into Seattle Prep. And then the other exciting thing is I’m involved in our space and sport, which is a conference for female athletes in high school. And we are meeting at the end of August. I think it’s August 30th.
(28:32):
And that’s just been such a cool opportunity for me. I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in something like that. And I’m on a panel or group of about 10 really impressive high school girls who do all kinds of different sports. A couple of them are runners, but we meet once a month and we just talk about how to make this event a better community, what we want to see at this event, what talks we think should be, what topics should be addressed in talks at the event, and just kind of give a perspective of a high school girl and what things just kind of go not talked about. And so I know something that’s really we’re going to be diving into in the event is mental health and how mental health comes into play in sports and just mental skills for trying to deal with competing at a high level.
(29:22):
So yeah, I’m super excited for that. I’m going to MC the event. So if anyone’s listening and is in the greater Seattle area, it’s in Tacoma High School and it’s going to be such a cool event and there’s so much to learn. It’s honestly just a great opportunity that I feel really blessed to be a part of because it’s just all these amazing leaders and speakers who are coming in and sharing with all of these girls. And it’s probably going to be a lot of info that we don’t get to hear a lot and that’s going to really transform everybody’s sport experience. So that’s just a couple things, but I I’m always looking for new opportunities. I love leadership opportunities and yeah, I like exercising my leadership skills.
Kara Bazzi (30:08):
Yes. And we will have the link in the show notes for our space and sport, which is at Federal Way High School on August 30th.
Hannah Bazzi (30:15):
Please come.
Kara Bazzi (30:16):
I want to see everybody’s
Hannah Bazzi (30:17):
Faces and I will maybe give a shout out to anyone who’s heard it on the pod.
Kara Bazzi (30:25):
Okay. To wrap up this conversation, Hannah, I’m going to end with some quick questions. What is one word of affirmation you have for athletes that are listening to this podcast?
Hannah Bazzi (30:39):
Okay. This is for athletes and also just people in high school and also just people in general. I think my biggest thing is be open. I think that that’s something that I’ve really had to learn. Be open to being on a new team if your team isn’t working. Be open to taking the rest day. Be open to switching up what you eat if it’s not working. Be open to the new friend on your team. I think when we switch our mentality from, I need to train like this every day, I need to eat like this every day. This is the only people that I’m going to interact with on my team and just actually learn our own preferences. Maybe this is the group of people that I actually like hanging out with and we don’t need to always fit everybody’s needs, but I think that when we’re open and we just don’t have a fixed mindset, we have a growth mindset to the world around us.
(31:29):
I think that’s when the really true, amazing athletes come out and that’s when you’re able to be a role model for other athletes because they can look to you and just be kind of amazed by how openly you’re embracing all these different things. And then when something goes wrong or when something goes amazing, you are able to just be so grateful for it because you know that that was something that you made happen. So just keeping your eyes open and seeing it all and then deciding how you want to move forward. And maybe that means that this actually isn’t the sport you want to do or that you want to do something else and that’s okay. So learning yourself and learning what you want.
Kara Bazzi (32:11):
I love that. That’s awesome. And my last quick question, who is your biggest role model, sport positive role model and why?
Hannah Bazzi (32:21):
Oh my gosh, I have so many. It’s hard to answer. Okay. I’m going to go two. I’m going to go Sydney McLaughlin Larone and then Parker Valley. And okay, quick ones on each. Sydney McLaughlin is the most locked in runner I’ve ever seen in my entire life. She is very led by God. She’s led by her faith and she gets on that starting line and she tunes out the world. She is just focused and she’s ready to go and she performs every time and she’s the most humility of one of the athletes of any athlete that I’ve pretty much ever seen. But every day when I have a race and I’m going onto that start line, I’m like, I want to be Sydnee McLaughlin. I want to be so tough and I want to just kind of tune out all the noise and just perform for myself and perform for God, which is what she does.
(33:12):
And so I think that’s really beautiful. And then Parker Valbe is fun and bubbles and a good time. And I think it’s good to have a mix of knowing when it’s time to be focused and knowing when you just need to not take things so seriously because sport is meant to be something that’s really fun. And a lot of us are athletes that are pushing ourselves really hard and we have really big goals and everything feels really big and noisy. And I think returning to the fun and returning to the silliness of it all can really be helpful and that’s really been helpful for me. So when I’m doing a hard workout, I’m going to my last rep. Sometimes I just break out a couple dance moves because that’s what I need to just know that it’s not that serious and go up to someone that I never met before.
(33:55):
Have a weird conversation. Maybe it’s awkward, maybe they don’t want to talk, but it’s you taking things less seriously and again, just leaning into the openness of it all. So those are my two role models. I love them a lot and yeah.
Kara Bazzi (34:08):
Love it. Hannah, is there anything you didn’t get to say that you want to say before we wrap this up? Do you feel like we covered everything you’d want to share?
Hannah Bazzi (34:16):
Thank you for having me on the podcast. I love my mom. She’s the best. And everyone come to our space in sport and you made it to the end. Thank you for listening. Hopefully I’ll be back soon. And if you want to, you can go check out my fourth grade podcast to see then from now.
Kara Bazzi (34:31):
Yeah. Well, thank you Hannah for coming. You are a change maker. I know I’m biased as your mom and I think most people in your life would say you’re a change maker.
Hannah Bazzi (34:43):
Thank you. All
Kara Bazzi (34:45):
Right. If you are interested in oat ball and want to learn more, please visit us at opalfoodandbody.com. Thanks to David Bazzi for editing, Jack Straw Cultural Center for Sound Engineering and Aaron Davidson for the Appetite’s original music. See you next time.
