On December 8th, 2019 Katie Meyer seemed like the happiest person on the planet after leading her Stanford Cardinals to the national championship. That day the smile was so big on her face that you would never have guessed 3 years later we would be saying goodbye. 

On March 1st, 2022 Katie Meyer, Senior Goalkeeper, for the Stanford Cardinals was found unresponsive in her dorm room, and later that day it was later reported that Katie was pronounced dead by suicide.

Meyers was dealing with a reported disciplinary action, and that is being reported as one of the reasons for her suicide.

College athletes are tough people physically mentally and emotionally. They are taught to believe in not having ups and downs and not having bad days like the rest of us.

What is staggering is that we are so blinded to see the pressure and how much stress is on college athletes. For example, former USC volleyball player Victoria Garrick said recently in a TED Talk that not everything is what is seemed on the inside of college athletes

Garris stated, “I remember during water breaks I would run to the bathroom and just sob because I wanted the day to stop.” She would do anything for a break.

She goes on to say “ I remember a few times that I was biking and I thought, you know if this car accidentally hit me, that would stop my week, that would give me the break I so badly needed.”

What is even more staggering is the number of college athletes who go through a mental illness. Victoria Garrick created a survey of college athletes, and 69% of the surveyed athletes go through some sort of mental illness, and only 10% of them seek help.

College soccer player Kylee Bennett thinks time is the hardest part of being a college athlete. Bennett says “time just the sport takes a lot of time and just trying to balance everything”. 

Katie Meyer was an amazing young talented woman whose life ended too soon, and we as a society have to be better at asking the right questions and making people feel loved. We as a society expect perfection from student-athletes, yet we should care about them more as a person not just as an athlete.  

Photo Credit: The New York Post