DANVERS — Samantha Arsenault Livingstone was an 18-year-old Peabody resident when she won an Olympic gold medal at the 2000 Sydney games with the U.S. Women’s Swim Team in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay. But as she told young Danvers athletes Wednesday night, her road to greatness — and after — wasn’t easy.
“When I stood on top of that podium, a part of me was like, is this it? This is what it’s supposed to feel like?” Livingstone said during a presentation at the Danvers High School field house. “I thought if I just got there, then that inner critic, that little chirping voice that just nags us and points out the ways that we fall short, would go away.
“That’s the myth,” she said.
Like so many other athletes, Livingstone’s mental health wasn’t a priority through most of her prime. She dealt with an injured shoulder that kept her out of the pool during part of college, and she struggled with an eating disorder and depression through much of her career. For a long time, she didn’t feel like she could talk about how she really felt.
That’s why Livingstone started the Whole Athlete Initiative (WAI). Since 2016, she’s toured the country to talk about the importance of mental health — especially when it comes to athletes.
About 40% of teens ask for help when they’re struggling with mental health, Livingstone said. That shrinks to 10% for young student athletes.
“We need to do a better job for all humans, even us adults, as well as helping to figure out what’s going on when it comes to sport,” she said.
Livingstone was brought to speak to student athletes by Speak Up Sports, an initiative started by Danvers High DECA students last year to help support student athlete mental health at DHS.
“It’s just really important to emphasize that you can be successful and you can achieve these big things in sports, but that it’s not who you are when it comes to finding yourself,” said senior Emma Eagan, who cofounded the initiative and is also a student athlete at DHS.
Wednesday’s event was also organized by fellow cofounders and senior DHS athletes Sophie Papamechail and Alex Cotter, who said he struggled with his own mental health after a torn ACL cut his last high school soccer season short this fall.
“I didn’t know how to talk about how I felt, and when I saw what Samantha did, I thought that I would love to learn how to do it (and feel better),” Cotter said. “I think other people should know how to be more connected to themselves.”
Livingstone spoke with coach and student athlete breakout groups Thursday at the school to discuss mental health in sports. It’s conversations like these that help athletes compete and feel their best, she said.
She guided the audience at Wednesday night’s talk through different ways to manage and improve their mental health. This includes centering yourself throughout the day, talking to others about how you feel and remembering that your self-worth shouldn’t be rooted in your sport, academic achievement or career.
It’s also important for adults to take kids’ mental health seriously.
“There’s this generational rift of like, ‘This generation is just weak. They’re fragile snowflakes.’ and we’re missing when we come in with that approach,” Livingstone said. “We’re not seeing our young people who I think are brilliant, capable and fierce.”
Having an adult to talk about her own struggles with mental health changed her life when she was a swimmer at Michigan State University.
Greg Harden, who counseled Livingstone and athletes like Tom Brady during their time in college, helped her recognize why she felt like an imposter in her success, that it was OK to struggle and how to feel better.
He even told her a bit about Brady’s struggles at while he was at Michigan state. At the time, the quarterback was making his debut in the NFL.
“I’m not alone in the struggle. and it’s not just this thing that weak people do to go talk about their feelings,” Livingstone said. “It was absolutely critical for me to know that other athletes, strong athletes, sat in the same chair having these kinds of conversations.”
As Livingstone invested more in her mental health, she started performing better in the arena. She transferred to the University of Georgia and went on to win a national championship with her swim team in 2005.
She hopes other adults give youth of all backgrounds the same kind of attention.
“We as human beings are enough. Period,” Livingstone said. “Asking for help is not a weakness. Letting people see underneath the surface isn’t weakness — it is the bravest thing that we’ll do. Asking for help is a sign of strength and courage.”
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolineEnos.
