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The Importance of Mental Health in Youth Athletics

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In addition to being a broadcaster and the founder of Beam Queen Bootcamp, Sam Peszek is an Olympic Gymnast. As an elite gymnast, she was part of the gold-medal-winning American teams at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2007 and was later on selected as a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 2008. At the 2008 Bejing Olympics, the U.S. took home a silver medal. After her Olympic debut, she went on to compete for the UCLA Bruins. At UCLA, Peszek became a 17-time All-American, the 2011 and 2015 balance beam champion, and 2015 all-around co-champion. After retiring from competition in 2015, Peszek was hired as an announcer for the Pac-12 network and went on to found Beam Queen Boot Camp in 2017.

Shelly Goldberg is not only a 3-time NCAA Academic All-American and Former Stanford Gymnast, she is also the current Senior Director at Apple for Mac and iPad Product Design. During her time at Stanford she helped the team to a Pac-10 victory in 2001 with her stability on both the vault and floor events. In 2002, she was selected to the Pac-10 All-Academic First Team. Goldberg graduated from Stanford in 2005 and has since risen to her current role of Senior Director for Mac and iPad Product Design.

Melissa Rinehart is the Head Women’s Gymnastics Coach at the University of Denver and coached the team to a 2021 NCAA Big 12 Championship. Rinehart was a gymnast at the University of Florida from 1989-92, going on to coach in 1993 at the University of Florida and then the University of Michigan from 1994-98. Since 1998, Rinehart has been coaching at the University of Denver leading the team to five team appearances at the NCAA National Championships. In 2019, she was selected as the National Head Coach of the Year and in 2021 led the University of Denver to their first ever Big 12 Conference Championship.

In this video, the importance of mental health and tips for handling mental health struggles in youth athletes is discussed.