Paralympic Athlete Katie Walker discovered the Paralympic Movement in 2013, competing in Para track & field from 2013-2016. In 2020, she found her passion for indoor cycling, making the U.S. Paralympic Cycling Team in 2022. Katie has been an AFH Athlete since 2021 and is passionate about representation in sports.
What has your experience been as an athlete with a disability?
I grew up playing able-bodied sports, softball/baseball and basketball, from age 5-20. I then transitioned to training for the Paralympics at age 25-present.
You may fail or find it difficult to adapt in the beginning, but be persistent and don’t give up if it’s what you want to do. It will get easier with time.
Katie Walker
Who has been your biggest support?
Currently, U.S. Paralympics Cycling is providing support. In addition, my coaches and teammates have all been hugely supportive. Growing up, I did not have a ton of role models who looked like me. I did, however, find inspiration from Jim Abbott at an early age. I think because of his exposure, I gained confidence knowing I could also play baseball (and play well) even though I was missing my left forearm/hand. In addition, I think because my coaches had awareness of him, they were better able to coach an athlete who had a similar disability.
How can athletes at all levels support their peers with disabilities in sports?
Keep an open mind and be patient. Don’t be scared to ask questions or offer support if that is what you are feeling. Be accepting, encouraging and respectful.
Why do you think it is important to celebrate differences?
Celebrating differences spreads awareness and increases exposure to what may have been considered fearful or shameful. With greater exposure and awareness comes more knowledge surrounding those differences.
Knowledge dispels fear, and when fear is diminished, understanding and acceptance come into existence.
Katie Walker
What do you think will help raise awareness and inclusion when it comes to disability in sports?
I think continuing to increase the exposure of the Paralympic Movement will increase awareness and inclusion of disability in sports.
In this special edition of our Athlete Spotlight, Benjamin Raspberry reflects on his time at aHistorically Black College and University (HBCU).
Photos courtesy of Benjamin Raspberry and Gaiter Sports.
What is your name, school, and sport?
My name is Benjamin Raspberry and I attend the illustrious Clark Atlanta University. I play basketball and run Cross Country as a student-athlete here.
Why did you decide to attend an HBCU?
I decided to come back home to Clark Atlanta because of the family environment and overall opportunities it gave me. You can always find yourself networking, eating different food from your peers, and enjoying amazing experiences.
In what ways does your sports team integrate into your school’s community through service?
Family. I think that is the one thing that we integrate into the community. That’s always been the one thing I love about Clark Atlanta. No matter the good or the bad, you have a family to come to and rely on. From my experience, it’s always showing love, taking pictures with kids, and dancing with the community, serving food, or just having important conversations to impact Atlanta and our University.
Giving back is the least we can do and there is so much more that we can bring to the community. Focusing on the bigger picture is what I and my team members value.
Benjamin Raspberry
Who is a professional athlete you look up to and why?
Kawhi Leonard & Damian Lillard. I picked these athletes because of their quiet personas and “actions speak louder than words” personalities. They do a lot for the community, but they allow other people to shine because the people brought them up and made them who they are today.
How does being an athlete help you give back to your community?
Being an athlete helps me to be a mentor to the next generation. I was fortunate enough to be a ranked athlete in Georgia and was able to give advice or take pictures with kids just to make their day. I know what it’s like to see and look up to an older player. To move, act, and carry yourself the way that the mentor carried himself. For me, those guys were Brandon Robinson, Colin sexton, and Jaylen Brown.
What are your career aspirations?
I want to be a professional basketball player, but every athlete has several backup options. Other options for me are an FBI Agent, successful entrepreneur for my clothing brand ( FLO – Family, Love, Opportunity), and the last option would be to work on an NBA marketing team.
What would your advice be to other student-athletes considering attending an HBCU?
My advice to future students wanting to attend an HBCU is to do your research. Get all the financial aid you can possibly find, network with faculty & staff early, and get involved early as well.
The perfect word for my experience is probably legacy. Wanting to leave your mark is the best way to go to the next chapter of your life once graduating.
Benjamin Raspberry
Hear from other AFH University student-athletes talk about their experiences attending an HBCU in the first episode of our HBCU Panel Series below!
STEM Leader, Philanthropist and Olympic Gold Medalist
Katie Ledecky is the most decorated female swimmer of all time with seven individual Olympic gold medals and 19 World Championship titles, owning 18 out of 20 of the fastest 1500m freestyle times. She has prioritized community service and giving back throughout her career, earning Athletes for Hope’s 2022 Community Hero Award for her work in communities across the United States.
What inspired you to give back to your community and use your platform for good?
It is important to me to be able to give back to my community, inspire others and be a positive force in the world. As a young swimmer growing up, I never imagined I would be in a position to make a difference. Now, I really try to embrace the opportunities that I have, whether it’s in my community or around the country and even around the world, to try to inspire young athletes or young adults to dream big, go for their goals and to find the things that they’re passionate about and be the best that they can be at those things.
It’s one thing to be recognized for my accomplishments in the pool. But it’s really special to be recognized for what I do outside of it.
Katie Ledecky
When was the first time you got involved in community service?
I got involved in community service after I went to my first Olympics at age 15. When I got back from London I had a lot more opportunities to give back. One of my first visits back in Maryland after winning my first gold medal was to Walter Reed where I met with the Wounded Warriors.
I’ve found that there’s really a power to the gold medal. It can really light up someone’s face. And so if I can make someone smile on any given day, that makes me smile, makes me happy.
Katie Ledecky
What area of service are you most passionate about?
I’m really passionate about education and I love speaking to young students about the importance of education. I work with Panasonic and Discovery Education on an equal-opportunity STEM program called STEM Forward that encourages young students to get involved in science, technology, engineering and math.
Any opportunity I have in life to inspire young kids to pursue their passions, especially in STEM education, I’m going to take it. Whether students use STEM skills for better problem-solving or critical thinking in life, or for a future career, it’s important that they have equal access to help propel them forward.
Katie Ledecky
What are some other community service initiatives you are involved in?
I am a huge advocate for teaching others how to swim and making sure that as many young kids learn how to swim as possible because the drowning rate is still way too high. I enjoy visiting children’s hospitals whether it is in-person or a virtual visit. I also support organizations like Bikes For The World and the Wounded Warrior Project as well as Shepherd’s Table.
I try to help out in my community as much as I can. I think all athletes, no matter the level that they’re at, have the opportunity to give back and to help others.
Fijian Basketball Player Joshua Fox on the Importance of Giving Back
Fiji native Joshua Fox played college basketball at UC Davis before playing professionally across both Europe and Australia. Joshua has also been given the opportunity to represent his home country of Fiji in international competitions. Currently, Joshua is transitioning from being a professional athlete, to a retired athlete and is focusing his work on creating a positive impact in his native county of Fiji.
What was the first moment you realized the importance of using your platform to give back?
There were two occasions that truly stuck out to me. The first was seeing my mom pack and send things back to Fiji despite us not having much. The second was kids and adults messaging me from Fiji. I never realized the impact and reach I had on people back home. It became clear that I have more influence than I could have imagined.
How do you balance being a professional athlete and participating in service?
The balance is similar to when you have your practices and workouts. You organize your schedule to make time to give back to your community.
Giving back not only allows you to chase your passion for helping others, but it gives you a needed escape to get away from thinking only about yourself.
Joshua Fox
What has inspired you when giving back to your community?
I was inspired by all the people who helped my family and I when we first arrived in the United States. This helped us get our footing and once we did, my mom started sending supplies and money back to the communities in Fiji.
I am blessed to have what I have and I am lucky enough to give back to Fiji.
Joshua Cook
What is your advice to other athletes across all levels of sports who are looking to get more involved in community service and giving back?
Just start. Like everything else you have in life once you start, you gain experience, knowledge, and momentum. Do not worry about how big or small the impact is. Any impact that helps someone is incredibly positive. Enjoy it and make friends with other volunteers and people within the communities you are helping.
What does the future of your charitable involvement/advocacy look like? What are your long-term goals?
My long-term goal is to create a nonprofit focused on giving back to Fiji. I want to help change and push the country forward by being able to give back on a bigger more impactful scale. At the moment I have been focused on clothes, school & work supplies, non-perishables, and shoes.
Do not worry about how big or small the impact is. Any impact that helps someone is incredibly positive
Cat is a former U.S. National Team member for Open Water swimming as well as a member of the 2017 World Championship team where she competed in the 25-kilometer event. Currently, she is a swimmer for Rutgers University as well as a Whole Being Athlete Ambassador and a head Campus Captain for The Hidden Opponent. After earning her bachelors degree in Social Work at Rutgers, Cat is now working to earn her MSW degree.
There is no doubt that failure, injury, illness and other widely-recognized negative experiences that plague many athletes often have drastic consequences on the mental well-being of those they affect. Although these unfortunate events can greatly impact an athlete’s mental health and identity, these trials are relatively societally recognized and expected to cause an athlete pain. The idea that success in one’s sport can negatively affect one’s mental health, identity, and love for the sport they compete in is not as commonly discussed.
In my personal experience, the sudden high levels of success I reached as a swimmer played a large role in my battle with mental illness, burnout, and identity as an athlete.
Cat Salladin
When I first made the National Team in 2017, I couldn’t have anticipated the pain that I would experience as a result of the new heights I had reached. Going into the qualifying meet, I hadn’t expected to qualify for World Championships; in fact, it wasn’t even on my radar or in my mind as any sort of goal. I was at the qualifying meet simply because I enjoyed swimming and was excited to be at my first Open Water National Championships.
When I learned that I had qualified for World Championships in the 25k Open Water event, my very first thought was “I have to make it next year, too.” My immediate reaction wasn’t joy, elation, excitement, or pride – it was dread, pressure, and the sickening need to continually live up to my own accomplishments for the rest of my career.
The minute I signed my name on the opt-in sheet for Worlds, I knew that the rest of my swimming career would never be the same.
Cat Salladin
The amount of stress, pressure, and anxiety I felt that summer was crushing. I felt like I didn’t belong on the National Team; I felt inexperienced and young and afraid. On my first trip, I broke out in stress hives all over my body because I was so nervous and was putting so much pressure on myself.
After Worlds when I began to experience the effects of overtraining syndrome and a mysterious shoulder injury that went almost two years disregarded by coaches and myself alike, my success loomed over me like a dark cloud. The oppressive weight threatened to strangle me every time I stepped foot on a pool deck, and, often, it succeeded. My hyperfixation on figuring out how to make the National Team again and live up to the version of myself I’d created in 2017 was constantly at the forefront of my mind. My identity as an athlete and as a person became wrapped up in my ability, or lack thereof, to swim fast.
Because of this identity issue that began as a direct result of the success I was handed, I was unable to cope when setback after setback threatened to derail my career entirely.
Cat Salladin
One would think that facing a severe shoulder injury and eventual surgery, emotionally abusive coaches, overtraining syndrome, an MS scare, transferring schools, a global pandemic, contracting COVID three separate times, and battling Long COVID for over a year would be more likely to top the list of events that have plagued my swimming career the most in the past five years since my stint on the National Team. However, I firmly believe that this is not the case.
Yes, these extremely painful experiences that resulted in many emotional and mental consequeses played large roles in my struggle with swimming. However, at the root of all of these trials is one thing: success. The pressure I placed on myself and the expectations put on me by others as a direct result of my success are the things that have derailed my career the most. My mental health suffered greatly under the weight of my own accomplishments. And, for the past five years, I have eaten, slept, and breathed one goal: to make the National Team again and to prove that I can do it.
The problem is, I know what success really looks like; I know what success did to me
Cat Salladin
As the years have gone by, and I’ve worked to untangle the pain and trauma of my experiences in the sport of swimming over the past five years since World Championships, I’ve realized that there’s a large portion of me that only wants to remake the team because I feel like I should want to remake the team.
I’ve heard very little discussion about the mental health consequeses of success and the lack of want of success as a athlete. After all, athletes are always supposed to be striving for the next big goal; they’re supposed to want to be the best. But, when you realize that success can be more painful than failure and can have a larger negative impact on your love for the sport and your mental health in general, it seems much less appealing.
Yes, it is extremely painful that I have not lived up to the version of myself that I was as a 17-year-old. It’s heartbreaking that I’ve spent the past five years of my career in the sport that I’ve loved since the minute I touched the water scrambling to accomplish anything that could make me seem like I’m not a failure.
Success has haunted me to the point of disdain for the sport I used to enjoy just for the sake of swimming.
Cat Salladin
Now as I’ve realized this and that success can be so much more painful than it’s worth, I’ve begun the long process of healing my relationship with the sport and working to enjoy the simple act of swimming.
As my career is likely coming to an end after this season (unless something changes), my definition of success in the sport has changed. I’m working to hold onto the idea that success to me is no longer remaking the National Team or going best times again; instead, my definition of success is reclaiming my love for the sport and finding my identity as a person and not just as an athlete. My success robbed me of joy in the sport for so many years, and, while the process is grueling and painful, I know that I have to work on my identity and idea of success in order to end my career happy and enjoy the sport. If I’m able to do that, I know that at the end of my career, although I may still be sad that I never made another team, I can rest in the fact that I did end my career successfully.
Olympian Emily Cook on the Importance of Giving Back
Emily Cook is a nine-time World Cup medalist, earning three gold, one silver, and five bronze and qualified for four Winter Olympics. She created “Visa Champions Creating Champions”, a mentoring program during which Olympians from a variety of winter sports worked with youngsters in the community and was a mentor with Classroom Champions for many years.
What inspired you to give back to your community and use your platform for good?
I was raised by my father and he led by example when I was growing up. No matter how busy he was, he always found a way to contribute to and to engage in our community. To this day, my dad spends multiple days per week at the National Ability Center in Park City working with children and adults in their equestrian program, which provides Adaptive Horseback Riding (you can see his photo with one of the participants here) and Equine Assisted Learning (EAL).
What are some of the activities you’ve participated in (or led) within your community in terms of service?
While I’m currently working as an executive at Eminent Series Group, I most recently spent the bulk of my days working with Classroom Champions (CC) as their Athlete Mentor Manager. CC works with schools to provide inspiring Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum and mentorship programs to improve engagement, build growth mindsets, and inspire positive classroom culture. I loved getting the chance to work with our athlete mentors everyday to support each of them in getting the chance to consistently make a difference for children.
I loved for Classroom Champions and every athlete who has come through as a mentor has made a lasting impression on me. It is such an incredible thing to see the impact that each mentor has on the students and teachers that they work with.
Emily Cook
What was the first moment that you realized the importance of using your platform to give back?
In 2002, when I was injured prior to the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, I began to recognize that I wanted to expand my impact beyond athletics. Throughout the three years that I spent working to get back to my sport, I had the chance to connect with my community in a very rewarding way. I worked with the athletes I knew from the 2002 games and my sponsor Visa to connect them locally with young athletes in the community and what I saw from that made me simply want to do more. So, I got involved everywhere I could to help kids learn the lessons I had learned growing up in sport. It was around that time that I connected with Athletes for Hope, Right to Play, the Women’s Sports Foundation and Kids Play International and once Classroom Champions was created, I joined there as a mentor. I know that during that time I got as much out of participating with these organizations as the children we were working with.
One of my biggest goals is to get more and more athletes connected with students through [organizations like] Classroom Champions because I know first hand the difference it makes everyday both for the athlete and for the students and teachers they get to work with. To be honest, it makes a pretty big difference for me everyday as well.
Emily Cook
How did you balance being an Olympic athlete and participating in service?
While I was an athlete, I found that having service focused projects in addition to training and competing helped me to keep things in perspective and enhanced my time on the aerial hill. Having a platform as an athlete and using that for good helped me to feel like what I was doing everyday made a difference. I would say that participating in Classroom Champions as an athlete and working with Athletes for Hope while I was not on the hill made me a more successful athlete overall and I am thankful for the opportunity to provide that space for other athletes today through my job.
What is your advice to other athletes across all levels of sports who are looking to get more involved in community service and advocacy?
My advice for athletes looking to get more involved is to connect with the athletes who you know are out there making a difference in the communities that you are passionate about. Ask them questions about what they love about the organizations they work with or how they have taken the initiative to start their own ways of contributing. There are so many ways to make an impact and to me that is your sport legacy.
I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to learn valuable life lessons through participating in sport for so long and I love getting the chance to pass on those lessons.
Emily Cook
I will always be involved in giving back in the sports world, it is so deeply ingrained in who I am.
