\u201cHosting this event during WNBA All-Star Weekend was about more than celebration\u2014it was a statement,\u201d Barry said. \u201cAthletes like Caitlin Clark are redefining what strength, focus, and resilience look like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark opened up about how she prioritizes both her physical and mental health while navigating a high-pressure profession in the public eye. \u201cObviously I love playing basketball, but it can be stressful having so many eyes on you all the time, and during the season, you\u2019re just going game to game to game,\u201d she said. That\u2019s why she makes sure to enjoy some restorative downtime with her teammates during their travels, even if that\u2019s just going on an evening walk or finding a restaurant to try. Her other favorite way to unwind when she has time: playing golf, which she\u2019s eager to get back to post-injuries. \u201cThis is the first time I haven\u2019t felt like a young body that can run around and sprint every day and just continue to do that,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing a professional athlete, you really have to take care of both your body and your mind\u2014it\u2019s been a journey learning about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s included regularly opening up to a professional about how she\u2019s feeling. \u201cWe have a sports psychologist on our staff who I sometimes meet with multiple times a week, to not only talk about basketball but other things in life, and that\u2019s something that\u2019s been important to me over the course of my career,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t just talk about things that stress me out but also the joys in my life, and that\u2019s always a good reminder and reset for me.\u201d She\u2019s also grown to understand the importance of turning to family, friends, her coach, and her teammates for support. \u201cWhen you have an athlete or role model you look up to, it\u2019s easy to see them as always happy and living a glamorous life, but it\u2019s not always like that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe go through difficult things too, and being able to lean on people and tell them your frustrations or that you\u2019re not OK is really important.\u201d Another mental-health outlet: Clark has a longtime pre-game ritual of journaling. \u201cIt makes me really intentional about what I want to accomplish and is a good reset if I\u2019m feeling nervous or anxious about the game, to kind of wipe that away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s event\u2014which featured healthy snacks, a skills-and-drills session with a professional coach, Pop-A-Shot, and custom \u201c99\u201d T-shirt-making\u2014also included a fireside chat between two other big names in sports whose lives have been impacted by breast cancer: ESPN SportsCenter anchor and breast-cancer survivor Hannah Storm<\/a> and Juju Watkins<\/a>, University of Southern California guard, who lost her grandmother to breast cancer in 2019. \u201cIt\u2019s so important for women to take the time to put themselves and their health first,\u201d Watkins said. She recalled a time when a girl came to one of her games with a poster with two check boxes on it: beat cancer, and meet Juju. \u201cShe saw me as an inspiration in some way, but I was like, \u2018You\u2019re literally a superhero standing in front of me.\u2019 This topic is so personal to me because of my story with my grandmother. It\u2019s so important to spread the word and the message that even though you can\u2019t necessarily prevent cancer, you can get ahead of it.\u201d Storm added some of her own perspective as a recent cancer survivor. \u201cIf you find your cancer early\u2014which happened to me last year\u2014you can have up to a 99 percent survival rate. That\u2019s why it\u2019s really, really important to do that testing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n