Sophia Smith pays homage to her late buddy ahead of World Cup opener

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — United States protector Naomi Girma made headings Tuesday with a effective post she composed in The Players’ Tribune about the significance of destigmatizing psychological health — a story that was driven by the suicide of her close goodfriend and previous Stanford colleague Katie Meyer last year.

Girma, along with fellow Stanford alum Sophia Smith and other members of the American team intending to win the 2023 FIFA Wprophecy’s World Cup, partnered with Common Goal and FOX Sports to emphasize the significance of psychological health throughout this summertime’s competition in Australia and New Zealand.

“We understand direct how numerous individuals, particularly trainee professionalathletes, are havingahardtime in silence,” Girma composed. “And we desire to usage our platform in this substantial minute for something larger than soccer.”

Hours after the post went live, an psychological Smith spoke with the media about how Meyer’s death affected her.

“Any time I talk about Katie, it’s certainly psychological,” the 22-year-old forward informed pressreporters 3 days priorto the Americans satisfy Vietnam in Friday’s opener (9 p.m. ET, FOX and the FOX Sports app). “With whatever coming out today, it kind of brings all those sensations back to the surfacearea. But I feel like I’m in a location where I can talk about it and talk about Katie in a truly favorable light.”

Inside the USWNT, psychological health hasactually been a concern for some time. The gamers talk freely about it. And they’ve taken actions to safeguard themselves — something that is even more vital now, with the international spotlight of a World Cup on them and the included examination and pressure to carryout that comes with it.

“I think a huge thing is leaning on your colleagues and understanding that we’re all in this together,” Smith stated. “Whatever those feelings might be, everybody’s mostlikely felt it at some time.”

One method Smith has attempted to stay focused and not get captured up in what completestrangers on the web may be stating about her is by erasing Twitter from her phone. “Best thing I’ve ever done,” she stated.

In location of social media, she and her colleagues have attempted to discover other, more efficient diversions. Famously competitive in videogames and training sessions, the USWNT group hasactually made a point to shot to stay loose when they’re not on the field or in conferences and video sessions.

For example, Smith is an passionate reader.

“There’s certainly a group book club,” she stated. “I’ve gotten Ashley Sanchez and Trinity Rodman, who were not readers at all, to read now. And like I’m truly proud of that,” she stated to laughter.

Despite the lighthearted exchange, the severity of the topic wasn’t lost on anybody. There’s absolutelynothing amusing about psychological health concerns. Smith and her colleagues understand it, and they desire to honor Meyer by sharing that message every opportunity they get throughout this World Cup.

“It altered the entire method I view life,” Smith stated of losing her goodfriend, with whom she won an NCAA champion in2019 “I now puton’t take things too seriously. I understood that there’s so numerous more crucial things takingplace.

“I think that’s a excellent thing since it puts things into viewpoint,” she included. “[It] simply makes you worth life a lot more.”

Doug McIntyre is a soccer author for FOX Sports. Before signingupwith FOX Sports in 2021, he was a personnel author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports, and he hasactually covered United States guys’s and females’s nationwide groups at numerous FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter at @ByDougMcIntyre.