BEWARE OF IMPOSTER SYNDROME

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Here's an athlete on a mission to motivate, 22 year old sprinter Leah Bertrand provided words of wisdom to upcoming track and field athletes as part of the N3A's Inspire her initiative. In it she detailed her battles with overcoming doubt and what she is doing to beat the challenge.

Transcript

00:00Female sprinter Leah Bertrand is a problem solver. Since joining Ohio State

00:04University she has become a five-time a Big Ten champion, two-time national 100

00:09meter champion, NACAC under-20 silver medalist and Olympics semi-finalist.

00:14Before signing up to pursue qualifications in health and

00:17rehabilitation science with a minor in nutrition, she didn't know exactly what

00:21destiny had in store. One major thing which took me almost two and a half

00:27years to get over was something called imposter syndrome, which is basically

00:33when you sell yourself short or you tell yourself that you're not good enough in

00:38that kind of way. So my freshman year, which is my first year at college, I

00:43actually did really good. I was able to make personal bests almost every meet. I

00:50made it on the 4x1 team at nationals, which is like a big achievement for

00:56somebody who in their first year. Bertrand made it as far as the world

01:00championships, but she still doubted whether or not she had a place amongst

01:04the elites. My goal was to make the finals, but thinking I seen it out loud

01:09it just didn't sound right. Like that was one of my first big meets. I was like,

01:12how am I gonna make this finals with all these fast people, with Shellyanne, with

01:15this one, with that one. I was just thinking, nah man, like I can't, I don't, and I

01:21started doubting myself. And once the doubt entered, that's when I knew I was

01:26already, I had the wrong mentality. One thing about sports is that you could

01:31train how much ever you want, you could be the hardest working person, but if

01:35your mentality not right, it's not gonna come together. She indicated the Olympics

01:40provided a moment where she was able to overcome self-doubt. Going into this year,

01:45at the Olympics, my goal was to forget, like to pass that, to go past that block

01:52that I had created for myself. And I was like, this time, I'm going, I'm going

01:56further. I want to make the finals again. This year, I was like, I'm going to make the

02:00finals. And going in with that mentality, I fully believed that I was going to do

02:04it. And although I didn't make the finals, I was able to make the semifinals. So I

02:08feel like that, in itself, was a win for me, to be able to overcome those doubts

02:14that I had. Bertrand's journey continues at age 22, as she intends to be the

02:18imposter, taking down the elites on the track. Sergio Lufo, Taste Export.

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