“Look for Joy,” said Karin Von Berg Noyes, Middlebury’s first female All-American in the 3,000m and 5,000m. Von Berg Noyes reflected on her experience as a female athlete at a period when Title IX was not in place.
Tracey Thompson Turner was the very first women track & field athlete at Middlebury College. She has held the school’s 100m record for over 42 years.
Her reflection was not dissimilar to that of many female athletes competing in the NCAA today: “Running definitely made me into a happier person. Running was very much a part of my identity, and as I graduated from college, I had to figure out who I was without it.”
According to an NCAA survey, 44 percent of former athletes struggle to find meaning after retiring from sports. This struggle has been dubbed “identity foreclosure” by psychologists; it is the psychological equivalent of losing a loved one.
In sports, you have to do a lot of soul-searching and digging deep, and that is a very valuable thing for people to have, especially for women, to have that confidence that comes from both success and failure in sports, Tracey Turner, Middlebury College’s first female track & field athlete elaborated.
Von Berg Noyes attended the University of New Hampshire for her first semester, where there were no women’s athletics at all. “Running was such an important part of my identity for me, and I didn’t want to give it up just because there was no women’s team,” she explained. By her second semester at Middlebury College, she and Turner were the only two female competitors on the track and field team.
Turner, who has held the school’s 100m record for nearly 42 years, believes mental toughness is an integral aspect of one’s personality. Sports-related confidence and strength have the potential to empower you as a person indefinitely.
Letting yourself discover who you are outside of the athlete is a vital stage in growing up, Von Berg Noyes reflected.
Turner and Von Berg Noyes began their careers out of a passion for the sport, paving the way for future generations of female athletes. One of the most essential lessons we can learn as young female athletes are to “look for joy,” to build a support system, and to remember that mental health and well-being are crucial aspects of both sports and life.
