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Laura welcomes professional golfer, Tracy Hanson, to the podcast today. After enjoying a successful All-American College golf career, Tracy went on to enjoy even more success on the Professional Ladies Golf Tour for 15 seasons before retiring in 2009. Within a year of her retirement, she embarked on a new journey, which included unpacking the truth about the harm and abuse she experienced as a child. Today, she joins Laura to courageously share her story and offer sage advice for all listeners.

In this conversation, Tracy relates her history in sports, particularly in golf, and offers details regarding her role now as a counselor. She also shares the story of her abuse from its start of being \u2018groomed\u2019 to finally recognizing it as abuse, and its immense impact upon her life. Along the way she recounts her struggle of wrestling with her identity, the prominent role that her faith has played throughout her life, and how she has become a counselor for others who may be going through what she experienced. She and Laura discuss some organizations that offer help to athletes, including Tracy\u2019s own non-profit, and Tracy offers valuable advice for athletes, parents, coaches, and anyone with similar experiences. So much of today\u2019s episode is centered around a difficult but enormously important topic offering an equally important message delivered by a woman gifted not only with athletic prowess, but with unrivalled strength, perseverance, faith, and courage. This is an episode that needs to be heard by everyone.

Episode Highlights:

\xb7 How Tracy got started in sports and specifically golf\n\xb7 Her college experience and her transition to going professional\n\xb7 Her most memorable golf tournament trip\n\xb7 Tracy\u2019s mindset when starting on the professional tour\n\xb7 Tracy\u2019s faith journey\n\xb7 The abuse that she experienced\n\xb7 What \u2018grooming\u2019 is\n\xb7 https://safesport.org/ resources\n\xb7 Recognizing it as sexual abuse\n\xb7 Wrestling with her identity\n\xb7 Tracy\u2019s advice for others with similar experiences\n\xb7 Her work as a counselor and her motivation to do it\n\xb7 Bringing all of who you are to your sport\n\xb7 Being mind, body, soul, and spirit\n\xb7 How COVID has affected Tracy\u2019s life and ministry\n\xb7 The Faith in Sport Institute\n\xb7 Tracy\u2019s golf experience now\n\xb7 The Tracy Hanson Initiative\n\xb7 Tracy\u2019s parting words

Quotes:

\u201cI\u2019m not sure it was my dream to start with.\u201d

\u201cGolf is just something to something bigger in your life.\u201d

\u201cOne person who started talking to me more about Jesus\u2026also became an abuser in my life.\u201d

\u201cI didn\u2019t understand what was happening, and I didn\u2019t feel safe to tell anybody.\u201d

\u201cIn the context of the coach who started grooming me, I felt and received a lot of those things that I was longing for from my dad.\u201d

\u201cFor athletes or non-athletes\u2026we don\u2019t understand what\u2019s happening because we\u2019re getting some really good things. We\u2019re getting connectedness, we\u2019re getting somebody who really is speaking life into us and who believes in us.\u201d

\u201cThe grooming is part of the abuse.\u201d

\u201cThose hunches need to be followed through. So, that\u2019s where I was missed.\u201d

\u201cMy golf career was just one of those numbing agents\u2026I just tried to perform harder.\u201d

\u201cGod was really gentle with me.\u201d

\u201cI was out there, I was sharing my faith, and I was being the Christian athlete, and yet, so empty inside. And that was the part that people didn\u2019t know.\u201d

\u201cYou\u2019re not alone. You\u2019re not the only one who has experienced something horrific\u2026there is or are people that want to be with you in that pain.\u201d

\u201cThere is somebody\u2026that will believe you\u2026take the risk to speak it out.\u201d

\u201cI think counseling was the hardest and best thing that I\u2019ve ever done in my life.\u201d

\u201cI wanted to help young athletes get the help that I needed in my early 20\u2019s instead of having to wait 20 years.\u201d

\u201cI really just offer myself as a mentor/counselor for really life conversations, and spiritual conversations go, kind of, around that and in and through those conversations as well.\u201d

\u201cUnfortunately, we don\u2019t give athletes the freedom in our culture to be that human person.\u201d

\u201cThere\u2019s so much power in just being able to name what\u2019s true.\u201d

\u201cMy whole desire and purpose is to provide\u2026safe opportunities for athletes to talk about their stories of trauma.\u201d

\u201cIf the stress and anxiety around the sport is outweighing the joy and the playfulness of it, then there\u2019s something out of balance, and\u2026they need to get some help.\u201d

Links:\nThe Pursuit of Gold homepage: http://thepursuitofgold.com/ \nMental Training: https://www.laurawilkinson.com/learn \nLaura\u2019s Social Media:\nInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lala_the_diver \nFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLauraWilkinson

Connect with Tracy:

Website: https://tracyhanson.com/\nThe Tracy Hanson Initiative: https://tracyhanson.com/ministry/