Tiara Williams is a former, Division I Texas Tech heptathlete and a track and field reporter. She was inspired to start the platform Real Talk in January of 2019 because she wanted to gain experience toward her dream career in sports broadcasting. She began to showcase track and field athletes in video interview segments, focusing not just on who they are as athletes, but also on who they are as people. In this episode, Tiara shares about her own struggles with mental health and why she values asking athletes about their mental health. Tiara also speaks candidly about changes she wants to see in track and field, what it means to be a young Black woman in sports broadcasting, and what she represents for Black girls who aspire to similar careers.

Discussed in this episode:

—Tiara’s interview with Sha’Carri Richardson

–Connecting with athletes as real people

–Watching family members struggle with addiction

–Sports as an outlet for family struggles

–Heptathlon

–Tiara’s Texas Tech career

–Power dynamics in track and field reporting

–Asking athletes about mental health

–Post-college mental health struggles

–The connection between money and mental health

–The Magic Boost program

Quotes:

–“It means everything to me to be creative. It means everything. It means everything to know that young Black women are looking up to me. Young, high school Black girls are always in my DMs saying, ‘I want to be a sports broadcaster.’ It means everything to know that I am setting the standard that they will look up to.” -Tiara Williams

–“I like to ask athletes about mental health because we all deal with it. But we all cope with it in different ways. And you never know, your coping mechanism could help someone eles…we can all help each other.” -Tiara Williams

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