Amber speaks with Haley Hunter Smith, a National Champion and Olympic mountain biker turned pro gravel racer. In this conversation, they discuss how mountain biking saved Haley’s life, providing purpose, presence, and solace as she navigated recovery from a life-threatening eating disorder as a teenager. Haley shares her struggles with existential anxiety and the role sport has played in helping her manage those challenges. As a graduate student studying psychology, she brings an evidence-based approach to her mental game and shares the significance of mindfulness, flow, and agency, highlighting the power of an internal focus and task-oriented mindset in managing pressure. This broad-ranging conversation covers the impact of judgement and emotion on decision-making in sport, the experience of pain and fear, the process of self-acceptance and identity transformation, the importance of a support system, the intersection of mindset and community, the fluency of purpose, and the need for cultural change in sports.

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Mentioned in this episode:

• Haley’s website: https://www.haleyhuntersmith.com/
• Haley on Instagram: @haleyhuntersmith
• Haley’s sponsors:
  • Trek https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/
  • MAAP https://maap.cc/
  • The Feed https://thefeed.com/
  • COROS https://us.coros.com/