Team USA’s Jake Petts is inspiration for post-retirement mental health message, surprise return originally appeared on The Sporting News Click here to add Sports News as your go-to source.
It doesn’t matter whether Team USA snowboarder Jake Petz wins a medal in Friday’s halfpipe competition.
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He is already an inspiration.
Petz’s story is a remarkable one.
In fact, he retired from the sport in 2020. He competed in the 2018 Olympics as a teenage phenom, but was devastated when he suffered a concussion in 2019 and then lied about it.
“When I went back, I had symptoms all over my body,” Petz told Olympics.com. “Headaches, dizziness, nausea, all of that. At the time, I never understood the impact that a severe brain injury could have.”
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By 2020, he retired due to mental health reasons.
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“The reason I retired stemmed from losing faith in myself,” Petz told USA Today. “But it also had a lot to do with the mental health issues I was dealing with. Like doubt, negative spirals, rumination, depression. I had too much to do, too much anxiety.”
However, he decided to make a comeback in this Olympics.
Then he shocked everyone by reaching the finals in the men’s halfpipe competition.
Once you get to the finals, anything can happen.
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However, Petz didn’t pay much attention to this. At the press conference after the qualifiers, he actually took the microphone and asked the media if there was one more thing he could say.
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“I think it’s important to try to find gratitude in your life and believe in yourself,” Petz said, via USA Today . “I think, in my own way, I’ve been through a lot… When you do go through those hard times, if you do lose hope and lose faith in yourself, you can find it again, you will find it again. You have to keep pushing.”
Petz found a way to keep himself going, and now he’s back on the sport’s biggest stage.