On March 2, 2022, Katie Meyer, a soccer and student for Stanford university, ended her life.

From this many questions have risen: photo of the soccer player who killed herself after scoring the winning goal for her team.why did she do this? What was her motivation? Did she have a secret? Was she under too much pressure, and this was a result of her anxiety?

Meyer, a senior, who helped secure a 2019 NCAA Championship for her university, was found dead in her dorm room, according to the school (CNN News).

According to Katie’s mother, the loss of her daughter the last few days have been like a nightmare (CNN News).

Katie’s mother says she didn’t see this coming, stating, “[Katie] was excited, and had a lot on her plate, and she had a lot going on, but she was happy, she was in great spirits” (CNN News).

So you can only imagine the shock her mother had felt when she got the call that her daughter was found dead in her dorm room.

Gina Meyer, Katie’s mother, acknowledged the pressure her daughter had to be perfect, possibly inducing anxiety for the young soccer star (ABC News). This anxiety is the only thing she can think of that could have led to Katie’s turning point –  this, and an incident that happened on campus (CNN News).

The incident is unclear what happened, but it is known that Katie had defended a teammate and was facing disciplinary actions for it. Could this have possibly triggered something.

This leaves us with more questions: is there more to the story we do not know, or is this an anxiety attack gone wrong? Did she find there was nothing left for her here?

I definitely think there’s more to the story, if not, there has to be more,”(Kylie Tsai 10).

Stanford issued a statement saying they are devastated by the loss of Katie Meyer, and should have done more to prevent her death.

Cases of depression and anxiety have increased more than a quarter within the past year (Scientific American). After all, it has been a stressful year, especially with COVID-19. Schools know their students are under pressure they have never been through before – where were the resources for Katie? So she could talk to someone or even get help?

What do you think? Why do you think she did it? Was the pressure of being perfect too much or did she have a secret?