Rachael Popcak
Episode 50
13 JAN 2020
A competitive figure skater from the time she was eight years old through college. She is the founder/director of the Saint Sebastian Center for Performance Excellence. She is a licensed therapist with advanced training in Sports and Performance Psychology and has developed programming for the likes of Robert Morris University Basketball, the Pens Elite Hockey Team, and Franciscan University Athletics, among others. Through Trinity Sports Medicine she is also the referral source for athletes seeking mental health services.
Notable guest quotes:
“I was able to kind of take those bad performances and say, ‘Okay, what can I learn from it and move forward,’ and also, really, give it to God too.”
“My identity didn’t really ride in that. Sure, it was nice… to win or to do well, but it certainly wasn’t my defining characteristics for myself.”
“I was looking for a (college) that would continue to kind of foster my faith development, my faith life.”
“It’s a way for me to kind of talk to God without using words and just kind of praise Him through my body, which, kind of the idea of the theology of the body.”
“God created us and we can learn more about ourselves through how our bodies work, and dance and figure skating certainly allow that opportunity for the complete awareness of your body.”
“God is very close to me when I’m dancing or figure skating.”
“God created us each to be those unique and unrepeatable people.”
“Certainly, a score in a game or those marks on a sheet that says, This is how well you did, can feel as though somebody else is deciding who I am and what I have to offer. But no one else can decide that besides me and God.”
“I think there’s many ways that we can really strive to live out those corporal works of mercy.”
