Sarah Shulze went to the University of Wisconsin, was on the track and cross country teams, volunteered for the 2020 elections, won academic all-Big Ten honors in 2020 and 2021 for cross country and in 2021 for track, but she couldn’t take it anymore, and at just 21 years old, she took her own life.
Sarah Shulze: Obituary| High School| Track| Did hang herself
Obituary:
The University of Wisconsin campus is mourning the death of a beloved track and cross country star.
The New York Post reports Sarah Shulze, 21, died by suicide on April 13, her family announced.
“Balancing athletics, academics and the demands of every day life overwhelmed her in a single, desperate moment,” Shulze’s family said.
High School:
Sarah Shulze, a runner on the University of Wisconsin’s track and cross country teams and former student-athlete in Ventura County, has died. She was 21.
Shulze was a junior from Ventura County, California who competed in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. She earned academic all-Big Ten honors in 2020 and 2021 for cross country and in 2021 for track.
Track:
Daria Lucchesi, a sports coach and founder of coaching company ProTheory, as well as a former college lacrosse star at James Madison University, says too many college athletes shoulder their mental health struggles in silence.
“There’s a lot of talk around mental performance but not mental health, and it makes it really hard to talk about it because sports are kind of like this aggressive culture,” Lucchesi said.
A 2019 graduate of Oak Park High, Shulze was a star distance runner at her high school. She was named Ventura County Athlete of the Year and earned a scholarship to Wisconsin in 2018.
Did hang herself:
The family described Shulze as a “power for good in the world” who advocated for social causes and women’s rights and was a member of the Student Athlete Council at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
On Friday, the family announced the launch of a foundation in Shulze’s name to “continue to support the causes most important to our Sarah.”
