The Gold Medal of Recovery with Carrie Steinseifer Bates

In this week's podcast Coach Blu speaks with Carrie Steinseifer Bates, a 3-time Gold Medal Olympic Swimmer having competed in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles California. Listen as she describes life just below the waterline, growing up in an alcoholic home, and how she used the freedom of the pool to escape the world, discovering the water as a safe place where she would work out her fears, frustrations, and a good place to work out emotions because “No one can see you cry under the water”.

Following her 1984 Olympic success, Carrie missed qualifying for the 1988 Olympics. As that chapter closed she continued to progress in College, swimming, and coaching, starting a family, and becoming a mother. Unfortunately, addiction also began to take a stronghold and as she describes it, "distracted her from what her true and authentic purpose was".  

Listen as she describes her recovery in aspects of several treatment episodes and then coming to an awakening that she faced and knew the only way to genuine recovery and sobriety would be laid upon the foundations of honesty. With multiple treatment episodes under her belt, like false starts on an Olympic journey of recovery, she finally learned and ultimately took the dive into understanding, emotional balancing, and overcoming adversity where she became the woman and mother she had always wanted to be. After 18 years absent from the water she took the plunge again and became an Ironman triathlete. Carrie says, “True Champions never let the fire inside them die out”, and she is an example of what can happen if you truly want to go for gold in recovery. 

Today she continues to maintain an active lifestyle and has found her true calling in assisting those on the starting blocks of sobriety by working at Hazleden Betty Ford in Oregon. This is a podcast not to be missed, as you will feel the passion she has for life noticed after gold in the Olympics but also, life after addiction. 

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