Celebrating Title IX: Meg Waldron

by: Madison Beecher

Meg Waldron is a sport psychology consultant and running coach. She owns her own practice, Meg Waldron Mental Performance, where she supports athletes and individuals from youth to post-collegiate to achieve success through effective mental skills training.

“I was born at the right time, in the right place, with the right people,” Meg shares while discussing growing up during the 1970s running boom. The global volcano began to erupt in America with the introduction of marathons and running clubs across the country. In her hometown of Bernardsville, New Jersey, Meg’s community was following this trend with a recreational Run for Fun club, and a multi-generational running club, which introduced Meg to running.

Meg continued running twice a day in high school leading her to be one of the top high school distance runners in the country. A decade after the passing of Title IX, high school had become a recruiting hub for college athletics. As a result, Meg was part of the top recruiting class of women distance runners in 1983 and attended the University of Virginia on a full scholarship. Meg was excited to perform in the sport she loved, but her dreams of running at the collegiate level came with many obstacles. A number of the girls on the team developed eating disorders, and they faced inappropriate conduct by coaches. In her final year at UVA, Meg quit the team. “My last year of college, when I wasn’t on the team, was my best year of college,” Meg shares, “I found my voice in the world and my creativity, which started me on the path of providing the support for others that weren’t there when I was an athlete.”

Meg eventually found her way to teaching at The Philadelphia School, where she also coached track and field. During that time, Meg also founded You Go Girls, a youth empowerment running club, which she still directs today. Meg also played a key role in developing the school’s track team and bringing mindfulness into the classroom and earned both a PA governor’s citation and a WHYY American Graduate Champion Award for her work in youth sports. “I really loved teaching and working with young people, but I eventually wanted a profession that included a good dose of self-care,” Meg explains. In 2012 Meg returned to school to obtain her Master’s in Sports Psychology at Temple University. After graduating in 2015, Meg started Meg Waldron Mental Performance to help athletes break through mental barriers and reach their goals in sports and performance. When asked about her career, Meg shared, “Everything that I’ve become in my work life today grew from the seeds of my previous life experiences. A life well-lived can be a quilt of careers patched together evolving and preparing you for the next.”

Along with working with individuals, Meg partners with school coaches to troubleshoot gaps in mental skills for teams and build custom workshops and webinars. She also has a podcast as part of her practice and is currently working on a documentary to share her journey in sports and mental performance through the female lens.

To learn more about Meg Waldron and her work, visit megwaldron.com