In 2008 Burckle won an Olympic bronze medal and was destined for a promising and lucrative future in the swimming world. When she abruptly retired just over a year later, she managed to ward off speculation by immediately transitioning to graduate school and founding a company mentoring young athletes. For so long she was defined by her athletic success, even though years of verbal abuse, depression, body image and control issues drove her out of swimming and into years of suppressed emotions. Twelve years after the Beijing Games, Burckle is just now starting to reconcile her past, fit it into the larger context of who she is, and ready to own her story and lean into a totally separate identity.