Hanna Cavinder Talks Prioritizing Her Mental Health While Taking Time Away From Basketball

The Division I athlete spent the last year reflecting and coming to terms with her emotions.

Hanna Cavinder / Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

This coming fall, Hanna Cavinder will take the basketball court at the University of Miami for her final year of eligibility.

She will be coming off a year away from the game. The Division I athlete, along with her twin sister Haley, officially announced her retirement from basketball after the 2022-23 season. It was, according to Cavinder, a tough last season. “The last year that I did play basketball was a little bit mentally challenging for me,” she tells SI Swimsuit at Miami Swim Week, “and I just wasn't in a good spot to go back.”

Negative comments on social media got to her head. Online, she faced comparisons to her twin, who was playing more minutes than she was. The “outside noise” put her in a “state of mind where [she] couldn’t truly find the fire with basketball,” she says.

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At the time, stepping away felt like the right decision. It gave the 23-year-old time to work on her pursuits beyond the court: brand campaigns, athlete advocacy and beyond. But, most importantly, it gave her time to work on herself. She took the chance to reflect and, in her own words, “truly understand myself.”

Over the past year, Cavinder has embraced “journaling” and “truly being intentional with my emotions,” she explains. She’s taking a step back and “looking at the big picture.”

For her, that picture looks like this: the opportunity to return to Miami—where she cultivated great memories and relationships—and take the court again with her sister. “If I want to take my fifth year back and be able to play the game that I love with my twin,” Cavinder says, “that’s the most important thing—rather than the outside noise.”