Stanford women’s soccer goalie and team captain Katie Meyer’s death by suicide just three weeks shy of graduation in 2022 shocked the world. In the wake of her passing, her family became key advocates for what would eventually become known as “Katie Meyer’s Law,” passed by the California assembly and signed by governor Gavin Newsom last year, which would provide an outside advisor to college students dealing with a campus disciplinary issue. Now, ESPN has announced an E60 feature on Meyer’s life, death, and legacy, titled Save: The Katie Meyer Story:
“It was just a different type of joy to know I was playing for Stanford … the school that was my dream.”
Katie Meyer worked her whole life to reach the top — but in February 2022, everything changed.
‘Save: The Katie Meyer Story’
📺 May 10th at 11AM ET on @espn | @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/wZvySVCvFZ— E60 (@E60) May 1, 2025
For those unfamiliar with the story, Meyer wound up facing disciplinary proceedings from Stanford after she threw coffee on a football player she believed had sexually assaulted one of her teammates. She received an email advising her of that disciplinary charge, which would see her degree placed on hold, the night before her body was found in her dorm room.
Those circumstances are key to her parents’ wrongful death lawsuit against Stanford, which is set to go to trial next April. They’re also key to the lobbying efforts they did for “Katie Meyer’s Law,” which unanimously passed the state assembly last January and was signed by Newsom last fall. The law would provide an outside advisor to students dealing with campus disciplinary proceedings.
Meyer’s story is certainly one with a lot of connections to other parts of the sports world, perhaps especially around conversations about athletes and mental health. And her parents’ efforts to get a law passed in her name, and ultimate success there, illustrate the impact of her story and why ESPN is giving it this kind of feature treatment. Here’s more from an ESPN release on what to expect here:
On the field, Meyer’s passion, leadership, and brilliance captivated the sports world. Through exclusive interviews, archival footage and intimate personal stories, Save paints a portrait of a young woman whose dream of playing for her top-choice school became a reality, culminating in a national championship in 2019 and hopefully a future at Stanford Law School. But as her final year approached, Meyer found herself facing a Stanford disciplinary procedure — a process that threatened everything she had worked for.
Reported by Julie Foudy, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, World Cup champion and veteran soccer analyst with over 25 years of experience in sports journalism, the E60 story offers an unflinching look at how this institutional struggle affected Meyer in the months before her death, while examining the intersection of high expectations, pressure and the systems that left her vulnerable.
…Katie’s parents, Gina and Steve Meyer, and her sisters Sam and Siena, speak openly with E60 in the episode.
Save: The Katie Meyer Story was directed and produced by Jennifer Karson-Strauss, who before joining ESPN in 2017 was a Division 1 collegiate soccer player.
Foudy and Karson-Strauss certainly have some relevant personal experience they can bring to this story from their time in the soccer world. And this is a notable project for ESPN to take on. Save: The Katie Meyer Story will premiere Saturday, May 10 on ESPN at 11 a.m. ET, and will be available for streaming on ESPN+ following that.
If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) any time day or night, or chat online.