What do you do when the number on the screen feels like it just closed every door you’d planned to walk through? <\/p>\n
This episode is for any parent, or young person, who has ever felt defined by a disappointing result, and it’s a reminder that a score is a moment, not a verdict. <\/p>\n
In this episode of More Than a Score, we sit down with Ryan Bedford: three-time Australian representative sprinter, former journalist, tech professional, and now a budding actor, taught years ago by our own Laura. <\/p>\n
Ryan finished school in a fiercely competitive cohort, where anything under a 90 could feel like a low score. He sat his final exam, felt certain he had failed, and cried in the car on the way to the airport…then flew interstate to compete the very next day. The score that came back was a genuine disappointment. <\/p>\n
But running gave him somewhere to channel it, a move to Queensland gave him a clean slate, and life kept opening doors that the result had supposedly closed. <\/p>\n
What followed was anything but linear: degrees that didn’t stick, years at Uber as it was still finding its feet, an elite sprinting career studded with injuries and near-misses, and eventually a move to Amsterdam that gave him room to explore who he actually is. <\/p>\n
Along the way he stopped measuring himself by external scores and started living by his own values, and found a fulfilment he says he never had when he was winning. <\/p>\n
For parents, it’s a warm, honest look at resilience, identity, and why the things that “don’t stick” are never wasted. <\/p>\n
For young people, it’s proof that one bad result changes far less than it feels like it will. <\/p>\n
What you’ll discover in this episode <\/p>\n
– Why a score can feel like total failure in the moment, and why that feeling passes <\/p>\n
-How someone can crumble in an exam yet perform under pressure on a start line, and what that reveals about confidence<\/p>\n
– Why a “clean slate” in a new place can be exactly what a young person needs <\/p>\n
– How a career-ending injury became a turning point rather than an ending <\/p>\n
– Why the degrees and jobs that “didn’t stick” still built the person he is now <\/p>\n
– The shift from chasing external scores to living by your own values <\/p>\n
– Why leaving Australia gave Ryan permission to explore without the “house by 25” pressure <\/p>\n
– How extracurriculars and getting to know yourself build real resilience <\/p>\n
– Why you can be many things at once (athlete, professional, actor) and never just one <\/p>\n
More Than a Score is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former secondary teacher and a former award-winning assistant principal, on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, with over 35 years in education between them. <\/p>\n
New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe and follow the show to hear each new conversation as it lands AND get One Small Shift – our practical fortnightly note to help parents have better conversations about success and pathways. Head to muchmorethanascore.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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