When George Springer blasted a game-changing home run that helped Toronto reach its first World Series since 1993, fans saw a baseball star stepping into the spotlight. But for many people who stutter, it carried an even deeper meaning.
Springer, who has spoken publicly about his stutter throughout his career, stands out in a world where athletes are often expected to be fast, flawless communicators. His visibility on baseball’s biggest stage is quietly rewriting expectations of what leadership can sound like.
Maya Chupkov, the founder of Proud Stutter, has spent years working to shift how people understand stuttering.
She launched the award-winning podcast and advocacy platform after years of feeling misunderstood and isolated.
“I didn’t see spaces where people who stutter could share their stories. Proud Stutter grew out of a need to feel less alone — and now there’s a global community,” she said.
Alongside her day job in media and democracy work, Chupkoc advocates for early intervention policies and uses film as a tool to challenge stigma.
“A lot of stories I hear are people you know, get told that their whole life, that fluency is the goal and fixing stuttering. And so there’s just a lot of shame when you’re not able to stop stuttering, and there is no cure for stuttering, so it’s really not the fault of the stutter for not being able to be fluent. That’s kind of just how we were born and how our brain is wired, and advocacy really looks like giving people the space to share their story, and it has really evolved,” she explained.
That’s why Springer’s openness means so much to her. Chupkov has followed Springer’s career closely since starting her podcast. What stands out to her is how he uses his platform to mentor young athletes who stutter.
“George is so open about his stutter. To have someone like him be so open about stuttering, and he gives back, and he mentors young people, young athletes, who stutter. You could really tell he cares about the community,” she said.
Unlike narratives that frame stuttering as something to “overcome,” Springer treats it as part of who he is.
“George Springer’s message about stuttering that you don’t really see in other narratives is that he accepts his stutter and he says that stuttering is OK. The thing that I see a lot happen is people who stutter talk about ‘overcoming their stutter.’ But through my over 100 interviews with people who stutter from all of the world, some of that is just because people have become better at masking their stutter, because there’s no cure for stuttering, so people can get really good at hiding their stutter.”
“But what I love about George Springer’s story is that he says it’s OK to stutter and he owns it. And I think that the fact that the story has elevated and it’s the world stage just makes me so excited to watch and to cheer him on,” Chupkov said.
She also notes how sports can offer a unique refuge for people who stutter.
“Sports is really safe space, I think, for any people who stutter to be able to kind of communicate in a way where maybe they don’t have to really think about their stutters hard, because really the focus is on the sport, and it’s a way of building a community with peers,” she said.
For Ana Carolina de Jesus, a former basketball player turned filmmaker, seeing Springer at the World Series feels like a personal win.
“It makes me hopeful. It’s just nice to see him being embraced by other people, especially being someone who stutters, I know how hard it is; even when you do it and you’re OK with your stutter, it’s still so tiring because we just spend so much time paying so much attention to it. And it’s just complicated, but it’s really nice to see him be open about stuttering and talking about it and being at the big stage,” she said.
“We grow up without knowing any other person who stutters and we don’t see it on TV. We don’t see it in sports. So, I feel like it’s just opened up a world for the community.”
De Jesus began playing basketball at 13. As the sport became more competitive, she found herself confronting the weight of her stutter more directly during team introductions, press interviews, and community events.
“I’d get nervous for days before I had to speak,” she recalled.
“I was able to be vocal on the court. But the times that my stutter was coming up on the court, I just wouldn’t speak. And so if I had to say something, and it was kind of stuck. I just let it go.”
Throughout her playing career, she never met another athlete who stuttered. “It was isolating,” she admitted.
“I felt like I was the only one going through it. I held back because I didn’t see anyone else like me.”
Today, de Jesus channels those experiences into her filmmaking, exploring identity and communication through a new lens.
“As an athlete, I was very reserved, and then now, post basketball and into film, I just feel like it made me a better writer, a better director. I’m just really good at listening, and I have a lot of patience, and I’m able to connect with people, and I feel like in the film world now, with the people that I relate to, it’s easier for me to be vulnerable about my stutter in the art side.”
She believes Springer’s visibility challenges long-held assumptions.
“Athletes are seen as strong, capable and resilient, and then having someone in there that stutters, because I feel like even with capability, I feel like sometimes people think that stuttering is lack of capability. And when we look at athletes, I feel like we think a lot of what they’re capable of. George challenges that,” de Jesus said.
That message also resonates deeply with Kenny M’Pindou, a Canadian bobsledder with his sights set on the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“It challenges the idea of what confidence and leadership sound like. You don’t need to speak perfectly to lead, to inspire, or to have a voice that people listen to.”
For M’Pindou, watching Springer take the world stage as an athlete who stutters reinforces that leadership isn’t about flawless delivery, it’s about connection.
“It reminds people that leadership comes in different forms and that your voice matters no matter how it comes out,” he said.
M’Pindou has spent years learning to own his voice, something that once held him back.
“For a while I let my speech stop me from speaking up or putting myself out there. Now I’m using the same voice I used to hide to share my story, to compete, and to represent my country,” he said.
He hopes his Olympic journey will inspire others who stutter.
“I want others who stutter to see they can take up space too, in sport, at school, at work, wherever they want to be.”
Chupkov agrees. “I wish people would treat stuttering more like a different way of speaking, like having an accent, something that is like nothing’s wrong with that person who stutters. I think we should be more open as society to different forms of speaking and, and that just comes from hearing stuttering more and, and the more we hear George, the more films we have, more of these, cultural drivers. I think that’s when we’ll be able to change lives.”
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