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One the other hand, there are the
“thin-build” sports which conventionally
can only be played at a high level by
females with a light weight. They include
dance - but most specifically ballet
- gymnastics, diving, figure-skating
and cheerleading. Byrne and McLean
estimated that 31% of elite females in
“thin-build” sports had clinical eating
disorders. These sports require slim
built females by their very nature, but
pose a great risk for younger athletes
because most of the competitors
start participating in them before
pubescence. Once their body starts
to develop, there is a risk that they will
use disordered eating as a method to
keep themselves in the sport.
There is also a crossover where
particular personality traits can be
seen in both people with eating
disorders and in elite sportspeople.
One such trait is perfectionism. In its
most extreme forms, a perfectionist will
go to any length to achieve a desired
goal, whether it is a sporting goal or an
imagined ideal weight.
In an article from USAToday, 2004
Olympic diver Kimiko Hirai Soldati
said that “It would be hard to find a
female athlete in the aesthetic sports
— gymnastics, diving, cheerleading,
figure skating, dancing — who isn’t
preoccupied with body image and
somewhat obsessive about what she
is eating,”
Soldati herself fought a long battle
against bulimia nervosa, where she
would binge and purge in a futile
attempt to control her weight. “I was so
obsessed about calories that I didn’t
want to chew gum because there are 5
calories in a stick,” she later stated.
Bulimia represents one of the two most
common types of eating disorder, where
the sufferer eats and then induces
vomiting. The other type is anorexia
nervosa, which is characterized by
restricting food to minimal amounts
and a refusal to maintain a normal body
weight. This is usually accompanied by
body dysmorphia.
The health risks to athletes who have
eating disorders are obvious. On the
most basic level, bodies with high output
need some serious input. Science
suggests that on top of this obvious
balance, weakness in the bones can
be directly traced to disordered eating.
Osteoporosis is a major risk for female
athletes in this category. It can also
affect the menstrual cycle. In its most
extreme form, sufferers can actually
die of starvation.
Female athletes are aware of the
dangers posed by disordered eating,
but with the pressures to succeed,
they can often ignore that knowledge.
Perhaps once the stigma of the disorder
is removed, more elite athletes will
come forward to tell their story. For
example, Soldati runs a website that
offers support and advice. “I can point
them in a direction and tell them where
to get help.”