Diving, eating disorders, and age

During the Olympics, I didn't follow that much of the diving--just kind of here and there. However, I did watch the women's 10m platform finals and was quite startled at how underweight the two sixteen years old Chinese divers, Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin, appeared to be. It's reported their BMI is only 14.5, and they are only 4'6 or so. You can do the math there. Each won an Olympic medal respectfully--the gold to Chen, the bronze to Wang. A Canadian veteran diver, Emilie Heymans, took the silver. I believe she was just out of the medals in Athens, so this was a sweet victory for her.

So what was the winning recipe for these divers? No dinner for a year. Pretty scary isn't? In any sport, not refueling your body only harms it in the long run. For awhile, the body will adapt, however, eventually a crash and burn is inevitable, ultimately with the possibility of death. And in sports like gymnastics and diving where an athlete is jumping, twisting, and somersaulting at great heights, this not only can be highly dangerous but also lead to disaster.

Apparently, Chen's and Wang's coach, Yu Fen, does not care. She only wants to win. Here's a statement she has said about Wang.

"Even though she's a world champion and technically impeccable, an abrupt fluctuation in weight could be seriously damaging for Wang."

The Chinese coaching rationale behind this (besides winning) is that girls who enter puberty will gain weight (duh, inevitable really, that's all a part of human nature) and essentially make larger splashes. It's even been reported that some coaches have tried to stunt their athletes' growth. One diver, Jia Tong, winner of the synchronized diving with Chen in the 2005 Worlds, did not have her growth stunted. However, she paid a price with a "surge" in body weight and was excluded from the Olympic team. Whether it was due to this completely or not, we'll never know. However, there's a suspicion it was due to her weight possibly.

I think this assumption about splash is completely false. Although a lower body weight may have some accountability for hitting the water with little splash, much more of it is based on good technique and how vertical the diver is going into the water.

The article above does not say whether Chen took on the self-imposed starvation herself or followed coach's orders, but her reward for winning...indulging in a big dinner with her family and friends. That should never be the case, and it's sad to see a young girl (everyone included here) think this way. I'm sure many of us have had those similar thought patterns of exercising X amount, thus allowing ourselves to have X amount for dinner. It's faulty logic. Bodies need food for fuel. It's what keeps our systems working properly at optimum levels.

The other thing with all this is that it just reinforces the idea that a diver needs to be small, thin, and starve herself in order to win. That's just simply sad. I should also note that not all the Chinese divers on this Olympic team were too thin but quite a few, both men and women, were borderline underweight, according to their bios on the Olympic site.

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Besides these divers' body weights, I'm wondering if there should also be age restrictions for the assurance of the physical and mental health of these athletes. Of course, we know that can be a sticky situation as was seen by the presumption (or likelihood) of the underage Chinese gymnasts. However, according to this article, here were some other very young athletes at these Olympics. Most were divers or swimmers with one being only 12 years old. How come we didn't hear about this at the Olympics? My feeling is that since there aren't regulations in either of these sports, a big fuss was not made.

There's no doubt that these young athletes have talent. However, athletes, like the rest of us are human and go through the changes of life both physically and mentally, or I should say, they should be allowed to. As coaches of these young athletes, especially those who have moved away from home, there should be some nurture. In my opinion, this also includes making sure the well being of the athlete's body, mind, and soul is intact and capable of the stress and pressure of competition. It shouldn't be solely about winning medals which unfortunately seems to be the case in many situations.

Mass change of rules and regulations don't happen without an uproar, but it's highly doubtful there will be one in the sport of diving. Instead, it's all just swept underneath the rug, with a hush of silence even though we all already know the facts.

Olympics, athletes, eating disorders, and the anxiety connection

As the Beijing Olympics near, the issue of the various aspects of sports is often discussed. Everything from the athlete stories (there are usually some very inspirational ones) to doping charges (no Olympics is ever filled without any) to what athletes are wearing (the buzz is on the new skin tight, fast swimsuits and running shoes) to eating disorders (though that one isn't as publicly mentioned).

In today's Telegraph from the UK, Susan Ringwood, the chief executive of BEAT, a UK charity which helps those with eating disorders, said that up to 40% of the female athletes at these Games could have eating disorders. She said, "there is increasing pressure on female athletes to not only perform well, but also to look good." The obvious sports where this would likely be more apparent are gymnastics, diving, and swimming.. However, other sports to consider would be rowing,, track and field, especially long distance running, equestrian, cycling, and wrestling. I'm sure there are others, those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Ringwood also made the point how it can be difficult to determine whether an athlete has an eating disorder when they already carefully control their food intake and exercise. She asked, "Does someone have a body like that because they want to win a gold medal, or because they would feel useless and disgusting if they looked any different, and want to have some emotional control?"

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I recently read a brief interview in People about the swimmer Dara Torres and her bout with bulimia. If you don't already know, Dara is the 41-year old swimmer who is making headlines going into her fifth Olympics with a good shot at winning the 50m freestyle. She went through a five year battle with the disorder, including at the1988 Seoul Games where the number one ranked female swimmer in the world finished seventh. So depressed after that, she retire from the sport all together. Eleven months prior to the 1992 Olympics, she knew she had to end her bulimia if she wanted to do well. She amazingly stopped "cold turkey" and has since then been recovered. Here is one article where Torres and a few other swimmers who also went public with their eating disorders talk in depth about their struggle.

The connection between elite athletes and eating disorder is now new. There have been a number of studies explaining the higher risk for disordered eating/eating disorders in certain sports as mentioned above. Last week, a new study in the International Journal of Eating Disorders showed that women who participate in a high level of athletics and have sports anxiety are more at risk for eating disorder symptomology. This is a significant study, because it looks at the factor of anxiety which has been linked to eating disorders.

So as the Olympics is only a week away, I can only imagine what some of these athletes may feel. While there is the thrill of making the team and representing their country, there is also an enormous amount of pressure which some will succumb to well and others may not. For some, the medal will make the difference in their own lives as well as their families.

Those with sports anxiety and/or eating disorders/disordered eating may have a harder time if they are constantly worried about both their performance and how they look which we know is always just the surface issue. However, in some sense, how can they not be? They have the whole world watching them, cheering them on for their victories, yet recounting every misstep too. For some athletes, this will definitely be "16 days of glory," while for others it may be "16 days of agony." Okay, I'm being dramatic here, but you get my drift. It's a lot of pressure from all realms and is a real test to both the body and mind.

Related posts: The female athlete triad
Olympics, gymnastics, and mentality