Athletes Body Image Issues

renzen
English 101-08
Professor Shannon Smith
December 3, 2015
Issues of Body Image for Athletes
Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies. This can mostly be contributed to societies standards of what men and women are “supposed” to look like. This image is often affected by family, friends, social pressure and the media. Unfortunately, only 5% of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media (“11 Facts”). "Body image" is the way that someone perceives their body and assumes that others perceive them, but the athletes who have a specifically hard time with body images are ones such as dancers, ice skaters, and gymnasts. The perfect body of a gymnast is someone who is about 5 feet tall

or shorter, has no fat on their body, and has muscle in places you wouldn’t even think possible. Being the best gymnast also means having the best body. Gymnasts are often pushed past there body’s breaking point in order to achieve being a desired weight or size. Although there is something that can be done to help prevent these horrible body images from having an impact on athletes.
My sister has been a gymnast at the YMCA all her life and personally knows the struggles of body images in the sport. She had always been at an average height and weight for her age, but competing against girls who were noticeably tinier than her had a great effect on how she viewed her own body. Additionally, she noted that the coaches always seemed to favor the girls who were smaller and thinner, and in return, would make them better and more confident. At the YMCA gymnastics center, they say they’re all about treating each gymnast equally and promoting healthy bodies, yet the bigger girls are ignored and the tinier ones are favored. Being tinier is helpful in gymnastics because it is easier for the coaches to spot you and train you to learn new things. Therefore, because my sister didn’t have the typical body of a gymnast, she wasn’t coached as much. This affected her greatly for she was grew to be insecure of her body, felt like she needed to lose weight, and go on diets. At only ten years old she was “watching her weight” and counting her calories every day. Unfortunately, this is the effect body image has on a lot of young girls.
Body image issues can have several negative ways of impacting people, especially young female athletes.

The most detrimental of these is the female athlete triad. This can have a significant impact on the lives of many athletes. The female athlete triad is when a female athlete’s energy intake is inadequate to meet energy expenditure. This can cause the reproductive cycle to be disrupted, and amenorrhea may result. Amenorrhea refers to the absence of menstrual periods and can be caused by intensive exercising, extreme weight loss, physical illness, and stress which can all be related to the female athlete triad ("Amenorrhea”). Female athletes may respond to pressure to meet unrealistic weight or body fat levels with excessive dieting. In both instances, the unintended effect can be a cascade of events labeled the female athlete triad. Inadequate nutrition for a women’s level of physical activity often begins a cycle in which disordered eating, amenorrhea and osteoporosis occur in sequence (“11

Facts”).
There are things that can be done to prevent athletes, boys and girls, from facing these issues.

The most effective way is a campaign promoting healthy body images for all athletes. This campaign would focus on exercising, healthy eating, healthy body weight, the up and downsides of dieting, and would even focus on having positive people in your life. For example, having a positive, person-oriented coaching style rather than a negative, performance-oriented coaching style can make quite a difference. Also, social influence and support from teammates with healthy attitudes towards size and shape. Having coaches who emphasize factors that contribute to personal success such as motivation and enthusiasm rather than body weight or shape is essential to prevent gymnasts from facing the unrealistic body images. And lastly, it is important for coaches and parents to educate, talk about and support the changing female body as it matures. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has brought together experts on this topic to exchange knowledge to protect the health of female athletes as best as possible. They created the four “Hungry for Gold” videos which are an educational tool aimed at athletes, parents, coaches and support staff, as well as administrators, informing them about the female athlete triad as well as the related health implications. Through the experiences of Anezka, Aiko, Tochi, Jesse and Akeyo featured in the “Hungry for Gold” videos, viewers can learn about

healthy eating and exercise habits, understand the importance of a healthy body image, and find out how to prevent the development of the female athlete triad (“HEALTHY BODY IMAGE”). When men and women practice a sport, they can profit from many health benefits. While these positive attributes far outweigh the risks involved in sports participation, there is scientific evidence that the healthy body image of some female and male athletes can suffer.
A method used in the past to resolve people’s poor body images was losing weight by going on diets. Poor Dieting can result in becoming too thin if you are not eating enough, malnutrition if you aren’t eating the things needed for a proper diet, and it can also result in fatigue, again, if you’re not eating the right foods or the right amounts. Dieting is still frequently used but is being looked away from because it is either being used to drastically or it doesn’t work at all.
In conclusion, body images have a great effect on many people. Whether you’re a child, a man or a women, or an athlete, everyone faces issue with body images. Being muscular and toned is becoming a lot more accepted for girls than it ever has been in the past. Media is moving away from the image of tooth pick anorexic girls, and is starting to promote the image of healthy muscular athletes (“Body Image”). This is a step forward in resolving the body image issue and I believe that with the help of healthy body image campaigning, this issue will be diminished.