Why is Anorexia and Eating Disorders Common in Young Female
Gymnasts?; Exploratory Essay
There are many
reasons why I decided to use Anorexia and eating disorders in young female
gymnasts as my topic. Since I was four years old, I have been a gymnast,
competitive and non competitive. Throughout my long gymnastics career, I have
noticed many of my team mates and even famous gymnasts undergo many different
kinds of eating disorders and even extreme weight loss. Some blame the pressure
of being the “perfect size” for this demanding sport. Others say that it is
their coaches and judges that tell them to drop their weight. In all reality,
the losing the weight your peers so desperately beg of you usually has no
effect on your performance. Sometimes the young gymnasts begin to become more
insecure of their looks, weight and performance. Sometimes even becoming
addicted to their means for getting thinner, like bulimia and even not eating
at all, to please the people who pressure them.
Throughout my
research, I have read articles about gymnasts that suffer from such extreme
eating disorders that they eventually die. A source that I found that really
opened my eyes to how severe this epidemic was in an article written by William
Plummer and Pam Grout called “Dying for a Medal” on ebscohost.com. The article
focuses on the career and tragic death of gymnast Christy Henrich. Christy
Henrich was a young gymnast who was told by many judges to “lose weight”. If
Henrich did not comply and drop the weight they told her, she would not be as good
of a competitor or perhaps not even allowed to be on her team. Reading about
her story and the pain she endured while being a gymnast reminded me of what
some girls I was once teammates with went through. I used this article as a
source because ebscohost.com because it is a website that is used by Horry
County Schools and referred to by teachers.
Girls
already have many insecurities without being told by other people to change
about themselves. When someone tells another person to lose weight, sometime
they do not know how much weight to lose, or when they do lose the weight, they
might not be content with the amount of weight they have lost.
I decided to choose this as my
research topic because it is something that I have experienced and seen in my
life. I also think that it is a problem that needs to be fixed because of the
effects it has mentally and physically. I think that if there were some kind of
rule or law that could ban judges and coaches from telling gymnasts to lose
weight, there would be a lot less tragedies like the one of Christy Henrich,
who eventually died of her eating disorders. The rules or laws could save at
least one young woman from battling eating disorders or Anorexia, it would have
an everlasting effect.
