Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are very common with female athletes, especially those involved in sports such as gymnastics, figure skating, diving and long-distance runners. Since gymnastics is such a competitve sport, gymnasts try extremely hard to stay fit and stay small for better performance. There are many cases of eating disorders and emotional disorders with gymnasts. Anorexia, bulimia and emotional and physical distress are very common amongst gymnasts. After research and surveys, it seems as if gymnastics is more prone to eating disorders than any of the other previously mentioned sports. Why gymnastics? Really competitive gymnasts have a fear of developing hips, breasts or the development of anything that could interfere with their routines and skills. Once a gymnast has fully gone through puberty, their chances of remaining an exellent gymnast are slim to none. This is why they starve themselves. Without food, they cant grow and go through puberty.
When a competitive runner wins a race, it is obvious because they crossed the line first. In gymnastics, it's all up to the judges on who they think performed best. Gymnasts belive that in order for the judge to give them even better marks, they must be good looking or appealing to the judges. Therefore, they think if they are over weight, the judge will give them a worse score than someone who is thin and fragile.
Over the past 20 years, the average gymnast has gone down from 5'3 and 105 pounds (which is very, very small) to 4'9 and 88 pounds. The standards are getting lower and lower for gymnasts which is why they feel so pressured to be so thin.
Consequences
Eating disorders can lead to poor performance and especially bad health for the gymnast. If a gymnast is suffering from a eating disorder it could lead to fatigue, nutritient difficiencies, impaired growth, suspension of menstral cycle, osteoperosis (later in life) and of course, an eating disorder could lead to death if it is very severe.