Former Skating Champion Reveals Sport's Association with Eating Disorders
In a July 5 article on the website True/Slant, former world junior ice staking champion Jennifer Kirk revealed the degree to which she and others within the skating community were affected by eating disorders and unhealthy weight control measures:
Looking back on it now, I am able to understand that a lack of control over various aspects of my life manifested itself in what I ate."Now that I'm on the other side of this disease, I worry when I see skaters who I know are struggling with what I worked so hard to get rid of," Kirk wrote. "It makes me angry that there is no one speaking out against what is so common in figure skating."
At the time, the pain in my hip and the struggles I was having on my jumps, coupled with the anxiety of living alone for the first time and the pressure I was putting on myself to never "mess up" both on and off the ice, was too much for me to handle.
I felt that by controlling the number on the scale, I would be in control of all the things in my life that I felt were completely out of my control: the judges, whether or not I would skate well on a particular day, my mom not being around, pleasing my coach, etc.
However by doing this, I was entering into some very deep waters, which would take many years to learn to swim away from.
Labels: athletes, eating disorders, sports
posted by EatingDisordersHelpGuide at 9:02 AM
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