Jamie Kaplan
Mr. O’Leary
English 11
11 January 1998
The Evolution of Women’s Sports, Emphasizing Figure Skating and Gymnastics, and the Negative Impact on the Young Female Athlete
Thesis: Women’s sports, in both the professional and Olympic venues, show only the beauty and success of a select few while the majority of the athletes never reach that level and suffer the effects of the pressure, disappointment, and failure.
XIII. Conclusion
Jamie Kaplan
Mr. O’Leary
English 11 Honors
11 January 1998
The Evolution of Women’s Sports, Emphasizing Figure Skating and Gymnastics, and the Negative Impact on the Young Female Athlete
Women’s sports, in both the professional and Olympic venues, show only the beauty and success of a select few while the majority of the athletes never reach that level and suffer the effects of the pressure, disappointment, and failure. Very few people know what goes on in the private life of a figure skater or a gymnast. Spectators watch television and see these young girls jumping, spinning, and tumbling across the screen. They see the girls with their hair all tied back, dolled up in make-up, and wearing glamorous outfits. The moves look so effortless and easy. This is how the two sports have been portrayed, but there is much more going on in the lives of these aspiring athletes. People watching probably do not even question why these sixteen-year-olds weigh 80 pounds and are nearly five feet tall, assuming it must be natural. Today, many of these athletes suffer from severe eating disorders resulting in, serious, permanent and even deadly injuries. They are under immense pressure not only from themselves, but also from coaches and parents, often leaving the sport depressed and feeling like failures. To become an Olympian requires rigorous training, tremendous drive and dedication, but when the work becomes deadly, something has obviously gone wrong. Do not fool yourself thinking gymnasts and skaters have always been so young and tiny; it has only been in the last decade that these sports have been transformed.
In Joan Brumberg’s The Body Project she explains how societies’ views and the importance of the body have drastically changed. Before World War I, in the 19th century it was considered wrong to think of yourself first. Time was spent doing things such as homework, reading, helping around the house, and assisting family members. A sense of self-worth was gained from helping others. Today, girls spend hours in front of the mirror putting on make-up and trying on clothes that will flatter their bodies to get attention. Their self value and confidence is based on how they look. A one pound weight loss gives them a false sense of being a better person, leading to superficiality. They feel it is their physical image that will lead to success rather than being a genuine person with a good sense of character and personality (xxi). In Piper’s Hunger Pains one of her clients said, ‘"In this society you have to be pretty first, then you can think about having character, being smart, and achieving things. If you aren’t pretty, nothing else matters"’(2).
Brumberg explained that a century ago women were wearing corsets. Now, one hundred years later they are wearing bikinis. The emphasis on the body has changed since the 19th century (xvii). In the 1830’s people were upset or slightly embarrassed with parts of the body, such as the hands. To hide them, they would cover them with rings. Today, women constantly complain about the size of their butts and thighs, and how fat they are. Rings can not fix this, so instead women believe they must starve themselves (xviii-xx). In the Victorian age, weight loss was not considered attractive. Today, there is not a better compliment than hearing how thin you are and great your body looks (104). The philosophy has changed as the styles have changed. In the 19th century everyone wanted an hourglass figure and wore clothing emphasizing a tiny waist and big hips. The change came in 1908 when Paul Poiret designed a new outfit that showed off legs. This new dress would look good on those with rail thin legs. Called a flapper dress, it became the style of the 1920’s (99). The skimpy outfit showed off flesh that had been considered obscene in the 1880’s (107). The 1920’s became "the century of svelte"(100). It was during the 20th century when fat became a bad and ugly thing. Popular authors, like Nancy Drew started using a fat character to add humor to the story. It was the pretty, popular girl who was the protagonist. In the 1880’s, girls went to college and bragged of their weight gain and the fun of college life. Starting in the 1920’s many girls feared this weight gain. They would always talk of new diets and try them out with friends (99). It became a competition of who could lose the most weight (104). "The process of maturation is more difficult for girls today than it was a century ago because of a set of historical changes that have resulted in a peculiar mismatch between girls’ biology and today’s culture"(xvii).
The problem with eating disorders began in the 1920’s and it is now a problem that affects millions of women. Today many women are involved in athletics, trying to accomplish different goals. "But for some women, the point of each day’s workout is not just to achieve an athletic goal, but to burn off flesh"(Depres 40). Among the general population, Trofler, in the article "Physical and Emotional Problems of Elite Female Gymnasts", found 1% to be anorexic and 1-3% to be bulimic. Among athletes it rose to 15-62% (281). In 1992, the University of Washington did a study with 182 female college athletes and found 32% had an eating disorder. The percentages almost doubled among the gymnasts to 62%(Ryan 63). "Athletes in individual sports such as gymnastics and figure skating are well aware that their bodies, as well as athletic ability, are judged"(Ellis 1).
Over the past years the sports of figure skating and gymnastics have changed. In 1976 Dorothy Hamil became the Olympic champion landing a double axel. In 1992 the girls were doing seven different triples, including the triple axel (Deford and Starr 50-51). When school figures, where one traced a particular pattern on the ice, were eliminated in 1988, it was a few months later when Midori Ito became the first woman to land the triple axel. With figures gone, the emphasis in competitive skating became hitting the big triples (Deford 47). Today, National figure skating competitor Morgan Rowe, explains how in 1998 to make Nationals as a Novice you need three triples to be competitive. To rotate these jumps you need to be small and thin. She explained that when she was 15, the jumps came naturally for her. But, as her body started to change, the jumps were not so easy. She lost three of the seven triples. Morgan was able to work through it and accept the changes. For many, though, the result of trying to stay so unnaturally thin can be deadly. Joan Ryan, author of Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, explains ten years ago gymnasts performed only one release move on the uneven bars. This is when a gymnast leaves the bar to do an element catching the bar after. Today, in one routine, three releases are necessary at the elite level. The dismount once was a double tuck, today it is a double tuck with added twists and flips. It was 1972 when Olga Korbut wowed the world doing a back flip on the beam. Today you do three in a row (46). Up until 1968 you could be a champion with a relatively normal body. The champion in 1964 was 5’3" and 105 pound. But gymnastics was revolutionized in 1968. It was the cute 13-year-old Olga Korbut who was 4’11" and 85 pounds that had the gymnastics world talking. From this point on it would be the little girls dominating the sport. Nadia Comenaeci won the 1976 Olympics. Two years later she had grown and gained 20 pounds. She showed up at the World Championships as a woman and was unsuccessful. By the next year she lost 40 pounds and was back as the gymnastic phenomenon (Noden 58). Now that the elements required you to be so small, the gymnasts would reach their peaks at a much younger age. In 1956 the gold and silver went to a 35-year-old and a 21-year-old. In 1976 it was Nadia who "clutched a babydoll after scoring the first perfect 10.0 in Olympic history." In 1992 the average age of the American gymnast was 16 (Ryan 65).
The elements that both gymnasts and skaters are doing today are so difficult and complicated. As Deford and Starr explain in their article "American Beauty", now that jumping is the main thing in skating it can become self-destructive. To perfect jumps, it requires many hard falls and repetitive pounding on the same muscles and bones (51). The repetition of elements in both skating and gymnastics leads to stress fractures, growth-plate fractures; wrist and elbow injuries, spinal injuries, including scoliosis, spondyloysis, and spondylolisthesis; and reflex sympathetic. Gymnasts compete and train with all kinds of injuries. They need to train, no matter what, so they can be prepared for their next competition. This along with over training can lead to reflex sympathetic dystrophy causing constant pain in an arm or leg. Without treatment muscle atrophy, bone demineralization and contractors can happen (Trofler 281).
1992 gymnastics Olympian, Betty Okino, had her shares of injuries. In 1991 she had a stress fracture in her right elbow and doctors told her she needed to rest. Betty explained, ‘"But that really wasn’t an option. It was like, either you are paralyzed and you can’t move, or you train"’ (35). A couple of months later a tendon ripped away from the bone below her knee. Doctors reattached it with screws. When she went back to the gym her coach, Bela Karolyi, the coach who made champions, chastised her for faking and overreacting. Three months later, at the 1992 World Championships she won the silver on the bars. Okino felt that had Karolyi not insulted her it would not have motivated her and she would not have achieved her goals. The next problem Okino faced was a stress fracture in her back. Doctors told her if she did not quit there was a 2% chance of paralysis. But, the Olympics were approaching and she was not about to quit. She helped bring the U.S. the team bronze medal in 1992. Today she is unable to write without pain because her elbow was never given adequate time to heal. She is not able to straighten her arm and she needs surgery to clean out pieces of chipped bones (Ryan 35-36).
Nadia Comeneci cut her hand with the plastic hand guard that gymnasts use while performing on the bars. She never thought of complaining until she had developed blood poisoning in her arm (Ryan 23-24). Ryan explained that to a gymnast, "To rest an injury is to kill precious time. One might miss a meet, and every meet is another block in a gymnast’s career; in a short span of time, a few years at most, she must build a strong enough foundation to lift her into the Olympics. So the gymnast, and the gymnast’s coach, will do anything to keep the girl competing, uninterrupted, no matter what"(34). Gymnasts and skaters learn to deal with pain. They realize that if they want to excel in that sport they must numb their bodies. Kids in the gym are taking 7 Advils a day. One eleven-year-old gymnast was suffering from Osgood Schlatters disease and took at least 8 Advils a day. Another gymnast, Kristi Philips was training with a broken wrist. She took 12 Advils and 6 Naprosyns each day. Cosuming too many painkillers can lead to bleeding in the lining of the stomach and can also cause kidney disease (Ryan 39-40).
Advil can not fix every injury. Once the damage is done, it is done. Julissa Gomez was a gymnast with Olympic potential. Already an international competitor, she had high hopes of making it all the way to the Olympic podium. Many of her competitors performed the difficult Yurchenko vault requiring perfect timing. Although she could do the vault, it was never consistent. When she was away at a competition in Japan, she was having some difficulties. The vault was obviously bothering her. She kept mentioning the accident that left 1978 World Champion Elena Moukina paralyzed when she broke her neck on a vault routine the night before the 1980 Olympics. Julissa could never mention her fear to her coach because "she wanted to prove she was Olympic material-tough, unflappable, fearless"(Ryan 49). Her coach, Al Fong knew the vault was not her strength. Anyone watching would hold his or her breath at each attempt. In Japan, Julissa went into the Yurchenko. She was out of control, hardly getting any lift, and rotating the best she could. She landed on her forehead snapping her neck. "Like Julissa, Moukina had allowed her body to be transformed into a machine that acknowledged neither fear nor pain, a machine that didn’t know any better until it broke"(Ryan 50). Julissa was paralyzed from the neck down, was left with brain damage, and seizures. Her family learned how to care for her using a ventilator, suctioning fluids from her trachea, and had to feed her through a tube. They learned how to bathe her and how to change her diapers. Three years after the accident Julissa got an infection and died in August of 1991. Her death had an impact on gymnasts, but it did not stop anyone from training through their own fears. Every individual was touched by her death in a different way. Christy Henrich, who trained with Julissa at Fong’s gym, was deeply disturbed. But Christy felt it could not happen to her. And it is true, "Gymnastics could never break Christy’s body. She was too tough. So it went after her soul"(Ryan 54).
Christy Henrich would die three years later, July 26, 1994 weighing 61 pounds. She died of multiple organ failure eight days after her 22nd birthday. Her weight of 61 was an improvement from her 47 pounds that she weighed July 4. For two years she had been in and out of various hospitals. Her family and boyfriend Bo Moreno supported her 100%, but her last doctor, Dr. David McKinsey said Christy’s disorder was past the point of return. Her body was so malnourished that her liver, kidneys, and muscles no longer could function. As Christy passed in and out of different hospital for treatment, Bo would warn doctors to check her suitcase because ‘"It had a false bottom"’ (Noden 54). It would be filled with bottles of laxatives. Christy was trapped. In 1993 she told The Independence Examiner that her life was a ‘"horrifying nightmare."’ She said, ‘"There’s a beast inside me, like a monster. It feels evil."’ At Christy’s funeral Bo wrote her a poem:
America’s sweetheart brought to her knees
Willing to do anything to please
A product of our country
Pushed too far
You’ve got to be Extra-Tough, little lady
Now look this way and grin
Remember to hold your head up high
And hold the pain within (Noden 54).
Christy had so much promise. At 14 she was 5th at the Nationals as a Jr. In 1988 she was 10th at the Sr. Nationals and missed the Olympic team by .118 of a point, leaving her devastated. But in 1989, she placed 2nd at the Nationals and was 4th in the world. By 1989 her fear of food had already begun. It started in 1988 when a judge told her if she were to make the Olympics, she needed to lose weight. At that time she weighed 90 pounds. From that day on she would train full days fueling herself with an apple (Noden 58). As Ryan explained, "The medals hanging from the walls of her home, the newspaper clippings, the national rankings, the fourth-place finish at the 1989 World Championships- they were no match for her own certainty that she was a failure. She carried the failure in the curve of her thighs, the soft skin under her chin, anywhere she couldn’t see bone" (59).
Heidi Gunther, a Boston Ballet ballerina, died at the age of 22. Dancers, like gymnasts and skaters, are required to be very lean. The assistant artistic director told Heidi to lose weight if she wanted to dance the principal roles. She lost the weight and by December of 1996 as she danced in the Nutcracker people began to comment that she looked anorexic (Itzak 26). Heidi’s death concerned many people in the dance world. Dr. Linda Hamilton said, ‘"We can’t blame all eating disorders on the dance world, but there are a lot of eating problems, and dancers take the same approach to weight loss as they do to everything else: they put their whole heart and soul into it"’(Itzak 34).
Gymnasts and skaters, along with dancers, see numerous injuries that occur simultaneously with eating disorders. Many initially know that what they are trying to do to their bodies is unnatural and unhealthy, but pressure from family, coaches, and judges cause them to keep forcing their bodies to do what the body normally can not do. They want to succeed so badly that they will go to any extreme, even deadly ones, as you have seen (Trofler 281). These athletes fear going through puberty and becoming a woman because in order to be competitive these days you need to have a little girl’s body. Becoming anorexic is a way these athletes feel will solve all their problems, but they do not realize or understand that anorexia will bring along a whole new life of problems (Noden 56). As Dobie explained, "Intense pressure to excel sometimes leads to behavior that causes health risks, making success more difficult and dangerous to achieve"(1). To try to prevent their bodies from going through a natural process of puberty, they are at risk for the "Female-athlete triad" which consists of nutritional, endocrine, and psychiatric disorders. A handful of kids are in intense training environments by the age of ten. They continue training during the stage where young bodies should be going through neurological and psychological growth. These girls are training 18 or more hours a week before hitting puberty. This causes many of them to never reach full adult height. The stress also contributes to menstrual dysfunction, which increases the risk of premature osteoporosis (Trofler 281). Gymnastics Olympian, Kathy Johnson began menstruating at the age of 25. That was when she quit the sport (Ryan 44-45).
48-70% of bone mass and 15% of height is achieved during adolescent years. These girls train so hard for many hours, and eat very little, therefore they are delaying puberty because they are not producing estrogen. Because of this, the bones do not develop properly causing a condition called amenorrhea. This results in about 5% loss of bone density. This is what happens to postmenopausal women (Ryan 44-45). The athletes, as Dobie puts it, in the article "Special Report: The Female Athlete Triad", are "Energy deficits." The athlete expends more energy than they take in leading to amnorrhea (3). Dr. Fanaritis says, ‘"I’ve seen x-rays where the bones look like honey comb. X-rays of an anorexic of four or five years and those of 70-year olds are very similar"’(Noden 56). But, the problem is that skating and gymnastics require you to have body fat probably below 17-18%. Once the body fat is lower than this, amnorrhea can occur (Dobie 4). "This useless destruction will continue as long as the cost of being overweight is social suicide" (Piper 35).
Many successful athletes have competitive personalities and they are often perfectionists. To be a good athlete one needs these personality traits, but unfortunately, these attitudes are the ones susceptible to eating disorders. Another troubling issue is that once the girls start displaying eating disorders, such as throwing up, taking pills, or using laxatives, they ironically begin to perform better because of the weight loss. Receiving the wrong message, the athlete does not look to the long-term consequences and are happy with their improved performance. (Dobie 2-4). The examples occur over and over. Suzanne Gordon, author of Off Balance, found that there is a 15-17% morality rate of anorexics (13).
In addition to the injuries and the eating disorders that can lead to life long problems, the mental pressure on these girls is immense. Parents sacrifice so much financially and emotionally to help their child make their dreams and, often, their own, come true. A good example of parental pressure and the need for success was shown with seven-year-old, Jessica Dubroff who died while attempting her cross-country airplane flight. This incident can be considered abusive. Dubroff's parents push for success is viewed as "strong parental encouragement of a potentially dangerous endeavor for the purpose of gaining fame and financial reward"(Trofler 281).
On the positive side of things, as Janet Lee describes in her article "Fair Game", the gains on women’s sports were provided by Title IX. Title IX was issued in 1971 and gave more opportunities to women to pursue their athletic desires. With the scholarships and growing funding that is now provided, more women can develop their athletic talents. There has been a 250% increase of women participating in collegiate sports from 1971-1977 and the numbers keep growing. In 1972, a year after the Title IX law was passed, there was $100,000 available for college scholarship money nationwide. In 1996 there was $180 million! With more women now interested in sports, there becomes more competition and better athletes. With this cycle, amazing female athletes come along and people want these female athletes to endorse their products (38-39). "The U.S. Women’s Olympic soccer, basketball and softball teams, as well as standout performances by numerous other women athletes, are proof of this new generation. The athletes’ success stories have propelled them from Atlanta to television commercials and print ads brimming with attitude. These athletes are lending their names to athletic shoes and clothing, and most notably, they’re joining pro leagues that emerged to take advantage of the sudden popularity of women’s sports" (38).
On the down side, now that there are endorsements available, as Joan Ryan explains, "Talent counts, but so do beauty, class, weight, clothes and politics" (5). The desire to succeed and receive fame and fortune is tremendous and some times "Ambition gets perverted" (Ryan 10).
It was after Katerina Witt won her second Olympic title in 1988 that figure skating became a popular sport. At that point the TV ratings of figure skating in the United States rose to become more popular than those of baseball or basketball. Its ratings are comparable to those of the Super Bowl (Deford 46). With figure skating’s immense popularity, endorsements are offered to those few successful skaters. The winner of the 1992 Olympics was guessed to earn about 10 million dollars before the year 2000 comes along (Deford 51).
These athletes and their families sacrifice so much for that brief moment in the spotlight (Ryan 150). Families sacrifice so much money and time so that their child can train to become the best and in turn there tremendous pressure and competitiveness. Often there is pressure not only from themselves, but also from the parents. "The young athlete may perceive her entire identity and self worth depending on her participation and success in gymnastics-a perception that may result in a unidimensional self-concept"(Trofler 282). To be successful the athletes focus on nothing but their sport. Consuming all their time, many children lose a normal childhood. Some suffer from isolation and therefore miss the opportunities for social fun. Athletes often move away from home to train with the best coaches. Some leave at very young ages where they are expected to be very independent. These girls are supposed to take care of themselves like adults yet they are so vulnerable at these ages and need support at this time in their life (Trofler 282). For many skaters and gymnasts their sport becomes their whole life. It is the only thing that seems to matter to them. For Kristie Philips, she was supposed to be the next Mary Lou Retton, missing the Olympic team by one place her dream was shattered. After this she felt she was nothing and decided that because she did not make the Olympics, there was no point in life. Kristie, in a suicidal attempt, took a pair of scissors and cut her vein with them (Ryan 117).
When gymnastic and figure skating mean so much to the child and the family, it can become very unhealthy. Different people deal with pressure in different ways. In skating and gymnastics, as in other sports, it is not always the best athlete who wins. Frequently, it depends on who can deal with the pressure during those few minutes. You get one chance. There is no time to redeem yourself or time to make up for your mistake. In skating, a missed jump can mean it is over. In baseball you get three strikes and then you are out. In tennis you can get two serves. You do not get a whole game with a four quarters and a half time to get your concentration back and get yourself back on track, you get only those few minutes. You train your whole life for that one-day and if you get the flu, that is it (Ryan 124).
Once the athlete makes the elite level they then have to deal with the pressure of the media in addition to everything else. Kim Zemeskal was already written about as the Olympic champion before the Olympics began. Every magazine raved about Zemeskal and how the 1992 Olympics were to be hers. Everyone envisioned her on the podium; not Shannon Miller. It was Zemeskal who won the U.S. Championships at the age of fourteen and it was 1991 when she was first in the world. But, Kim’s experience at the Olympics was not what she and everyone had hoped for. During the all-around final she stepped out of bound in the middle of her floor routine and her hopes of becoming the champion were dashed. The small step dropped her twenty places, making it impossible to pull up to the top (Ryan 123-124). She said, "I was worried I’d let everyone down." The public had such high expectations for her (Swift 77). Dealing with the pressure in various ways, some girls pull their hair out, some develop ulcers, and some develop eating disorders. One gymnast cut her arms with razors and tacks to ease the pressure (Ryan 138).
All sports are competitive, but to win at any cost is taking the need to win, too far. Having no actual conscience and actually attempting to injure your competitor to get ahead is not unheard of. An example with the obsession to win at any cost was evident in the 1994 Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan episode (Adler 71). The attack on Kerrigan was a "tale of jealousy and greed- mixed with buffoonery and a touch of madness" (Starr "Thin" 69). Skating involves not only the demand to perform under pressure, but the burden of being thin, looking beautiful, and consistently delivering a perfect performance. Harding never fit that fairy princess image. She was a tough and rough, interested in winning big and making money. Harding said, ‘"What I’m really thinking about are the dollar signs"’ (Adler 72). The attack on Kerrigan was "a basic plot: the good girl, the victim who needs to be protected, the girl boys marry, versus the bad girl boys just skate around with" (Lipsyte B10). Nancy was the girl who spent time doing charity to aid the blind and enjoyed playing golf in her spare time. Tonya liked to go drag racing, hunting, and playing pool. Nancy had charisma and a natural charm that Tonya lacked. Tonya felt she was often judged unfairly because of it, and it disturbed her (Adler 71). In December of 1993 Tonya who only came in fourth at an international competition, told reporters and fans she felt she was unfairly judged. She had not placed above Nancy since 1991. It was Tonya’s bodyguard, Shawn Eckard, who first came up with the idea to attack her primary rival. Nancy was her only major competitor in the U.S. at this time and Eckard thought they should just kill her. Tonya’s on and off husband, Jeff Gillooly was also involved with the idea and discussed it with Tonya. He said the decision to go ahead was up to her. Tonya went along with it. She even went so far as to find out information about Nancy to help plan the attack. Tonya suggested that they injure Nancy’s right leg. They all were in it for the money hoping that Tonya would bring them Olympic success with them. Instead, all that followed were trials where their confessions showed the world that they were just low class and ignorant people (Starr "Ropes" 55-56).
It is evident that "the quest for success at the Olympic level ensures that these girls may be driven beyond their physical and emotional limits" (Trofler 282). These girls have put in an enormous amount of time and effort. To see the low self-esteem and destructiveness that these sports bring them to is not how it should end. "It’s about the elite child obsession with winning that has produced a training environment where in results are bought at any costs, no matter how devastating. It’s about how our cultural fixation on beauty and weight and youth has shaped the athletes into a sphere beyond the quest for physical performance" (Ryan 5).
"At its worst, the sport can result in serious, life-endangering physical and psychological disabilities" (Trofler 282). But there is also another side. "At its best, elite gymnastics can provide a profoundly meaningful experience for the athletes promoting their self-esteem and self-discipline and contributing to their development into productive and successful adults" (Trofler 282).
The people involved in the United States Figure Skating Association and the United States Gymnastics Association know of the damage these sports have caused for so many of their athletes. They know of the eating disorders, the deadly injuries, and the abusive coaches. The director of USA Gymnastics explained that they are hiring sports psychologists to work with the athletes. She also said there is now a safety certification program and voluntary training courses for the coaches, but that can’t make any of the coaches follow the advice. No matter how many injured kids the coach has, the use of abusive language or ignoring a child’s eating disorder, unless the coach has committed an actual crime, he cannot be banned from the gymnastics association. Therefore, no one can limit the number of hours put in at the gym or how many times he or she is demanded to repeat an element (Ryan 40-41). As for eating disorders, it is a problem society as a whole is facing in this 20th century and its even more common among these young athletes. As Piper states in Hunger Pains:
To treat eating disorders in America is to treat our culture. We need a revolution in our values and behavior. We need to define attractiveness with much broader parameters, so that most women, not an infinitesimal few, can feel good about their appearance. We need to emphasize other characteristics-industry, integrity, talent, intelligence, and good humor-in evaluating the worth of women. Until our culture changes the messages it sends about women it will be difficult for individual women to have healthy attitudes about their bodies (5).
The sports of skating and gymnastics can enhance your life or ruin it.
Being a skater myself, I see what goes on in the sport of figure skating. There is definitely a very destructive side. It is true; you have to be thin to do the tricks. Everyday, the locker room conversation is about what we ate that day or how much we weigh. I listen to conversations of girls who decide that if they have gained weight, they will cut out the extra piece of bread, and I have been a witness to others who decide they will hit the gym and drink laxatives while on the treadmill. I have been to the hospital to visit my friend who was anorexic and hospitalized for a month. There is definitely no denying all the injuries. There is not a day that goes by without some sort of ache or pain. We all skate no matter what because no one wants to sacrifice practice time. To be successful, you need to be on all the time. But, none of us are perfect. This whole idea leads to frustration and the need to be a perfectionist. I have sacrificed much and have not had what most people would label a normal childhood. For me, though, I would not want it to be any other way. Putting it into perspective, you can let the sport destroy you or you can find an inner love and joy. Without skating, I would be miserable. For me, it has made me a stronger person. I have learned to set goals, handle pressure, learn how to win and lose, work through frustrations, and I am a high achiever. From skating, I have developed life long characteristics that show in and out of the rink and will be used in everything I do in the future. No matter what it is I do, I will always be dedicated, driven and strive for excellence. Luckily for me, I have gained so much from being an athlete.
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