Eating Disorders: Gymnasts, Parents, and Coaches

Christy Henrich

 (pictured above)

when she weighed

 less than 70 pounds,

 a year before her death

Christy Henrich is one of the most amazing gymnasts, who are from the ages of 8-18 in our time. Most of us define a gymnast as amazing by the scores they get in their competitions, their rankings, and where they get to in their career. Christy is defined as an amazing gymnast not only because of all of these things, but she was also one of the first gymnasts to come out to the public and admit that she had an eating disorder. Just from this photo, you can see how little fat is on her face and the rest of her body. She literally looks like a stack of bones with some skin on them. Her struggle began when a judge told her that the only way she could get into the Olympics was by losing weight. So that’s what Christy did; she lost weight to the point that when she was eighteen and had finally decided to retire, she weighed less than 80 pounds (Ryan 62). She realized that her eating disorder was causing her to be weak, but at that point she had not admitted it. Even when her parents took her to a treatment center she was angry and upset with them. After retiring, Christy spent 18 months in and out of treatment centers. She understood that she had an eating disorder, but she claimed that eating upset her stomach and it was hard to force herself to eat.  Eventually, after five years of battling bulimia and anorexia, Christy slipped into a coma; “on July 26, 1994, she died of multiple organ failure” (94).  Christy tried to get better, but with the years of starving and the ideology of perfectionism, she never was able to achieve her goal. Joan Ryan, author of Pretty Girls in Little Boxes, stated that USA Gymnastics officials declared that gymnastics could not cause eating disorders. As Ryan’s reaction to this she told the readers, “When one combines the high-achiever personality of the elite gymnast, the abusive methods of the coaches, the unforgiving aesthetic standards of judges and the spoken or unspoken pressure from parents, the sport is a petri dish of disaster” (63). This is the perfect explanation of what happens when sports expect athletes to be tiny little people; it results with eating disorders and sometimes death.

         The sport itself is not the only cause of eating disorders. Parents and coaches are the support systems in any sport; therefore, they play an even larger role in the development of eating disorders. Not all parents and coaches cause eating disorders, but more often than not without realizing it they become the cause. Parents and coaches need to realize that they are these gymnasts’ role models; therefore, they need to be aware that what they say or do can cause a gymnast to develop an eating disorder.

           In 1992 American College of Sports Medicine found that 62% of female athletes, who participated in figure skating and gymnastics, were surveyed to have an eating disorder (Thompson). At Ohio State University in 2005 59% of female athletes were surveyed to have an eating disorder (Holmes). However in 2010, 85% of female athletes, who participate in gymnastics and figure skating, were estimated to having an eating disorder (Menkedick). If the awareness of eating disorders were to increase, these percentages can decrease. Just because eating disorders are not in the news everyday does not mean they still don’t exist. The fact that not every celebrity has an eating disorder does not mean eating disorders don’t exist. Everyday someone is struggling with an eating disorder. Even if you don’t know them that does not mean you have to stop caring. Does it mean that their struggles are not as important as yours? No, but it does mean that you need to become more aware and take a more active role in helping gymnasts overcome their eating disorders.       

            In a recent survey that I took at Peak Athletics - gymnastics, cheerleading, and dance gym- I asked the gymnasts 6 questions with two parts. I then proceeded to send out an email to all the parents with the same 6 questions and asked them to answer the questions as if they were their child or gymnast. Most of the gymnasts were between the ages of 8 and 18. There was only one question that could indicate if the gymnast had an eating disorder. The other questions indicated how much the parents and coaches influenced the gymnasts’ lives.  The question that dealt with eating disorders asked them, “When you are out with friends and you go for the fifth piece of pizza do you think about what you parents or coaches are going to say?” Forty-two percent of the gymnasts said that they never thought about what their parents would say, and 23% said they thought about it a lot of the time, and 32% of the gymnasts said they thought about it sometimes. The parents said that 75% of their children would have said sometimes and 25% would have said a lot of the time. This states that in regards to food parents are more vigilant with their gymnasts. When asked the same questions about their coaches 16% said a lot of the time, 39% said sometimes, and 42% said never. The coaches stated that their gymnasts would have said 20% a lot of the time, 40% would have said sometimes, and 40% would have said never. The other interesting question that the gymnasts, parents, and coaches had to answer is, “who do you trust more your parents, your coaches, or in-between?” The parents said 100% parents would be trusted more. Coaches said either parents or in-between with 20% saying coaches would be more trusted. This showed that coaches had a better understanding of their role in the gymnasts’ lives, whereas the parents did not understand how big of a role the coaches play in the gymnasts’ lives. The coaches and parents of Peak have a very good understanding of their effects on their gymnasts, but most of the parents and coaches of other gymnasts don’t. Peak is one of the few places where they take pride in putting their gymnasts’ health before their placements in sports.



Karolyi and Stokes



             Bela Karolyi is the perfect example of a coach who put his gymnasts winning before their health, safety, and over all wellbeing. There is a story about Karolyi that started out as a rumor, but through Ryan’s novel and Erica Stokes’ story we learn that it was the truth. Erica Stokes is a gymnast who trained under Karolyi. The rumor was that in Karolyi’s summer camps the girls were never allowed to eat and when they did it was under a watchful eye, Karolyi’s. Anyone who went against Karolyi’s rules would cause the whole group to do extra practice. While Erica was eating a peach, which she thought Karolyi would not mind, Karolyi came up to her and told her, “You’re so lazy. You’re so fat. You just come in and pig out after workouts. All you think about is food” (Ryan 75). For this Stokes’ group got an extra two hour practice for eating a peach. Erica began to throw up so she could please Karolyi and never get called these names again. Karolyi was a Romanian coach who came to America to train young girls. He was not wanted in his own country, because of his strict reputation with the gymnats. Karolyi forever changed the gymnastic world but not in a good way. It will take years before we can gain back the heartbreak brought upon these gymnasts. Karolyi shows how coaches can take winning to a whole new level and cause more damage than good without even knowing it. Karolyi claimed that he did not know what he thought was encouragement was driving these girls to develop eating disorders.

            Some parents believe that they have good intentions and that they are not the reason their children develop eating disorders. While for some parents that may be true, they’re not seeing the whole picture. They may not have directly caused their children’s eating disorder, but they did not help them stop either. The hardest part about an eating disorder is not figuring out when someone has it, but rather helping them to stop or at least control it. Others are also saying that coaches may put pressure on gymnasts to get first place, but no coach actually says lose weight or we will lose, but as you saw earlier there coaches who have. However, they do also prioritize winning over the health of the gymnast.  Some also believe that if a gymnast starts to develop an eating disorder then that was her choice, and no one else could make her do that. But that is the farthest thing from the truth; most gymnasts who develop eating disorders are trying to make their parents and coaches happy. Those gymnasts are either perfectionist or pleasers. Perfectionist are gymnasts who believe everything has to be perfect, there is no room for mistakes. However, pleasers are gymnasts who will do anything to please the adults and peers in their lives. Gymnasts are easily manipulated or pressured by the people they trust, like parents and coaches.  Some parents don’t want to admit that they put too much pressure on their gymnasts. But parents are meant to guide their gymnasts, not make choices for them. Another side to this issue is that some people believe that the media is the main contributor to eating disorders. Don’t the parents control what aspects of the media they allow their gymnasts to see? And if they don’t, why don’t they explain that these ads are not what a real person looks like? If parents and coaches can realize that they control the main aspects of their gymnasts’ lives, then these questions won’t have to be asked.

            Parents need to be aware that not only do the coaches play a huge role in their gymnasts’ development, but that they do as well. Everything a parent says to their child, no matter the age, the child will take seriously. Therefore parents of gymnasts need to understand that what they say about food and winning the gymnast could take to the extremes. No matter what type of personality the gymnast has if there is even a hint of winning being in correspondence to their weight, the gymnast will most likely develop some sort of an eating disorder.

Julissa Gomez performing
 on the beam



      Julissa Gomez is the perfect example of a child whose health and well-being was put aside so that     her parents could achieve their dreams of going to the Olympics through her. Julissa did not have an eating disorder, or at least not one that was diagnosed. But she was a gymnast who a couple of months before the Olympics went to Tokyo to compete in the World Sports Fair. In her second day of competition, she was performing the Yurchenko - highly skillful, now banned move on the vault - when she snapped her neck on the vault and fell onto the mats. Julissa was paralyzed from the neck down. Earlier it was mentioned that Julissa was not diagnosed with an eating disorder, because they were not a diagnosed disease at this time so there was no way to find out if she did have one. All we do know is that once she came out of her coma, “she doubled her weight to 140 pounds, making her virtually unrecognizable” (Ryan 53). Three years after the accident Julissa got an infection, the doctors suggested that their daughter’s time had come, but instead they held onto her for three more days when things worsened and they finally let her go. Julissa’s parents never told her, you have to win there is no other option. But when a child sees their parents sacrifice everything: their marriage, their other children, the child does everything they can to please their parents and keep them happy. Julissa’s parents never realized their daughter was sacrificing herself and her life for their happiness and their dreams.

             Any gymnast will do whatever they can to please their coaches and parents. Understanding this, accepting this, and finding ways to help your children are all that can be asked of parents and coaches. So why doesn’t it happen? I understand that a lot goes into raising your children, especially when more than one of them is a gymnast. That is not an excuse for loosing site of what is important. Your child’s health, well-being, and future are more important than the fun they have in gymnastics. If stopping your gymnast from developing an eating disorder means pulling them out, than by all means DO it. Yes, your child will be upset with you, but sitting them down and explaining to them that you were worried about their safety will mean more to them in the long run. Your children will always know that you love them; it just depends on how you show it.  Coaches, if a parent doesn’t pull their child out of gymnastics, when you think it is necessary that they do, do NOT just sit there and allow this to happen. You should talk to the parents, talk to the gymnasts, and follow your gut. If that means they are mad at you and you lose business, who cares? The gymnast’s safety must ALWAYS come first.