Mark your calendars for a live broadcast discussion with 2019 ITU series overall champion, Olympian triathlete Katie Zaferes.
It's no secrete that many athletes struggle with body image. But what about elite and professional athletes....do they deal with the same issues? Are Olympians afraid of becoming too muscular? Do they feel pressure from coaches (and the media) to be lean on race day? Do they worry about weight?
Every athlete wants to perform at his/her best when it matters the most...on event day. But in certain sports, there is a lot of pressure to look a certain way - to reach a body type that's "ideal." Many athletes struggle with eating enough to support the energy demands of training and wanting to look a certain way. Alongside a misbelief that lower body weight (or body fat) improves performance, many athletes desire a change in body composition due to the display of their bodies in a tight or revealing uniform. When the pressure is so great to achieve a specific body composition, it's not uncommon for restrictive or extreme eating strategies to compromise health and fitness.
The topics of body image, weight and body composition can be triggering for many athletes. Inundated with wrong messages from coaches and nutrition experts, along with high expectations and feeling a lot of pressure to perform, it's not uncommon for athletes to slip into disordered eating patterns.
With so much pressure to "lose" weight, we need to shift the conversation from loss to gain.
Gaining power, endurance, resilience, strength....and most importantly,
GAINING BODY CONFIDENCE.
An athlete is more than a body.
The strengths gained from sport are more than just physical.