If the anorexia of athletes remains marginal, it is better and better understood by sports authorities. However, the phenomenon remains taboo.
“We notice them during competitions. They don’t come to meals and drink tea all the time. They are very thin. So, yes, we imagine that they have a feeding problem. But we never talk about it. It’s too taboo ”.
Isabelle Delobel remembers well her years of figure skating and her skinny-built competitors. “This sport is perhaps more exposed than others to the problems of anorexia, because the silhouette and the weight have a particular importance”, explains this former world champion, who herself multiplied the “stupid diets”.
“Slimming sports”
In the name of performance, some high-level athletes make their weight a sometimes pathological obsession, even if anorexia remains marginal in the environment. It would affect between 0.1% and 0.2% of athletes, compared to 1% of the general population. “Slimming sports” – dance, skating, cross-country running, gymnastics, etc. – are particularly concerned, they which promote slim figures and featherweights. This Sunday, France 2 will devote an investigation to this phenomenon little known to the general public (1).
As in the rest of society, these disorders have long been the subject of a taboo. “Nobody likes people who don’t eat. Top-level athletes are the stuff of dreams, a bit like top models. We refrain from discussing these problems, so as not to destroy the image, ”says Isabelle Delobel. Result: the medical follow-up of the pathology took a long time to set up.
Listen to Isabelle Delobel, Olympic figure skating champion: “At the time, we had no monitoring of our diet.”
“How do you want to win with a big ass…?” “
Aware of this problem, the Ministry of Health produced in 2012 a recommendation guide for sports and health professionals to better identify and treat eating disorders in athletes. Without incriminating them, it is particularly aimed at coaches who can amplify the pathologies of athletes by their words.
“You’ve gained weight, be careful. How do you want to win with a big ass? These little phrases are very common in training, ”says Sandra Tetard. This gymnast, who has won several titles, now trains young competitors. The thesis she made on anorexia in sport denounces certain abuses.
“There are sports where anorexic behavior is tolerated because it suits everyone,” she says. In the gym, in dance, we want very thin silhouettes. Suddenly, the coaches close their eyes, even congratulate the thinness of the athletes. Until one of them ends up in the hospital ”. To avoid pushing her athletes to damage themselves, Sandra Tetard avoids insisting on the “weight / performance” relationship. “I explain to them that we can win, even with a little overweight”. Which is true, up to a certain level …
Yo-yo diets
In fact, it is the weight / performance ratio that is at the heart of eating disorders in athletes – even if, as Sandra Tetard points out, “sport does not generate these disorders, it exacerbates them in subjects who are already fragile ”. They affect both men and women. In fact, all weight class sports seem to be affected. Boxers or even judokas are in fact accustomed to following “yo-yo” diets to fall into certain categories defined by weight. Ski jumping is not spared either, a lighter skier can improve his performance thanks to a better weight / power ratio.
“The studies carried out on the issue nevertheless show that these athletes recover a normal diet and body mass index after the end of their career”, explains Dr Jean-François Toussaint, sports doctor and director of theInstitute for Biomedical Research and Sports Epidemiology (IRMES).
Listen to Dr Jean-François Toussaint, sports doctor and director of IRMES: “It is not necessarily the training that is in question. The subjective criteria to judge certain disciplines, certain sports also play. “
Today, the eating disorders of athletes are better taken care of. “Athletes benefit from nutritional support, based not only on the quantity of food but also on its quality,” explains Jean-François Toussaint. In some clubs, athletes fill out a questionnaire every morning to assess their psychological state ”. A way of breaking the silence around pathology.
(1) Stage 2 – 5:35 p.m. Anorexia: the great taboo of sport
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