“Intensive sport can have deleterious effects on the health of young people”

“Sports activities are very important and very positive for children and adolescents: it improves their physical, psychological or social development, and it protects them from possible addictions. But practiced intensively, they can have extremely deleterious effects on their health.”

During a press conference held on the occasion of the Olympic and Paralympic week, Professor Yves Lebouc detailed the impact that very advanced training can have on young people.

Intensive sport among young people: what are the consequences for health?

Which sports are affected by these pitfalls? “There are in particular artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming, tennis and endurance sports,” first explains the specialist.

“The problems caused by practicing intensive sport at a very young age are stature growth, pubertal anomalies, menstrual cycle disorders, or even musculo-tendinous, joint and bone damage”, he continues.

“The causes of these problems are the number of hours of training, insufficient nutritional intake, reduced body fat, aesthetic imperatives as well as the family and genetic component,” he summarizes.

“The mechanisms that cause these health problems include energy expenditure which exceeds intake, a reduction in leptin, an increase in ghrelin, a deficiency in estrogen and testosterone as well as a reduction in bone density”explains the professor.

Intensive sport among young people: “there is also doping”

“There is also doping among children and adolescents who practice high-level sport. Fortunately, the prevalence is low, around 0.5%. It is more common among boys, especially when they are competitive and that they play as a team”, he adds.

To support his point, Yves Lebouc presented different profiles and trajectories of very young athletes. “For example, we have the case of a very great artistic gymnast who started the sport very early at 6 years old. At 12, she was already training 24 hours a week with a host family. She then joined Insep, where she worked 35 hours per week. She then became a very high level champion: at 16, she weighed less than 38 kilos and was 1m48 tall and was already three years late in bone age. She will have her first period at the age of 17. Throughout this time, she had multiple injuries and suffered from urinary incontinence issues, something many young girls are unable to talk about. When the competition stopped, she gained ten kilos and grew 10 centimeters. reports the specialist.

“Second example: we reconstructed the journey of a star opera dancer. She started at 11 years old. At 12 years old, she was already working three hours a day with flexible schedules. At 13 years old, at the conservatory, she works six hours a day several times a week, with a growth rate that is already starting to slow down and a bone age delayed by two years. At 16, she is 1.58m tall, 42 kilos, and has a body shape completely suited to dancing . She will have her first period at 17”, describes Professor Yves Lebouc.

Intensive sport among young people: what should be done to avoid health problems?

What should be done to prevent young people from developing health problems linked to intensive sports practice? “We need a really in-depth dietary assessment and an analysis of energy expenditure. The problem with children and adolescents is that it is difficult to evaluate, in particular because there are ethics committees which oppose it”, concludes Yves Lebouc.