Eating Disorders In Gymnastics

“If gymnastics were easy, they’d call it football” (Unknown). Gymnastics was first introduced in early Greek civilization to facilitate bodily development through a series of exercises that included running, jumping, and swimming. Nowadays, girls and boys start gymnastics training at a very young age and hope to someday go to the Olympics. However, are young boys and girls training too much at such an early age? Children training for gymnastics at an early age can develop eating disorders, injuries, and cause stress and anxiety at a later age. The pressure of coaches and other gymnasts can cause young children to develop eating disorders. “Gymnasts are encouraged to lose weight and mu develop eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. These eating disorders can affect every system in the body and can cause endocrine, cardiovascular, and respiratory problems” (Davis). Problems like these can cause more extreme difficulties later in life. Since gymnastics is a judged sport and certain aspects of judging can be subjective, appearance becomes even more important and the pressure for physical perfection is enormous. Because they are trying to look their best, gymnasts can develop disorders to be in shape. Young children can develop eating disorders from overtraining.

“Children’s bones may stop growing when a child breaks a bone along the bone’s growth plate. When breaks don't heal properly, children can grow with crooked posture, difficulty moving, and long-term pain” (Davis). Injuries that gymnasts get never really go away, and hurt later in life. “Gymnasts are also at a high risk of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis in their wrists, knees, back, and ankles mostly due to constant impact on these areas when hitting a mat” (Sivasubramanian). When gymnasts overtrain, it causes stress on these same areas repeatedly. Injuries can be a severe effect of