Aesthetic Sports: Let’s Talk About It
Trigger warning: This blog covers topics such as eating disorders and body image issues.
Everyone knows being active and getting outside can benefit your mental health tremendously. In fact, it’s typical for parents to say, “Get out of the house, go get some air” when their children have been “glued to their screens” for hours. There was even a study done that ESPN talked about (ESPN) that showed there were many positives regarding the relationship between sports and mental health. More than 10,000 girls across the country feel that doing sports increases their confidence, body image, and personal relationships while having little to no harm to their academic performance.
During middle and high school years, it’s common knowledge girls’ confidence (and everyone’s for that matter) goes down, however, in the study done it was shown girls who participate in sports have significantly more confidence than those who do not. Non-athlete girls spend more time on social media, most likely due to having more time on their hands than girls who participate in a sport, and girls who play sports also seem to have stronger friendships with other girls. Those who play a sport are 10% more likely to say they trust other girls and 7% more likely to get along well with other girls, due to the team bonding that’s done while playing or participating in a sport. Now, this is the main part that stuck out to me: according to the survey, girls were 16% less likely to want to change their bodies if they played a sport.
I’m not sure about you, but the second I read that, I immediately thought of what I now know are called “aesthetic sports”. These are sports that are appearance-oriented and often based on what a panel of judges thinks about your performance. For example, gymnastics, diving, artistic skating, ballet, and dance are considered “lean sports” (BioMed Central) because it’s believed if you have a lower body weight or a smaller figure, you’ll be judged higher. These sports can begin to put body image on a pedestal and pressure the athletes to think about their body, weight, and eating behaviors. As PubMed Central stated, “It’s common for athletes participating in aesthetic sports to believe that ‘thin is going to win’”.
In a survey done, WebMD says that 68% of the female college athletes who answered said they felt pressure to be pretty and 30% said they were nervous about being too muscular. Almost 80% of elite sportswomen said they were constantly thinking of their body and appearance. That being said, a study done by the University of Wisconsin showed 41.5% of female high school athletes who participated in an aesthetic sport reported disordered eating (Arizona State University). Because of this, those who reported disordered eating were twice as likely to suffer from a musculoskeletal injury due to the lack of balanced eating.
It’s been said an athlete who restricts and counts calories may feel a sense of control and feel proud when restricting. One may be able to overcome an eating disorder, however, the mentality one learns while experiencing one will stay with them for the rest of their life. The longer they maintain this mentality the harder it is to recover successfully. Some signs of an eating disorder include:
Excessively thinking of food
Looking in the mirror frequently, checking for flaws
Skipping meals
Excessive exercise
It’s vital for parents, coaches, teammates, and friends to be wary of these signs so that they can be checking on the athlete, especially if they participate in an aesthetic sport, to ensure the issue doesn’t go unsolved.
Resources:
Study shows positive correlation between playing sports, better self-image among girls
A comprehensive model of disordered eating among aesthetic athletic girls
The Prevalence of disordered eating among athletes in aesthetic sports