Olympic female swimmers Misty Hyman, Maya DiRado and Amanda Beard discuss female athletes’ attempts to cope with issues of body image and eating disorders. Body image has special meaning for these young women in a world of unrealistic expectations about the female body promoted by the media.
Hyman battled bulimia for almost 10 years, beginning with her senior year in high school. She told USA Today that her eating disorder became a way of coping. “Part of it was my own insecurities; part of it was my own control, the sense of being in control or something I could control,” Hyman said. “It wasn’t strictly just a body image issue or strictly just, ‘I’m trying to perform better.’ As an athlete I think there were other emotional challenges that I manifested into my eating disorder as a way of coping.”
Image courtesy of Teen Vogue.
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