‘Everyone’s judging what you look like’: Dealing with body image pressures in sport

Diver Anabelle Smith was an “energetic” and “bubbly” kid who never thought twice about her body. 

But things started to change for the three-time Olympian when she hit puberty around the late age of 17.

And she simultaneously moved to Brisbane, away from her family and support network, to further her career.

“I think feeling the pressure to have to look like everyone else is a common occurrence amongst a lot of athletes,” the now 31-year-old told ABC Sport.

“As divers, we are in bathers in our training sessions, so there’s not a lot that’s left to the imagination.

“Sometimes you can feel eyes are on you, and at competitions everyone’s judging what you look like.”

Smith’s negative feelings about her body weren’t helped by comments from support staff, or others in the diving community.

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On low battery

Body image concerns are one of the major barriers to girls and women’s participation in sport and physical activity.

Dr Susan White is the chief medical officer at the Victorian Institute of Sport and says it’s more common amongst women, primarily in sports with minimal uniform coverage, like swimming, diving, and athletics.

“[It can lead to] some mental health issues, and disordered eating, which is the prelude to eating disorders, just a difference in severity,” Dr White told ABC Sport.

Smith struggled with both under-fuelling and overeating.

“I was trying to not eat a lot of food to fit a mould that I thought I needed to fit at training, but also reacting to some of the things that I was seeing around me,” she said.

At one stage Smith was put on a low-calorie meal plan and ended up losing her period.

“It’s not a healthy goal to have to try and lose your period because it means that you aren’t fuelling yourself properly,” she said.

Dr White says many athletes experience low energy availability, which can lead to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), meaning there isn’t enough food intake to account for the energy output.

“It’s a bit like your phone is on low battery, and some of the apps don’t work. So if you haven’t got enough power, some of the apps don’t work in you,” Dr White said.

“You are less fertile during that time; you are more likely to be iron deficient. Those things result in lower hormones.

“You’re more likely to have issues with bone health, both short and long-term.

“You’re more likely to be injured, you’re more likely to have gut disturbances, and ultimately, not surprisingly, you’re more likely to have reduced performance.”

Performance over aesthetics

Taishar Ovens is a wheelchair basketballer at the Western Australia Institute of Sport and the Australian Gliders and hasn’t always had a straightforward relationship with her body.

“I think it’s taken me a long time to be okay with myself and my body,” she told ABC Sport.

“But for me now [I think about] how do I perform? How do I feel strength-wise?”

Western Sydney Wanderers goalkeeper Sham Khamis, who is also an exercise physiologist, can relate.

“You see images, or you see athletes in your same sport in the same position looking a certain way and it can play on your mind sometimes,” Khamis told ABC Sport.

“In the outside world, people see your body and think, oh your arms are bigger than mine or your legs are bigger than mine.”

But Khamis says it’s important to focus on performance over aesthetics.

“Physically, am I able to do my job?” she said.

“Do I go to training, am I able to make that sprint, am I able to push off and make that dive that’s gonna win my team the game? That’s what we should be looking at.”

Ovens agrees a shift in mindset makes a big difference.

“I feel better in my body when I’m lifting heavy and pushing faster, and I know that I’m performing because my body is stronger,” she said.

For dual Summer and Winter Paralympian, and current ParaMatilda, Rae Anderson, becoming an athlete helped improve her body image. 

“As a kid because of all the surgeries and work that I had done for my cerebral palsy, I have got a lot of scars and quite bigger scars on my leg,” she told ABC Sport.

“As a young girl, I thought that wasn’t ideal.

“Coming into a sporting world, I had less issues in my body image, and doing work with ModiBodi in the lead up to Rio was really empowering with the movement that created being the first Australian disabled woman to be an underwear model, and how much positive feedback we had from that.”

When Anderson was competing in athletics she said it was important for her to have the choice of wearing crop tops, or singlets, and now as a footballer, there are challenges with finding uniforms that fit.  

“We don’t have the same resources that other teams do and we have in certain competitions been expected to wear men’s uniforms,” she said.

Using wise words

Coaches and support staff are critical to creating positive sporting environments, and the language they use is a key part of that.

“We’ve actually done some really interesting work with the athletes where we’ve talked about the words to use,” Dr White said.

“Focusing more on those performance words, rather than how you look.”

Smith says the education and awareness around body image is much better in sport now and she hopes to be a role model for others.

“We’re not supposed to look like we looked when we were 12 when we’re 18, and everything that’s happening with our bodies is perfectly normal,” she said.

“With support staff, it’s all about the education, open communication lines, and just ensuring athletes feel the most comfortable that they can be talking about that stuff, if they feel necessary, and also get a trusting environment.”