Question

"Sports that require athletes to maintain a specific weight to perform well are at higher risk of developing eating disorders." Justify this statement with your answer.

Hint:

This condition is often a part of the Female Athlete Triad, which consists of disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis.

Answer 1

Step 1: Weight-category and aesthetic sports (wrestling, boxing, judo, gymnastics, figure skating) tie selection or scoring directly to a specific weight or lean look, so an athlete's body becomes a performance variable, not just a personal trait.

Step 2: To meet that target fast, athletes commonly turn to fasting, dehydration, or skipping meals before a weigh-in or competition, methods far more extreme than gradual, healthy weight management.

Step 3: Repeating this cycle season after season normalises restrictive eating and constant self-monitoring of body size, which gradually shifts from a coping strategy into an ingrained habit.

Step 4: This ingrained habit, combined with fear of underperforming due to weight gain, is what tips into clinically recognised eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, confirming that sports demanding a specific weight carry a genuinely elevated risk.