They distribute the categories in taekwondo by weight, from the weight mini flies to the heavy weight. This can encourage athletes to force their own weight. Edurne Garmendia – which is not his real name – is 29 years old; when he was about 15 he started to worry too much about the image and the body, which caused him problems related to food. During her adolescence, she had bulimia: “Nobody told me on which floor I had to be, it was the pressure I put on myself. I wanted to compete with the best and then it all started.”

The pressure on weight can come from different areas, from within or around oneself, for example, by the members of the group. This is not the case of the protagonist of this report, but in some cases it is the coaches who exert the most pressure. The sports psychologist Gemma Sanginés tells us she knows these girls and tells us about the experience of a female athlete: “The trainer told him he was too fat, to be careful not to take more weight, than if he wasn’t going to lose the season.” Often, the trainer has negative effects on athletes, can cause imbalances, they are not helped with these kinds of phrases.

The young man who does taekwondo is of the same opinion. “If coaches knew that a problem like mine could appear... I think if you haven’t gone through it, you don’t understand it, you’re not prepared for this kind of disease.” He says that sometimes they don't see it as a problem or they don't want to see it. "As long as the athlete has reached the level indicated, there is no problem. Coaches may think that what they're doing is the best thing for the team. Many times they put their goals, their institutions or their interests before those of the athlete”. Today, for example, at the highest levels of taekwondo, it tells us that things are done wrong. To achieve a certain weight, athletes play with food: “Coaches know they do, but they don’t ask, they turn a blind eye and the athlete just has to gain weight.”

Women athletes are the ones who suffer most from the pressure of the environment. They are also the ones who suffer particularly from food-related diseases, although there are more and more cases in men. “Beauty canons are still more prominent in women,” says Donostia sports psychologist Aritz Olagoi. In his words, although it is difficult to associate disorders such as bulimia or anorexia with a specific profile, there are features that stand out: woman, adolescent and especially in the two types of sports: on the one hand in endurance or long-term sports (triathlon, cycling…) and on the other in which the categories are divided by weight (rhythmic gymnastics, taekwondo, boxing…).

According to Olagoiti, the lack of weight in long-term sports can help improve performance, so you have to be cautious. “You have to burn a lot of energy and a conflict like this arises. You need a lot of calories, because then you smoke a lot in workouts, and if you somehow break that relationship, or don't get along, problems arise."

These diseases cause performance to decrease. This could be one of the clues that could help detect the problem in time, according to the Donostian psychologist. Sangines also sees symptoms of postural changes: “If you’re close to the athlete you can see great changes in your behavior; sadness, depression and lack of self-esteem, among others.” We can find the following phrases: “I’m not good, I’m not good, I don’t see myself well, I’m fat”...

That happened to the young man doing the taekwondo: “In sports, I was not in good condition because I had some problems due to lack of fluids, such as cramps. In addition, personally, I didn't feel good about myself. We're a lot of family members, I belong to a big family, and I've once thought it wasn't worth being there." He's never told anyone what happened to him in his teenage years, or his family, or his peers. “I don’t know if my family knows it, I don’t know if my mother knows it… You think you do things right, you think you hide what’s going on well. But you may know, because there always comes a time when you do things without being so worried, when the important thing is more than not doing it. I have never been asked if I am OK and if it is possible that, given the weight I have, we want to compete at a lower weight level.” That this is a decision of the athlete is fully assumed in the teams. “They ask you at what level you want to participate and you decide. What you have to do to get there is your thing.”

In the case of bulimia, it is clearly observed that patients have no control over food, according to Sangines: “Normally, if you’re next to him, you see them eating out of control, usually very quickly, and then they escape.” Often, these people close and seek loneliness. The girl we interviewed looked like this, but she managed to get out of there. “I couldn’t do more.” He knew that he was hurting himself and that he couldn't go on like that. “If I wanted to do sports, if I really wanted to be OK and compete, I couldn’t be thinking about who I was at home, when I could go to the bathroom after eating or what I was doing so I couldn’t hear what I had to open the water tap. It’s not a nice image that you see lying on the bathroom floor.” One day he decided to end all of that, to put aside “nonsense.” “I was lucky, I realized.”

Overcoming tobacco and impacting prevention

Food-related diseases remain a taboo in sport. The two psychologists and the athlete interviewed agree on this. According to Sangines, nothing happens because any athlete is injured. On the contrary, having an imbalance is still taboo, it's poorly seen, because it's a psychological disease. “Being a tobacco, you don’t see it and instead of treating it, you hide.” Olagoiti added that “it is difficult to see that an athlete can be admitted to a press conference as a result of a problem of this kind, which cannot compete in a given time”.

Talking about the problem is fundamental. Edurne Garmendia helped him “enormously” talk to his psychologist: “He has saved my life.” He thinks that everyone who does sport should receive psychological help, because it is the path of self-understanding. It seems to him that steps have gradually been taken in this direction, that there are more and more sports psychologists and that there are more possibilities to talk about the issue, although it is not yet sufficient.

He has made a long way to leave behind what happened at the age of 15, but it is clear that he has not yet overcome the problem of weight. It doesn't make the same decisions, but there are times that make him think he's getting obsessed. “Sometimes I think: now I can’t eat because I have to give a weight here at a time, if what like now tomorrow the weight of the scale will not be what it should be…” Today, however, it has mechanisms to realize what is happening and to modify it as best as possible. Even though the thoughts are still there, it's more mature, it has more information.

“We must overcome the taboo,” says Sanginés: “If we don’t get it out of the closet, we won’t be able to investigate properly; if people don’t accept it, it will be difficult to take steps to overcome the problem.” It focuses on prevention. Symptoms and consequences should arise: “From a young age, you should explain what can happen and what the consequences of ‘playing’ with food can be.”

Prevention and training are the keys to fighting these diseases, according to psychologist Aritz Olagoi. Training should take into account two components: nutrition and performance, as “the risk is double for athletes”.

The athlete told us that when I was 15 years old there was not enough information. Also, in recent years, he has not seen major steps in this field. “It should be socialized. It’s true that I, for example, still feel embarrassed to admit this, but this is a way for others not to do the same.” It attaches great importance to education and, to this end, work should also be done with parents: “It’s parents who cook at home, they’re on the table, and they have to realize what’s going on.”

By people, champions

Asked about the evolution of these diseases in sport, they all agree that they are starting to grow younger and, although previously limited to women, it has now spread to men, especially in long-term sports. On the other hand, 42% of women who practice rhythmic gymnastics have suffered from a disease of this type in their trajectory. Almost half, I mean.

As far as age is concerned, as has already been said, there are increasing numbers of young people with these imbalances. In recent years, it is inevitable that the number of participants in competitions will be reduced. “Despite not being in the elite, the issue of weight is related to competition, which makes 10 years old start competing,” Sanginés said. “Judges measure aesthetics, body and body balance. It has a number in the score or in the conclusions, so it becomes an important variable and an effort is made to achieve it”.

Garmendia has been convinced that the problem "is on the rise" for what has been talked to other athletes. He thinks that the pressure is increasing, that it had previously put itself on, and that in recent years the pressure of the environment is growing. “If my parents had known what was going on at the time, they would have scolded me. Today, pressure also comes from parents.” Hoping to see her children as world champions, she believes her parents are willing to look away. In the view that the problem has been undermined in recent years, and that the situation will remain the same if there is no willingness to recognize and act in the face of the spread of this type of disease as a result of competitions. “It’s normal today to see parents and coach screaming while their children play.” He says that parents see their children's competitions as competitors, rather than thinking that children are playing and enjoying. “Instead of people, we want champions.”