The Role Of Eating Disorders In Wrestling

Wrestling Wrestlers are more at risk of disordered eating tendencies, which is a wide range of abnormal eating behaviors and not quite as severe as eating disorders, but is still not healthy for the body to go through (Eating Disorders Victoria, 2015). After completing matches, many wrestlers will engage in binge eating and a massive amount of food, even after feeling full. The main reason why wrestlers engage in some sort of disordered eating is the high pressure to “make weight” (Thompson, 1999). There are certain weight cutoffs that wrestlers have to be under to compete at a certain weight class. Even one pound over the limit will eliminate the possibility of competing. Wrestlers will severely limit their intake of food and even water to significantly reduce weight just to be able to make weight when the competition begins. The significant weight loss is also seen as a natural, accepted culture within wrestling, so many of the athletes feel they have to engage in the behavior to have success in the sport (Thompson, 1999). The weight loss is conscious and voluntary, which is a sign of anorexia …show more content…
Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell, Ben Johnson, and Marion Jones are examples of these elite athletes that have had championships and medals rescinded due to their use of PEDs, such as steroids and EPO (OPV, 2014). One pressure behind the athletes’ use of these drugs within track and field was the thought it was necessary to dope in order to compete at a higher level, similar to many other sports. In an interview, one athlete felt there was pressure to perform, along with pressure to always be improving oneself with people expecting the athlete to be the best. He also stated “I had to prove them right and then to prove myself right” (Pappa & Kennedy, 2012). The pressure to prove others right was outweighing the damage that the drugs could do to the human body in the long