Over the last few months, instead of preparing for a trip to the WinterOlympics, gold medal ski jumper Maren Lundby has emerged as an advocate for change in a sport that has historically had athletes develop eating disorders as teenagers.
. U.S. skiing stars Mikaela Shiffrin and Jessie Diggins have talked about personal struggles; the latter also wrote a book about struggles female athletes face while dealing with unrealistic pressures to have a certain body type.
“Simone Biles, Mikaela Shiffrin, Jessie Diggins — the ones that have shared their stories with mental health — have been great," said U.S. ski jumper Casey Larson, who will compete in his second Olympics in coming days. “It definitely helped us raise the awareness for the athletes that are struggling out there. It’s a definitely a great story.The International Ski Federation has attempted to prod athletes make wise choices when managing their weight.
One of the sport’s greats, Finland’s Matti Nykanen, was listed at 5-foot-8 and 120 pounds for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics; his BMI would be an “underweight” 18.5 with those numbers. Four years later, Sara Takanashi of Japan was all of 5 feet tall and barely 100 pounds but a “healthy” BMI of 19.