Coaches must pay attention to the warning signs of eating disorders in their athletes, according to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. While the AU athletic community agreed coaches are key in the fight against eating disorders, many said the issue isn't very prevalent here.
Increasingly, coaches are identifying and handling their athletes' eating disorders, which can be aggravated by the transition to college, according to the Chronicle.
Sean Dash, AU's head athletic trainer, said coaches can notice the early warning signs of eating disorders because they work with athletes on a day-to-day basis and can judge when performance drops.
He also said coaches here work hard to discourage eating disorders and encourage healthy body image.
Matt Centrowitz, AU's head cross country and track coach, said athletes often feel more comfortable talking to him about these issues because he's not trying to control every aspect of their life.
"I'm concerned with making them run as fast as they can," Centrowitz said. "Eating disorders are unhealthy and are going to affect their performance."
In the 12 years he's been coaching here, Centrowitz said he's only had to deal with one eating disorder case.
While admitting that keeping weight under control is important, Mark Cody, AU's head wrestling coach, said he's never run into problems with eating disorders.
However, Cody said eating disorders were far more common in the past because earlier weigh-in times before competitions allowed athletes to cut a lot of weight quickly. Weigh-ins occur before wrestling meets to determine what weight class the athlete will compete in.
Twenty years ago, athletes would weigh in five hours before competing, enabling them to resort to unhealthy eating in order to get into a certain weight class.
"It was more of a challenge to keep weight off than to compete," he said, referring to how athletes would focus more on getting into a certain weight-class than competing.
Now, weigh-ins occur only an hour before meets, which discourages athletes from losing weight right before weigh-ins, Cody said.
Cody said his role as coach is to emphasize nutrition, such as eating a "common sense diet" of four to five small meals a day to boost metabolism.
On the other hand, Jason Riddell, AU's head strength and conditioning coach, said he sees eating problems with his athletes far too often, predominately among females.
Despite coming to him in efforts to be strong, he says his female athletes often say they don't want to become man-like.
"Women don't want to be big," he said. "But if you want to compete, you have to be strong."
Riddell said female athletes often face competing body image expectations: the waif depicted in the media and that of the healthy, strong athlete.
Riddell said he emphasizes healthy body image when working with athletes.
"Bean poles don't get it done," he said. "I want to see healthy, strong individuals."
Amy Bowers, assistant director for outreach and consultation at the Counseling Center, said there's no simple explanation for why athletes develop eating disorders.
"It's tricky with athletes because of course they have to be in shape," said Bowers, who specializes in eating disorder issues.
Bowers said athletes often possess traits that can increase someone's probability of developing an eating disorder, such as ambition and perfectionism. Family history and control issues can also contribute, she said.
However, she said, "sports aren't inherently bad or unhealthy."
Ashley Peppler, a cross-country runner and a freshman in the School of International Service, said she has never been pressured to lose weight because of her sport.
"I actually make an effort to take in calories so that I do not lose weight or become unhealthy," she said in an e-mail.
Greta Wicklund, a cross-country runner and a freshman in SIS, said while athletics don't lead to eating disorders, they can sometimes act as a way to excuse it.
"At first, in some sports, better performance goes along with weight loss, which can add to the pressure to continue developing an eating disorder," she said in an e-mail. "Even when in the long run you are hurting your body and your ability to perform at your optimum level."
Dash said athletics don't encourage eating disorders, but that the increased visibility of athletes highlights the problem.
"There are a lot of students across America with eating disorders," he said. "But they just don't get the same level of attention as when an athlete develops one"
