The enormous pressure on elite athletes to maintain a lean figure could ultimately change the demographics of who can compete at the Olympics.
That’s according to New York Times sports reporter Karen Crouse, who broke the news that figure skater Adam Rippon succumbed to an eating disorder to maintain his body shape.
“The more it is about appearance, you’re going to get kids in the sport that are younger and younger. You have teenagers whose metabolism is still pretty high and they don’t have these weight issues,” she told Cheddar. “Maybe we are going to see in the future far fewer elite skaters that are 28 years old like Adam.”
Rippon, who won a bronze medal in this year’s Games, revealed to Crouse that he subsisted for a time on a daily diet of three slices of bread with a dab of “I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter” and a couple cups of coffee.
He thought the longer, thinner frame would be more aesthetically pleasing to the judges. But a broken foot last year changed his mind.
“He actually thinks that one of the reasons he suffered this injury was that he wasn’t getting enough calcium and other nutrients, and that made his bones brittle,” Crouse said. “He’s now eating much better and actually is ten pounds heavier than he was two years ago when he won that national title. And if you look at him, he has an enviable body.”
Since his injury, Rippon has been workin with a nutritionist with the United States Olympic Committee who’s helped him develop healthier eating habits.
Following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling year that cleared the way for sports gambling, fans in seven states can bet on the upcoming Super Bowl for the first time ー and leaders in the budding industry are anticipating the Big Game will deliver their biggest day yet. “We expect the Super Bowl to be our single biggest day in the company’s history,” Mike Raffensperger, the chief marketing officer for betting platform FanDuel, told Cheddar.
FightCamp is a new fitness company that streams boxing classes from top instructors direct to consumers. The classes can be tailored to the needs of boxers at all levels of expertise ー from newbies to punching pros said co-founder Tommy Duquette.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Jan. 25, 2019.
The New York Knicks and its jersey sponsor, the website-building platform Squarespace, are doling out assists to four local businesses as part of the second annual "Make It Awards." "Partnering with Squarespace to help those entrepreneurs get their businesses to the next level was something we were very interested in doing and it's been a major hit," said MSG Sports' senior vice president of business operations, Kristin Bernert, in an interview on Cheddar.
The Delaware Blue Coats will make their debut Wednesday night at the brand new Philadelphia 76ers Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Del., and the team will share the spotlight with an arena that boasts five stories, can seat 2,500 fans, and includes three NBA-regulation basketball courts. The flashy new arena was designed to promote youth sports in the state of Delaware and the greater Philadelphia region. "It's all geared towards youth," Chris Heck, the president of the Philadelphia 76ers, told Cheddar.
The NBA is transparent about its approval of legalized, regulated sports betting ー but the league is also clearly communicating that it wants a fair share of the money wagered on its games. "It's our view that if state governments are going to be authorizing private entities, in most cases casinos, to generate significant revenue ー billions of dollars of revenue ー off of the NBA competitions, that the NBA participate in some way," said the NBA's head of fantasy and gaming Scott Kaufman-Ross.
Former Green Bay Packer Ahman Green is a four time Pro Bowler, but he's also an avid gamer. When it comes to Halo he's just another fan that looks up to professionals like Proximitty and LethuL for help with his improving his skills.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday Jan. 23, 2019.
If there's one person aside from the 800,000 unpaid federal workers who is hoping the government shutdown ends soon, it's Keisha Lance Bottoms. The mayor of Atlanta is less than two weeks away from hosting Super Bowl LIII, which is a logistical and security nightmare even when the city's airport *isn't* being slowed down by mass TSA sick-outs. "I'm extremely concerned," Bottoms said of the possibility that the shutdown may continue through Super Bowl weekend.
Cloud9 has been dubbed the most valuable esports company in the world by Forbes Magazine ー a title that is thanks, at least in part, to the organization's powerhouse VP of marketing, Eunice Chen. Chen is an esports vet who has worked for industry stalwart Riot Games and even runs her own tournament production company, Heroeshype. In an interview with Cheddar Sports, she said, "there are always different ways we can break into new markets in esports and beyond."
