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.
Novak Djokovic has won the U.S. Open for his 24th Grand Slam title by using every ounce of his energy and some serve-and-volley guile to get past Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the final in New York.
Diede de Groot has won her 12th straight Grand Slam wheelchair singles title. She beat Yui Kamiji on Sunday in the U.S. Open women’s final.
Rubiales kissed Jenni Hermoso during the awards ceremony after Spain beat England to win the title on Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia. The player said it was without her consent.
Gauff is the first American teenager to win the country’s major tennis tournament since Serena Williams in 1999.
The Lions walked into roaring Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night, where the Kansas City Chiefs are nearly unbeatable and were trying to open their latest Super Bowl title defense with a win, and proved what Detroit coach Dan Campbell has come to know in turning around the long downtrodden franchise.
Spanish soccer star Jenni Hermoso said a kiss from federation president Luis Rubiales after the team's World Cup win was sexual assault.
Because tennis balls are extremely hard to recycle and the industry has yet to develop a ball to make that easier, nearly all of the 330 million balls made worldwide each year eventually get chucked in the garbage, with most ending up in landfills.
“You cannot imagine," he said. "One player (is) gonna die, and they’re gonna see.”
Spanish state prosecutors say soccer player Jenni Hermoso has accused Luis Rubiales of sexual assault for kissing her on the lips without her consent after the Women’s World Cup final.
Rising tennis sensation Coco Gauff is the first teen from the U.S. to reach the semifinals in the U.S. Open since Serena Williams in 2001.
