"Fat don't fly"... ski jumping is "one of the most eating-disorder plagued sports"

[Demovictory9]

Olympic champion Lundby laments ski jumping's weight issues

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Over the last few months, Lundby has emerged as an advocate for change in a sport that has historically had athletes develop eating disorders as teenagers, all in a quest to be as light as possible to squeeze a few more meters out of their flights through the air.

USA Nordic executive director Billy Demong, a five-time Olympian in Nordic combined, said ski jumping is “one of the most eating-disorder plagued sports” because of the desire to keep pounds off.

“Fat don’t fly, things like that. That’s not something I’m ever going to let a coach say, but the athletes talk to each other and they see it on TV,” Demong said earlier this season during training in Lake Placid, New York. “Some guys took it too far, back in the day, in my era from 2000 to 2005 is when it was really bad.

"We're talking 6-foot guys that we're like 105 to 110 pounds. Wildly light. Some guys could do it and somebody else would starve themselves the wrong way and they would end up in the hospital."

https://www.newser.com/article/f2c3f587eb00018e20e50b3d01591639/olympic-champion-lundby-laments-ski-jumpings-weight-issues.html

The International Ski Federation has attempted to prod athletes make wise choices when managing their weight.

If jumpers have a body mass index of 21 or more, they can have skis as long as 145% of their height. The more ski surface they have, the farther they fly. But FIS requires jumpers to use shorter skis if their BMI falls below 21, which is considered a relatively healthy number for men and women.

One of the sport’s greats, Finland’s Matti Nykanen, was listed at 5-foot-8 and 120 pounds for the 2010 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.

https://apnews.com/article/winter-olympics-sports-health-lifestyle-2020-tokyo-olympics-ff567561c7ba0d0792fd38f88ff125b8