WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE A FIGURE SKATER WITH AN EATING DISORDER

[@valerieskates]

I wish that more skaters would share their stories like this. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@stealthreporter5122]

This is such an important issue in high level competitive athletics, especially because bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc. must be nourished to build strength. Anorexia and bulimia are very well known eating disorders that are rampant in sports like figure skating, gymnastics, & ballet but it is swept under the rug by the coaches, the associations/organizations, the judges, and many times, the parents of kids pursuing these sports. Then, when an athlete comes forward and either takes a leave of absence to get help or drops out altogether, everybody acts stunned. Come on. Everyone knows that it’s easier to throw a ping pong ball in the air than a bowling ball. Girls and boys begin these sports as very young children and everything is fine until puberty. That’s a major part of it. Teenagers involved in competitive athletics that hit puberty are treated like it is abnormal, when it is the total opposite. It’s a bad environment. My good friend’s daughter wanted to be a professional ballerina so badly-she’s been dancing since she was 3. As she got older, the competition grew more fierce and she was flooded with anxiety & depression, which is quite common in competitive sports. She loves dancing but did not make it into a company, so she decided to go to college & major in dance. Unfortunately, she sacrificed all of her young life for ballet-she had no friends in school, no interests besides ballet & no “plan B”. It’s a tough decision to make, but sometimes leaving altogether is the best one.

[@JohannaAllik7]

I agree! I hope your friends daughter has found another passion in life now!

[@AutumnHaunts]

Thank you for being so open about binging and purging. I feel that it doesn’t get spoken about often it’s kind of the “hush hush” eating disorder that gets silenced or just never spoken about. I’m currently struggling and trying to stop but I keep failing 💔

[@JohannaAllik7]

oh sorry to hear this! If I can help anyhow get in touch with me! Thank you for watching my video tho!

[@crazygirl8676]

I have the same situation. Started age 15, now I am 21. And as a figure skater, I get very winded sometimes. I love hearing your story because mine is almost identical. But not recovered

[@JohannaAllik7]

Hey! Thank you for being brave and sharing:) I just posted another video, explaining how I managed to get myself out of the hole, I encourage you to look at it. I hope it inspires you:)

[@patriciabilinkas3911]

Society places too much importance on looks, placing pressure on many too many teens to become anorexic and/or bulimic. Now, sadly, many older women and some men have eating disorders, too. Looking at you in this video and having watched your skating videos you have made lately, I have to say that you have a spectacular body that gives you the strength and power to create them. It’s a blessing you found yourself and got healthy. ❤️😀

[@JohannaAllik7]

Thank you! I'm grateful for my experience as well and to this day I work on my body, but I do it through joy:) Thank you for watching!

[@itsjiminsnonexistentjams1221]

We’re honestly so pressured to lose weight ALL THE TIME it’s like “don’t gain this much weight” “Lose 7kg before next week or you won’t preform” “no Leila that fat won’t do, if you’d o tricks and that fat giggles I’m gonna have a fit.” “I will not throw one of my skaters out on that ice looking like a pig” “your gaining a lot of Weight this week as I see on my chart Leila let’s work on that, I’m gonna put you on a diet, 360 calories a day.” I heard all of these. My training place was mentally abusing me and I didn’t know. All I wanted to do was make it to the Olympics or be big in the skating world, I didn’t realize the down fall of being fed all of these things, those things called insecurities. The things that live in a hole and you get dragged into that hole. I got to a point where when I fainted on the ice the coach would just wait for me to get up again then make me skate around the whole thing 5-10 times saying I fainted because I was fat, in reality I was skinny. To skinny. More then skinny. I was tired of being drained and decided to get recovery and quit the sport I dearly loved and sometimes til this day cry about, I was only 9-11 years old when all this happened. I’m now 14 and the words forever make me upset. I can’t believe how much an adult can make a child insecure just to make money off of them.

[@sherrimiller5258]

I’m so sorry you went through that. I can’t fathom how an adult could do that to a child. I’m older but I loved ice skating as a young girl. I only took classes for a couple years and then my parents divorced and couldn’t afford to continue. Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise. I pray you continue to take good care of yourself.

[@Runner8617]

I fell in love with this sport the first time I went skating for fun, it is so beautiful!! Just watching the figure skater skate and do jumps takes my breath away!! I begged my parents to sign me up for classes, but then heard my mom tell my dad, "NO, SHE'S GONNA LOOK LIKE A COW ON ICE". It hurts so much, they never signed me up. I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, because my family STILL told me all those nasty comments about being fat. 😞 I never had a chance to do something I felt was my passion and I knew I was going to be good at. I would skate 🛼 around our neighborhood and pretend I was ice skating. I still wish I had a chance.... I still developed an eating disorder without the sport just because my family was so mean..

[@victoriaisopp3037]

Thank you so much for sharing your story!!! I started figure skating with 4 years old and ended it with 11 years because I couldn’t handle the pressure of being thinner and thinner and still having an athlete body. Mobbing was normal at that time in figure skating (and sadly still is...) and all the kids around me had anorexia/bulimia so I needed to start it too because if I don’t I wouldn’t fit in. I’m now 20 years old and still struggle with what happened there. I still have a big eating disorder issue. I would love to start figure skating again, because it was my biggest passion, but I’m just too scared to meet people like them again. Sadly every person I know personally who was a figure skater oder still is a figure skater struggle with a massive eating disorder, it’s so sad that so less people talk about that, because it’s soooo a big issue in the community.

[@JohannaAllik7]

Hey! thank you for your comment and openness. I agree, it's insane how everyone has to deal with this in the sport. I'm glad that people have gotten the chance to get something out of my video and I wish there was something more I could do. If I may suggest, I'd recommend you to find ways to skate where you can avoid the people and build yourself up and really focus on the good about skating. I love skating more and more everytime I skate and couldn't care less about the others opinion, because I know they'll always have that and that's on them not me :) Take care!

[@sherrimiller5258]

@@JohannaAllik7 I’m from Michigan myself. We actually moved to Arizona and I love it here. It’s beautiful in the desert. I do miss the Great Lakes. I hated lower Michigan. Everything was flat and the winter was grey. However, the upper peninsula was really beautiful. Especially on Lake Superior. What part of Michigan were you living in? I’m guessing near Detroit? That’s a horrible place to live. I’m so glad you’re doing better now and I love your video skating on the lake!

[@JohannaAllik7]

@@sherrimiller5258 Hi Sherri thank you for watching my videos! I was skating and living nearby Bloomhield and Auburn Hills, quite nice areas. But I agree, it got dull and depressing at times 😀

[@Runner8617]

What is mobbing??

[@SvenVee]

Courageous to be so open about this and crazy how resilient you were through all of that at the same time, so important to spread awareness! 🙏🏻

[@katshrinks8309]

Same for dancers I left ballet because I had issues with my weight and I said my body and mental health is not worth sacrificing to fit into a tutu

[@sherrimiller5258]

Good for you for putting your health first!

[@sierraharmon6230]

One of my ice dancing friends had a really bad experience in Michigan with Binge Eating because she was an ice dancer and when i knew her she was already super tiny but when she went there the coaches would always comment on how she needed to be thinner. So Michigan ice dancing sucks for eating disorders and it's also not something that is talked about enough in the sport.

[@JohannaAllik7]

Wow no way! I imagine half the skaters I've trained with have dealt with the same issues. I hope your friend is OK now, but I can definitely relate! Thank you for watching.

[@alikim2794]

I have the same problem. Figure skating really hits you hard... I'm getting help though

[@JohannaAllik7]

That's so great! I'm glad you're getting help! If you need any help let me know!

[@alikim2794]

@@JohannaAllik7 Thank you. I really want to get better and I think it's most important 😊

[@TaushaTW]

God bless you

[@JohannaAllik7]

Thank you

[@jivsport7410]

🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼