Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Negative body image issues impacting female athletes
ABC NEWS (Australia)
Follow
2/10/2024
Negative feelings about body image is one of the major barriers to women and girls participating in sport.
Category
📺
TV
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
I think a lot of my struggles with my body image came from a product of my environment.
00:09
As an elite diver, I was surrounded by other elite divers who had a specific body type
00:15
and I think feeling the pressure to have to look like everyone else was a common occurrence
00:20
amongst a lot of our athletes.
00:22
As divers, we are in bathers in our training sessions so there's not a lot that's left
00:26
to the imagination so sometimes you can feel like eyes are on you and at competition everyone's
00:32
judging what you look like and a lot of that I guess comes from internally feeling like
00:37
that might be the case but when you're chatting amongst your friends about the same thing
00:41
and they all are having the same experience you start to believe that everyone is really
00:45
judging you on your body.
00:46
Many athletes experience body dysmorphia.
00:50
It's one of those things where, you know, regardless of what people around you say,
00:55
sometimes it does play on your mind.
00:57
You see images or you see athletes in your same sport, in the same position, looking
01:03
a certain way and it can play on your mind sometimes.
01:07
Yeah, it's extremely difficult, particularly when you're in the outside world and people
01:13
see your body and think, "Oh, your arms are bigger than mine" or "Your legs are bigger
01:19
than mine" and sometimes it can take a hit for an athlete but also we should be very
01:24
proud of the hard work we put in to be able to make sure that physically we are at our
01:31
best.
01:32
I think it's taken me a long time to be okay with myself and my body, like being disabled
01:36
and having a severe scoliosis like I've always.
01:40
There's not many people that look like me out there I would say but for me now is how
01:44
do I perform, how do I feel strength wise.
01:48
So my body image I would say is associated a lot with my sport and how I feel I'm going
01:52
to be with that now rather than looking in a mirror and being like, "Oh, you look at
01:58
your scoliosis makes you really sideways" as a child would probably tell me.
02:02
Yeah, for me it's just learning to love myself the way I am.
02:06
And the feedback from the athletes is when staff and coaches talk to them about body
02:11
shape and type and you do need to talk about that sometimes, you can't ignore it, that
02:16
they would rather words rather than lean or thin, you talk about being strong and being
02:24
capable of performing the activity in the right way.
02:27
So focusing more on those performance words rather than how you look words.
02:34
Physically am I able to do my job?
02:36
Do I go to training?
02:38
Am I able to make that sprint?
02:40
Am I able to push off and make that dive that's going to win my team the game?
02:45
That's what we should be looking at and what also is important is the support around.
02:51
Also important I guess to have good role models which I try and be one in my sport now and
02:54
chat to the kids who are still at school and going through puberty and just letting them
02:58
know that their body changing is completely normal and we're not supposed to look like
03:03
we looked when we were 12, when we're 18 and everything that's happening with our bodies
03:07
is perfectly normal.
03:08
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Recommended
3:06
|
Up next
Women in Sport: Why women are scared of the gym
Yorkshire Post
1/30/2023
1:00
Social media filters can be detrimental to mental health
Australian Community Media
8/25/2023
2:46
Gender inequality in sport: The challenges facing female athletes
euronews (in English)
7/27/2023
0:35
National Women's Day, Part 1: Perfecting my craft, the challenges of being a female sports reporter.
D210SPORTS
3/9/2023
2:11
Libby Trickett campaigns to promote healthy body image in sport
ACM Commercial
5/22/2024
3:21
This is the journey of a female Muy Thai pro-fighter
Zoomin English
4/27/2025
1:29
Period anxiety: women and girls skipping sports
Australian Community Media
8/20/2024
1:02
Chapel Street crime crackdown brings bag searches, sniffer dogs and arrests
Australian Community Media
yesterday
12:08
Flooding, storms and intense wind: dangerous weather forecast for NSW coast
Australian Community Media
yesterday
2:16
Canberra news and sport week ending June 29th, 2025.
The Canberra Times
yesterday
0:35
Filipino pug Jeo Santisima Back in action in Japan
PTVPhilippines
yesterday
2:12
American tennis star Taylor Fritz wins Men’s Singles Finals at Eastbourne Open
PTVPhilippines
yesterday
0:30
Katseye’s new EP tops last week’s fan-voted music poll
PTVPhilippines
yesterday
0:24
Crystal Papali'i strip and score
The Canberra Times
3 days ago
0:30
Parental Guidance returns
The Canberra Times
3 days ago
1:57
NT National Park expanded in efforts to entice tourists in the Australia’s Top End
ABC NEWS (Australia)
today
2:01
Preliminary finding found of coronial inquest into first youth death in WA’s detention
ABC NEWS (Australia)
today
2:47
Advocates praises the ACT for raising the age of criminal responsibility
ABC NEWS (Australia)
yesterday
3:25
Legal expert says increase incarceration due to tough bail laws
ABC NEWS (Australia)
yesterday
2:17
Lobby group advocate for benefits to address placement poverty for university and TAFE students
ABC NEWS (Australia)
yesterday
1:17
Boy bitten by shark on the Northern New South Wales
ABC NEWS (Australia)
yesterday
2:42
Brisbane bus riders brace for delays with changes heralding the city’s metro
ABC NEWS (Australia)
yesterday
3:17
Calls for an overhaul over Community benefit scheme that allow clubs to take out more gambling earnings
ABC NEWS (Australia)
yesterday
2:41
Peak bodies urge the federal government to assist seniors in Australia’s top end
ABC NEWS (Australia)
yesterday
2:29
Adults sandwiched between children and ailing parents call for cultural rethinking
ABC NEWS (Australia)
yesterday