Winter Olympics: ‘fat doesn’t fly’ mentality in ski-jumping leaves gold medallist working on physical and mental health
- Maren Lundby was the world’s best for three years after winning gold at 2018 Games in South Korea
- But Norwegian will watch Beijing competition from the sidelines to raise awareness around eating disorders in the sport
Maren Lundby was the world’s best female ski jumper for three years, starting in 2018 when she won Olympic gold in South Korea.
At the Beijing Games, the Norwegian had a chance to become the first two-time Olympic champion in her sport. Instead, she decided to skip the World Cup season and a trip to China to make her physical and mental health a priority.
“I decided to not compete because I gained some weight,” Lundby said. “I feel like I can’t compete on the level I want to.”
Over the past 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 metres out of their flights through the air.
Billy Demong, executive director of USA Nordic Sports and a five-time Olympian in Nordic combined, said ski jumping was “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. “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 6ft 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.”