Battle of the bulge: a Chinese former judo fighter seeks to shed 50kg after her weight ballooned to 200kg
‘People were taking out their phones and taking a photo of me when I was walking,’ said Guo Chengyan, the latest Chinese athlete to struggle after retirement
Staying fit once was as natural for Guo Chengyan as beating opponents in a competitive judo match.
Sports was in her family’s DNA: her parents and grandfather all had worked in the sports sector in her hometown of Fushun in northeast China’s Liaoning province, paving the way for Guo to play competitive games such as basketball and to lift weights, as a child.
By age seven, she had begun to focus on judo, and within 10 years had reached the peak of her judo career – finishing third in the 2008 provincial tryouts in the 78kg weight class for the national judo championship.
But by the next year, at age 18, she was forced to retire from competition, as injuries took their toll. “It was just too hard,” she said in an interview. “I often got injured on my legs, feet and [upper body] … sometimes I felt my feet were falling off my body.”
Freed from the pressure of having to stay fit for competition, “I exercised much, much less than before, I’d say by 80 per cent,” she said.
Over the following nine years she “stayed at home” and her weight doubled: going from her fighting heft of just over 100kg (220 pounds) to nearly 200kg.