Trigger warning:
The following article deals specifically with eating disorders and their consequences for those affected, which can be stressful and retraumatizing.
The problems started when Dominik Nerz was signed to the Liquigas-Cannondale team in 2011: “I was in an Italian cycling team at the time and the team doctor came up to me and said that if I could lose a bit more weight, that would be good “, reports the former cyclist on Deutschlandfunk. Before, his body weight hadn’t mattered to him at all.
A gradual process then took place, which took place step by step. Suddenly, weight was of enormous importance in his life. And he didn’t eat anything. He was fixated on increasing his performance with less weight and riding over the mountains with less kilos in the saddle. “Without food intake, competitive sport is really difficult.”
Lots of encouragement for weight loss
At first he made a small leap in performance, but this quickly turned into the opposite. “It really damaged my body in the long term,” said Nerz, who reported on his anorexia, his mental problems and, as a result, the end of his career in his biography “Gefallen”.
It was also tragic that he received a lot of encouragement from supervisors and colleagues. He said they praised his discipline, his consistency and his toughness against himself.
In the end it was also “a challenge” for him. “From a certain point in time, the weight was more important than the performance for me personally,” said the 33-year-old on Dlf.
Slim and fit as a prerequisite
Petra Dallmann is a former professional swimmer and now works as a psychiatrist, especially for athletes. It is problematic if you, as an athlete, move around in a tight swimming suit all day long. But there are still much more endangered sports, such as figure skating or rhythmic gymnastics, where being slim “absolutely belongs,” said Dallmann on Dlf. “The judges assume that the athletes all look lean and fit, regardless of performance.”
Weight is of enormous importance for athletes, especially in sports where weight classes are involved. “It is estimated that around 30 percent have abnormal eating habits. In aesthetic sports, up to 15 percent could suffer from anorexia, in other sports it is only two percent,” said Dallmann.
His career ended at the age of 27
At the end of his career, Dominik Nerz suffered from dizziness and disorientation, also caused by a number of falls and racing accidents, so that he had to end his career as a racing cyclist for health reasons at the age of 27.
Despite an intensive medical examination, Mink was unable to stop the downward spiral. “The only thing that would have really helped me back then would have been psychological support,” he said on Dlf.
Doctor Dallmann advised outsiders to deliberately address those affected and point out the change in weight. “That has to be addressed by the community if there’s a significant weight loss,” she said. You have also seen trainers or sports physicians who have issued a training ban for athletes with eating disorders.
When it comes to the topic, it is important to show the public that you are not alone as an athlete and that there are several athletes with similar problems.
