Former Team USA Skier spreading awareness about eating disorders in sports

DENVER — In her eight years of skiing for Team USA, Alice Merryweather learned a thing or two about going fast.

“Those ski patrollers at Copper, they are not fans of anyone in a US Ski Team jacket and I have been one of those people for sure,” Merryweather said jokingly.

But now, she’s sharing her story about slowing down. And that has included getting the care she needed from one of only two centers in the country that specialize in elite athletes who are struggling with eating disorders: the Athlete Edge program at ED Care in Denver.

“I was here for six weeks during my eating disorder, and it’s the place that I got treatment and got back on track,” she said. “There’s a fine line of being healthy, trying to eat well, trying to train enough, and a point where it becomes really detrimental to your health.”

She said after opening up about getting treatment, she heard from many other athletes going through the same struggles. She said it can be easy for a young athlete’s drive for perfection and success to turn into something harmful, particularly when observing how society tends to talk about athletes.

“Especially with the Olympics coming up, families will be sitting around watching the games, and I think one thing parents can do is just avoid talking about the athletes’ bodies. Again, trying to focus on what athletes are doing and how they’re performing,” Merryweather said. “It can start a lot of patterns that we don’t often think of until it’s too late.”

She’s concerned about the messaging commentators can also have on young athletes watching.

“No one wants to hear disparaging comments made about their body, or some comparison between them and one of their teammates or one of their competitors, but I think it’s equally as harmful to impressionable spectators that are watching and listening to these broadcasts and hearing it a normalized,” she said.

She also posed a call to action for coaches and supporters of young athletes: Treat eating disorders and other mental health issues with the same care other physical injuries are given.

“At all levels of sport, starting with young kids, it would be really valuable to add a component of mental health in general to young athletes education,” Merryweather said.

Emily Hemendinger, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, explained in a 2023 article that society needs to move away from focusing on appearance as a measure of fitness and health.

“We live in a culture that really promotes thinness as ‘healthy’ and ‘fitness,” she explained in the article. “That’s really unhelpful and unhealthy for anyone, especially athletes. Also, our culture for athletes really gives this message of ‘no excuses, no off days,’ especially around working out. Taking those two ideas combined, it’s easy to see how we celebrate disordered eating: Excessive exercise or overexertion means someone’s highly disciplined and therefore successful and not weak.”

Hemendinger said treatment focuses on “stabilizing medically” and “psychoeducation on how to engage in physical activity in a mindful way.”

Read more on CU Boulder’s Q&A with Hemendinger in their story here.

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, the ED Center offers free confidential assessments. Call 844-292-0192 or click here for an email response.

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