An Ideal Image

The Athletic Woman's Survival Guide: Carol L. Otis & Roger Goldingay. Human Kinetics 2000. . 264 pages paperback, £13.95 ISBN 0-7360-0121-2.

It's normal to care about how you appear to other people. When you stop caring, you become a slob. But how much should you care? 'Shannon', quoted in the introduction to this book, says: 'Playing sports is more important to me than looking a certain way. I can eat all I want and never gain weight because I like to work out. I have fun and I have more confidence in myself than those girls who are always dieting'. She's right – but Shannon's not normal. Not one in ten 15-year-old girls would agree with her. For the majority, looking a certain way is the meaning of life. Intelligence appears to have little to do with it.

Throughout the twentieth century we've seen a tremendous increase in the pressure on women to conform to an ideal image invented by, and demanded by advertisers; and, of course, they've won: the triumph of marketing over common sense has been a walkover for them. They have convinced women in Western society that being thin is everything. The diet industry turns over billions, but only the fat cats benefit, while women, in particular, starve themselves. Don't think this is just conspiracy theory, either: in Fiji, would you believe, eating disorders among women were up from 3% to 15% within three years of the first American television broadcasts on Fiji' single channel, in 1995.

Life is difficult enough for sports people, without adding on an eating disorder. On a continuum from 'laid-back' to 'obsessive', many will be found towards the obsessive end – it goes with the drive to succeed, apparently, in many people. The combination of hard training, often with no days off, maybe a full-time job, and an obsession with looking thin, can be disastrous for a woman. Identified as recently as 1992, the syndrome is now widely recognised and described as 'the female athlete triad': disordered eating (leading to bulimia and anorexia), amenorrhea, and (sooner or later) osteoporosis.

This book is part of the attempt to combat this insidious condition. Of course, most of the women at whom it's aimed are not going to read it, any more than they would take an extra slice of Ryvita. As with other addictions, one of the features of the condition is an inability to recognise that anything's wrong. So it's going to be down to us, the coaches and managers, to spread the good word, and for that we need problem-specific information. This is it: it's aimed solely at the female athlete triad, and there is here everything you need to know, lucidly written and clearly laid out. The bad effects are spelled out and possible remedies offered. Every few pages there's a case history, sometimes in serial form. There are numerous tables, charts, diagrams and photos; a couple of pages of references; another couple of useful agencies and resources; and a good index.

Most victims reach a low ebb before they can be helped. Many need psychological or psychiatric help. If you can persuade your problem athlete to read it, that may be a start. If you can't, then it will help you to make a start. It's never going to be easy, but this is one area where sport is a matter of life and death

Ramin Minovi