Introduction
Enrolment in gymnastics programmes continues
to flourish for a variety of reasons. There is an
increasing availability of good gymnastics
schools and coaches in more locations, and a high
level of media attention has been afforded gym-
nastics during recent Olympic Games (gymnas-
tics coverage for the 1996 Summer Olympic
Games in Atlanta represented the most coverage
given to any sport). The ever-increasing number
of young gymnastics competitors requires that
those in sports medicine pay careful attention to
their health and well-being, especially as these
athletes are assessed for growth, weight, bone-
health, eating behaviour, and other develop-
mentally important factors. For the seasoned
competitors, every effort must be made to ensure
an evolution of nutritional habits that will opti-
mize performance while guaranteeing the
opportunity for good health.
The concern for improving the nutritional
health of gymnasts is real. The traditional para-
digm in gymnastics is to develop gymnasts who
are small, and gymnasts themselves commonly
view this small body image as the ideal for their
sport. The issue of weightis a prevailing theme,
regardless of the gymnastics discipline. Even in
men’s gymnastics, it is ordinarily suggested that
controlling energy intake to achieve lower
weight is an appropriate and desired act if a
gymnast is to achieve success (Maddux 1970). It
is also a common practice to regularly weigh
gymnasts as a normal part of training, but the
results of these weigh-ins are not often used con-
structively. Since there is a normal expectation
for growth in children, there should be a con-
comitant expectation for increasing weight.
Failure to accept this fact may place abnormal
pressures on young gymnasts to achieve an arbi-
trarily low weight through unhealthy means.
Adolescent females, as a group, are the most vul-
nerable to disordered eating patterns, and this
group constitutes the majority of competitive
women in gymnastics. This makes it imperative
that those working with gymnasts become sensi-
tive to the possibility that some of these athletes
may have a predisposition to eating behaviours
that could put them at health risk. Thus, while a
lowering of excess body fat will reduce body
mass and, perhaps, lower the risk of traumatic
injuries to joints, excessive attention to weight
carries with it its own set of health and injury
risks (Houtkooper & Going 1994).
There has been a consistent drop in the age at
which gymnasts compete at the elite level. In
1960, the United States Olympic gymnasts had
an average height of about 157.5 cm and an
average weight of 50 kg. In 1992, the United
States Olympic gymnasts had an average height
of 146 cm and an average weight of 37.5 kg.
During this same time, the average age of these
competitors dropped from 18.5 to 16 years
(Nattiv & Mendelbaum 1993). The Fédération
Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) has
addressed this issue by making 16 the minimum
age for competing at the Olympic Games, begin-
ning in the year 2000. However, the pace at which