Unknown to many, Amanda Beard silently struggled with bulimia and depression for years. The multiple Olympics medal winning swimmer and successful model agonized for years over her physical appearance. Even though everyone else saw a thin beautiful and successful woman, Beard thought of herself as fat, ugly and a failure.
In her college years she had begun cutting herself to deal with the extreme agony she was going through. Along with the cutting, she became bulimic as a way to cope with all the pressure and her low self-esteem. Through the years, no one suspected a thing because on the outside she appeared to be so successful.
She told Today’s Ann Curry, “I felt like an idiot saying I was struggling so much inside because I was an Olympic athlete. I was having a great career. I had my own house. There were all these great things going on in my life, but on the inside, I was hating everything about me.”
Beard began to feel the pressure at a young age. She won her first medal when she was only 14 years old. She said that it was a lot for a teen to take in, that she felt the constant need to look beautiful, thin and perfect. The pressure was magnified when during her second Olympics in Syndney in 2000, the media began saying she had put on weight.
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We learned last month that former Biggest Loser contestant and Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner was going to try to make the Olympic trials and compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. While no controversy surrounds his two medals, one gold and one bronze in Greco Roman wrestling, it does surround his time on season 11, from which he voluntarily walked out. He was the first contestant in the show’s history to do so, although, rumors and questions surround his exit and NBC has never confirmed the real reason. In that night’s episode he said, “I ask to leave Biggest Loser for personal reasons.” Whatever the real reasons were, he left the show and went back to wrestling.
Rulon appeared on Brian Williams’ Rock Center tonight in a story highlighting the hard work it’s going to take for him to make it through the Olympic trials next month. At age 40, the once retired wrestler has to make weight like everyone else, but may find the challenge to be more daunting than it is for most of his competitors. He started season 11 at 474 pounds and in 16 weeks was able to lose 173 pounds. In the interview he said he averaged about 1.5 pounds lost per day while on the ranch, and with the right dedication, he can do the same in his wrestling gym and make weight on April 20. His coach said that Rulon is “working as hard as anyone else in the room.”
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New York is hosting the National Yoga Asana Championships sponsored by USA Yoga, an organization that wants to see yoga become an Olympic Sport. Rajashree Choudhury, cousin of the creator of Bikram Yoga and founder of the yoga pose competition, said the poses to be judged show “how someone can have perfect strength, balance, flexibility in the body.”
Aside from raising eyebrows as another unconventional “sport” pursuing induction into the Olympic games, the thought of performing yoga poses for competitive reasons is creating quite a stir among spiritual purists. Many believe the roots of yoga steer clear of the need to judge and the purpose of practicing is about acceptance, inclusion and non-dualism.
USA Yoga believes that an increased awareness of the sport on an Olympic level will encourage more people to want to practice yoga, and enable a larger population of people to be happier and healthier as a result. Not everyone agrees with this concept, however. Roseanne Harvey, a blog writer and avid yoga practitioner from Canada says that in most yoga classes, “what we’re trying to do is encourage students not to compete.”
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Today was an amazing day for marathon running. Houston, Texas was the stage for all the qualified contenders to race for a spot on this year’s United States Olympic marathon team. The team has been determined and Team USA is going to be strong in London this summer.
Marathoners across the country have been busting their tails to even make the qualifications for the trials. For a man to enter the trials he had to run a 2:19 or better marathon, a 1:05 or better half marathon, or a 28:30 or better 10K race. The women’s standards for “A-Standard” qualification is a time of 2:39 or better in the marathon. “A-Standard” qualifiers receive a paid trip to the trials, there is no “B-Standard” for the men anymore. However, the “B-Standard” remains for the women. These women are entered based on a 2:39:01-2:46 marathon, a 1:15 or better half, or a 33:00 10K. The field was big this year and it was full of amazingly fast runners. The top three male and female finishers made the Olympic Team for this summer’s London games.
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Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin made a surprise appearance on NBC’s The Biggest Loser Tuesday night. The daughter of two former Soviet champion gymnasts was on the show to introduce the first challenge to test the contestants’ stamina. The winner of this challenge received $10,000 to Subway, which ended up going to Brendan.
The five time Olympic medalist was the perfect choice for a challenge dealing with stamina and perseverance. One of only three women to medal five times in the Olympics, with the distinction of being the 2008 Olympic individual all-around gold medalist, Liukin’s personal motto is “Never quit on a bad day”.
Liukin stays in shape with daily workouts, often lasting more than 7 hours each day. She prefers healthy and organic food for her diet. Her breakfast favorites include oatmeal, eggs, or yogurt. For lunch she enjoys a salad with protein, either chicken or fish. Dinner is very often her lighter meal, like protein with veggies, but she is a big fan of sushi. She does admit to an occasional splurge when it comes to ice cream, though!
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