Olympic figure skater Gracie Gold has revealed that her eating disorder started after one of her coaches made an offhanded remark about her butt being too big when she was a teenager.
In a sit-down interview with Savannah Guthrie that aired on the Today show Friday morning, the 23-year-old athlete detailed how her coach's comment about her weight led her to start counting calories and eventually starving herself.
'He was like, "Look at your butt." I just remember I counted my calories that day,' she recalled. 'Then it just became the game of like how low can you get it — of how low you can get the calories — and it just snowballed from there.
Scroll down for video
Opening up: Gracie Gold sat down with Savannah Guthrie for a candid interview that aired on the Today show Friday
Looking back: During the interview, Gold revealed that her eating disorder started after one of her coaches made a comment about her butt being too big
Gold began a dangerous cycle of binging and restricting her food, indulging as much as she could consume on the weekend only to starve herself during the week.
'No one needs to eat two pizzas in a sitting, right?' she said. 'Come on Gracie, that's weird. But then throughout the week, I would be like you can have three coffees and two apples.'
Gold believed her eating disorder was something that she would deal with after she was done competing, noting that restrictive eating is 'not a unique thing' in figure skating culture.
'I would text someone like, "Oh, I had a tomato," and they'd be like, 'Wow, that's so great. I had a can of potatoes." Then it just got more and more extreme until it was just like, unbearable,' she recounted.
When she headed to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, she was portrayed as figure skating's 'golden girl.' She helped the U.S. Olympic team win a bronze medal and came in fourth place in the women's singles event.
Gold said it was an 'incredible' time for her,' but she also admitted that she felt like a 'fraud in a way' because of her inner demons.
'I was "America’s sweetheart" or I was "the golden girl," and I just, I was afraid to be real with my struggles because then I wouldn’t be, like, as perfect as the media saw me,' she explained.
Gold hit her breaking point after the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships; she was expected to take home the gold but ended up coming in fourth place.
Defining moment: 'He was like, "Look at your butt." I just remember I counted my calories that day,' she recalled
Unhealthy practices: Gold said she started severely restricting her calories ahead of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia (pictured)
'It was everything,' she said. 'It was just one of those things where I couldn’t be the best in the world because I could not hack the world championships.'
Looking back, she wishes she took time off from skating right then and there, but she moved to Detroit, Michigan, to continue training, even though she could barely get out of bed.
In a candid interview with the New York Times that was published last month, Gold revealed that at the height of her struggle with mental illness she was 'suicidal for months' and covered every mirror in her home because 'she could not stand the sight of herself.'
During her interview with the Today show, Guthrie referenced the profile, prompting Gold to discuss why she covered the mirrors in her home with paper.
'At that point, I was like, even seeing myself or my body was nauseating,' she said. 'So in my head, I was like, "Oh, well, don't look at yourself."'
When she showed up at a Team USA summer camp in Colorado Springs in 2017, she was 50lbs heavier, out of shape, and severely depressed.
Gold's lackluster performance was such a fall from grace that some of the judges cried while delivering their critiques, according to the Times.
She told Guthrie: 'I remember feeling, like, they don't need me there because I am just this washed up loser — I'm toxic. They can see how bad it is and then can kick me off the team and then I can go about my sad life.
Inner demons: The athlete admitted restrictive eating is 'not a unique thing' in figure skating culture. She is pictured at an exhibition gala at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014
Hard times: Gold, pictured in January 2017, recalled being so depressed that year she found it 'nauseating' to look at herself or her body
Depths of despair: The athlete imagined taking her own life and no one finding her body until her landlord came to collect her rent
'I wasn't, like, actively suicidal, but I definitely was at a point where I didn't see myself existing much longer,' she admitted. 'Probably, honestly, I was going to live until my money ran out.'
Staff members at the camp persuaded her to seek treatment, and U.S Figure Skating covered the cost of her entry into an inpatient program for eating disorders at The Meadows in Arizona.
'It was healing in a way because I just needed some time apart away from skating,' she said of rehab. 'Because I blamed skating for a long time, but it wasn't skating's fault. It didn't ruin my life. I allowed my behavior while I was skating to ruin my own life.'
While undergoing treatment, she withdrew from the 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which took her out of consideration for the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team.
Gold moved to Philadelphia last spring to work with her a new coach, Vincent Restencourt, and started training again ten months ago.
Although she was ready to return to the rink, she stressed that she isn't all of a sudden healed.
'I mean, I still struggle with those feelings. Treatment and therapy aren't like this magic wand where it's just, like, fixed,' she said snapping her fingers. 'You just want to start having more good days than bad days.'
Gold returned to the ice in November during the Grand Prix in Moscow, where she finished in 10th place in the short program.
Easing in: Gold returned to the ice in November during the Grand Prix in Moscow, where she finished in 10th place in the short program
Healthy and happy: Gold, pictured left with her fraternal twin Carly, returned to training ten months ago after seeking treatment for depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder in 2017
Realizing she was not ready to compete in this year's national championship in Detroit, she withdrew from the competition two weeks before she was supposed to hit the ice.
'The Beijing Games in 2022 would be like the ultimate dream,' she said of her comeback. 'And if I could win a world medal . . . winning a world medal would almost be more important to me than going to another Olympics.'
Meanwhile, Gold is just happy to be dreaming about medals and competitions again while doing a sport that she loves
'I actually go out in the world freely [now],' she said, 'with some importance and let’s see if we can do something with our life today; let’s see if we can get this back on track.'
Gold opened up about her battle with depression and eating disordered in her interview with the New York Times last month.
She recalled being so depressed while hiding out in Detroit, Michigan, in 2017 that she imagined taking her own life and no one finding her body until her landlord came to collect her rent.
The athlete struggled to muster up the energy to brush her teeth or hair, and she sometimes slept as much as 24 hours. She kept the lights off so often that one of her monthly electric bills was less than $20.
'I was suicidal for months,' Gold told the Times. 'If I had just continued the way I was in Detroit, I’d probably be dead.'
The figure skating star admitted that she never understood the depths of mental illness until she experienced it herself, admitting: 'I'd hear someone say, "I’m so depressed," and I'd think, "Tough it out."'
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/02/23/gracie-gold-opens-up-about-her-spiraling-eating-disorder-on-the-today-show/
Main photo article Olympic figure skater Gracie Gold has revealed that her eating disorder started after one of her coaches made an offhanded remark about her butt being too big when she was a teenager.
In a sit-down interview with Savannah Guthrie that aired on the Today show Friday morning, the 23-year-old...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/22/20/10159122-6735023-image-m-30_1550868051267.jpg
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий