Climbing athletes demand action on eating disorders pre-Olympics

Elite climbers are lobbying the sport’s international federation (IFSC) to introduce rules to prevent athletes with eating disorders from competing at the Paris Olympics in July. As they defy gravity, climbers benefit from a high strength-to-weight ratio, but many are unaware of the damage that can be done to their health by losing weight before a competition. In a 2022 survey of 114 female sport climbers, 14.9 per cent said they had an eating disorder. 15.8 per cent said they didn’t have periods – a common symptom of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), a syndrome recognised by the IOC which occurs when athletes don’t eat enough to fuel themselves. Since 2017, the IFSC has measured climbers’ body mass index to flag dangerously underweight athletes to their national federations, but it has never stopped anyone from competing. Measuring BMI at World Cup events was reintroduced in 2023 after having been stopped without explanation. “Climbing has a cultural and systemic weight problem,” the Canadian Olympian Alannah Yip wrote on Instagram. The sport’s unalloyed delight at having made it to the Olympics hasn’t lasted long.