What Olympic Gymnastics Can Teach Us About Working Out & Body Image

Every four years when the summer Olympics roll around, I become a different person. The only sport that I religiously watch during the two-week games is Women’s Gymnastics. I remember watching gymnastics for the first time when I was 7 years old during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I have vivid memories of being in complete awe of the 2012 team competing in London. While I didn’t watch much of the Tokyo Olympics a few years ago, my love of watching gymnastics came back during this year’s Paris games. 

Watching the sport now as a 23 year old has been a vastly different experience than watching when I was 7. I remember growing up thinking that the majority of the gymnasts had similar body types to ballerinas– thin and tall. Even though I’ve never been a gymnast, I remember feeling slightly discouraged watching all of these athletes across gymnastics, dance, and even figure skating, thinking that I would never be tall and thin like these young women. This Olympics, however, it was obvious that few of the gymnasts fall into that tall and thin stereotype. When watching Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey, it was clear that all of these women are muscular. While they’re not tall and stick-thin, they are strong and powerful. This was the first time I remember watching gymnasts gracefully and powerfully compete, their arms muscular, their thighs jiggling when they land. 

It reminded me of the 2017 Wonder Woman film when Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot) landed a huge jump and you can see her thigh jiggle. It’s a reminder that it’s normal for our bodies to move, shake, and jiggle. It’s a reminder that everyone has skin, muscle, and body fat. 

Obviously, it is difficult to become as muscular and built as professional athletes. However, perhaps considering these women can allow us to shift our mindsets when it comes to our own workout routines in everyday life. I’ve now worked at various fitness studios over the past year and a half and have found that the majority of women sign up for memberships with the primary goal to lose weight. While for some people, losing weight can be a perfectly healthy goal, for others it negatively impacts their mental health– and it’s a hard mindset to get out of. When you realize, however, that working out can be about more than losing weight, it becomes a much better and more enjoyable experience. I’ve worked hard to make the mental shift to use working out as a way to become stronger and push my body and mind to new limits. 

Watching all of the talented gymnasts in the past couple weeks has made me want to become stronger and continue working out without a looming goal to lose weight. It’s a refreshing reminder that we’re human and healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes.

---