Our stories.
Read quotes from athletes themselves, but also parents, and judges.
Athletes:
Perfectionism:
“I think perfectionism is good, but it does take a toll on, you know, your mental and your mental psyche as well as your body, just doing all those reps.” - Teddy Kust [Men’s Gymnast]
“There was this expectation that you would be perfect at every moment. And so that had some very real intense effects on my own mental health.” -Rebecca Sexton [Equestian]
Body Image Issues:
“It's the little stuff; a girl with a big wig and big red lips and a fancy dress and is really fit will score higher than someone who has natural hair, or is a person in a bigger body, or doesn't have those popping features. When I was dancing, it definitely declined my confidence.” -Emily Pederson [Irish Dancer]
Intense emotions:
“Very single girl would be in tears, just because none of them wanted to compete, and you would see it, the girls before their routine, they would like literally be shaking, because in a sense like every routine is like quite literally a performance, and so you would see them go from like the shaking, like crying, say to like immediately snapping into it and like going to the routine, like smiling everything. - Jessie [Female Gymnast]
The Joy of Judged Sports:
“Sometimes it really sucks, and sometimes you get gifted…but something about these sports is so beautiful and mesmerizing, maybe because they feel so human.”- Anonymous [Mogul skier]
“The biggest challenge for me is that sometimes we don't necessarily know exactly why we are being scored the way we are.”
Olivia Oiaccio
Mogul skiier
Parents/Officials:
Parent Education:
“I really think that there should be good training for both the judges and people interested in the sport. I think in all these kinds of sports, I see that many parents get over-involved and live vicariously through their kids. Often the kids move on quicker than the parents.” - Parent [Skier]
Possible parent impact:
“It can really demotivate you, and you can become way less into the sport. I see certain instances where they will text their kid before like their competition ‘you need to beat this person, you've got to just beat her’. I think it really does play a part in this child's mental health.” - Anonymous
The scale of impact:
At this point, I feel like it is a big issue in a way that, like, we all know it’s there, but like no one really does anything about it. As an actual judge, I feel like I have a lot of responsibility because I at least hold myself to a standard, make sure I have no bias, and like make sure that I'm scoring well and consistently. -Sienna Li [Judge, Tan Soo Do]
Acceptance of Results:
“My parent's were always kind like the, had like a get what you -get mentality, which I thought was really helpful.” -Olivia [Mogul skiier]
Coaches/Officials :
Focusing on the moment:
“Block out like all of those training and practices because I want to see that specific individual run That you're competing that day.” - Anonymous
Judges mistakes:
Yeah, and I mean, I’ve definitely blinked or even sneezed, you know, and then you kind of like check with the person next to you, and you're like, did I see that right? Mistakes are an inherent part of it. - Anonymous
Targeted aggression to officials & judges:
“[I’ve] been behind the scoring desk; there was one circumstance last year in a bad storm where a parent aggressively disputed the score for their child.”- Anonymous
Unfair Bias:
“Judges can be biased. There can be symbols on the dresses, or it's like a small community, so they just like can pick out the top dancers.” - Anonymous [Irish Dancer]