“I also have eating disorders, at 19 I went to the clinic” – Corriere.it

Also Vanessa Ferrari, Our Lady of Gymnastics, has had to deal with eating problems in the past. She has told it several times and he wanted to reiterate it today with a post on Instagram in reference to the complaints of gymnasts (especially of rhythmics, but, as she reiterates, the phenomenon also exists in her art) that emerged in recent days. Gymnasts to whom Vanessa wants to send words of closeness and solidarity.

“When the first news about the complaints appeared, from the Rhythmic and Aerobic gymnasts, I was not at all surprised. Indeed, years ago I wrote a book in which I also talked about some of these aspects. At the dawn of 32 years, of which 25 spent in the world of gymnastics, I want to say that I have lived many positive experiences but also many negative ones. I know these aspects perfectly, I experienced food problems on my skin and at the age of 19 they sent me to a clinic in Verona and only after a couple of years I recovered – writes the blue on her Instagram profile -. I invite anyone who suffers from it to get help because it is really fundamental ».

Vanessa had told the nightmare of the weight, and also that she vomited after eating. To the Courier he reiterated that at the Beijing Olympics “we arrived too thin”. But she and her world have faced a path, Vani has said several times that he has been “forerunner” and that many things have improved in recent years, with the involvement of professionals such as nutritionists. She understood how to act: «If you want to be controlled, you have to go to a specialist, do not skip meals, eat properly, drink a lot, let go of the scale, above all not follow the diets of friends, parents or even the coach. On social media then there is full of nonsense. A chocolate is not the end of the world: you have to feel free, the more you look for perfection, the worse it is. Today near the races I am more attentive, but without exaggerating with the restrictions, otherwise you lack strength and your muscles will suffer ».

He never left his coach (and national team coach), Enrico Casella, with whom he still collaborates today and with whom he will continue to work even once he has definitively quit the competitive activity. Although to be able to tell him everything he thought he had to go to a psychologist. A year ago he told the Corriere: “Before the US domination, there was the Eastern model, with the very hard training that the whole West thought it had to imitate
. In some cases we have asked too much of our bodies. I was a bit of a forerunner in Italy, some things changed after my problems. Then it’s up to the intelligence of the coach, some have not been able to change over the years. The secret is to stay a little below your limit to always improve ».

And today he reiterates: «Fortunately, during my career I also experienced some change in my environment and I am sorry that even today there are places where these horrors occur. I also had the opportunity to compare myself with the thoughts of other gymnasts and former gymnasts and I hope that finally we can definitively intervene so that gymnastics, the sport we love, without distinction of sections or levels, is clean. We believe in what has been denounced and we are close to all of you, sport is made up of sacrifices and sacrifices but first of all, before any result, people and their health come. ” Vanessa concludes «inviting us not to demonize gymnastics». “I appeal to the humanity of people because I think there must be a clear boundary between severity from the point of view of discipline and malice ». Yesterday a former Farfalla Laura Zacchilli (therefore a gymnast of the National Rhythmic Team) had precisely denied that it was abuses, from her point of view, it was about “rigor and discipline”.

Vanessa doesn’t think the same way even though she doesn’t ask for anyone’s head. “Having said that, I’m not looking for culprits and probably deep down people will never change, but by constantly talking about it and promptly denouncing it I hope that we can make those who commit these actions think and choose the best way to act. I conclude by inviting us not to demonize gymnastics, it is not by distancing ourselves from an environment that things change, because gymnastics is a magnificent, albeit complex, worldso let’s not make it even more difficult, it’s up to us to protect it.