Gymnastics is a sport that has a huge fanbase. Indeed, the audience looks forward to the events, and they are hungry to watch these talents perform on the mat. However, the gymnasts do face their fair share of demons of the community, who often come as critics. How so? They judge a gymnast’s every single movement in their journey and just make their life sound miserable in public with their hateful opinions.

Owing to the ongoing 2024-25 NCAA gymnastics season, there are many gymnasts who have come under the radar of the community, as they expect them to shine on the mat. However, a certain Nebraska Huskers gymnast has opened up about her elite career’s horrors before coming back to the campaign.

Dealing with such pressure is no easy task

Remember, Emma Spence? Yes, the Canadian gymnast who secured a silver medal in the 2024 Pan American Championships team event. But what happened to her? Nothing, she’s just preparing herself for an exciting NCAA season. Yes, she’s a part of the University of Nebraska, and she’s determined to get that NCAA title with her team. However, there are a few moments from her elite gymnastics career that have left a certain scar on her.

Being a professional gymnast is no straightforward task, and Spence has always stressed it. While there are expectations placed on these gymnasts, there are numerous other factors that can lead to a lack of motivation in their careers. And a similar thing happened to Spence. Talking to The Record, the Canadian gymnast unveiled a certain horror element from her elite career, stating, “The external pressures from my training environments got to me and became very harmful. My eating disorder controlled me, and I didn’t care about my health and well-being anymore. I was sacrificing my mental and physical health to become the version of myself that others wanted me to be.”

What message was Spence trying to convey? The Canadian gymnast was aware of her talents, but she was always forced into a certain shape. Indeed, she didn’t think much about herself, or even her health, despite having eating disorders, but she was controlled to become the person that she wasn’t. Her performance was significantly affected, and her mental state deteriorated. “At my skinniest, I was not well. I learned that when I ate, I had energy. I was able to practice for longer and I was actually able to build muscle, recover and perform better. I wish I could go back and tell myself that I didn’t need to change my body and I didn’t need to starve myself to be ‘good enough’,” said Spence.

The gymnast tried everything she could to satisfy the demands, but in the end, she wasn’t able to do it. However, that wasn’t ideal for her body as someone who had an eating disorder. Indeed, coping with eating disorders is not easy, and if given the chance to go back in time, she would do so to remind herself that she doesn’t need to satisfy others to succeed in her career. Weight loss and gain are a part of life, even for gymnasts. However, these athletes face a great deal of criticism regardless of their weight, and another gymnast with a similar condition has also experienced this issue.

Another gymnastics star facing similar problems

When in the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles withdrew from the competition; Suni Lee was the one who achieved the all-around gold medal and other Olympic medals for Team USA. However, she faced her demons the moment she took a hit in her career after the glory. Furthermore, the diagnosis of not one but two kidney diseases in 2023 nearly shattered her dreams of competing in the sport. And it was just as bad as one would expect a situation like this to be!

“I couldn’t fit into any of my clothes. My eyes were swollen shut. It was just so scary. My fingers were so swollen they wouldn’t fit into my grips and I couldn’t hold on to the bar. I couldn’t do a flip?” said a frustrated Lee after she gained 45 pounds, owing to her bad health condition. Indeed, it was tough on the gymnast, but eventually, she made her grand comeback in Paris and secured a gold medal in the team and two bronze medals in the all-around and uneven bars. Talk about redemption!