excellent point wrote:
I’m sorry, but I’m female, competed 4 years in Division I cross country and track, have had coaches who have instructed me to count calories to get to race weight (and they were right, and it worked—yes, it’s possible to treat weight as just another aspect of training, akin to doing strides or strength work, not a big “self esteem” issue), have been kissed and groped and fondled without consent at bars and parties, read this whole long article, and can only come to the conclusion that these young women are coddled and expect the institution to treat them like parents who love them unconditionally. How on earth is it an athletic department’s or an individual coach‘s responsibility to make an athlete feel good about themselves if they’re not performing up to standard? At the end of the day, it’s an athletic institution that has to meet certain standards, not a therapy nonprofit. The idea that incidents regarding sexual harassment and mental health are up to the individual coach to deal with is INSANE. The idea that a coach is supposed to “hold you while you cry” about a poor race is crazy. These women need to grow up, nothing they described in the article is remotely close to anything resembling abuse and yes I can say that because I personally experienced all of what they described.
I’m guessing this is prob a troll, but in the off-chance it’s not, I’ll bite. These women aren’t asking for someone to “hold them up while they cry”. They’re asking for an environment where they aren’t being harassed by male teammates and experience multiple stress fractures brought on by RED-S.