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The Pressure That Makes Olympians Perform Worse | Dominique Condo | TED
The Pressure That Makes Olympians Perform Worse | Dominique Condo | TED
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Subtitle (224)
0:04
4:35 am, the alarm goes off.
0:08
5 am, a 50K training ride.
0:12
6:30 am, a strength session,
0:16
often fighting through muscle fatigue
0:18
and sometimes even period cramps.
0:22
8 am, breakfast,
0:25
with a nutrition plan calculated to the gram.
0:29
9 am, off work or university.
0:33
Because many female athletes
0:35
juggle jobs or study with their sporting careers.
0:40
Now that's a fairly typical morning for many elite female athletes.
0:46
Strong,
0:47
disciplined, driven
0:50
and constantly measured.
0:53
Isn't the female body extraordinary?
0:58
It adapts.
1:00
It endures.
1:01
It creates life.
1:05
It recovers from injury, responds to training
1:08
and achieves feats of skill, strength and power
1:11
once thought impossible.
1:13
And yet, in 2025,
1:16
women are still judged more for how they look
1:18
than for what they can do.
1:21
Judged more for how they look
1:25
than for what they can do.
1:27
At the top of their game,
1:29
up to 70 percent of elite female athletes report body image concerns.
1:34
You heard me, up to 70 percent.
1:37
Now this is women with Olympic medals,
1:39
premiership trophies, world records,
1:41
and still they feel the pressure to look a certain way,
1:46
which is often at direct opposition with how they need to build their bodies
1:50
for competitive success.
1:54
Now this topic is such a passion of mine
1:56
because I live and work in this space every day.
2:00
I am surrounded by some of the most intelligent, hard working,
2:05
resilient women in sport.
2:09
Women who can outrun,
2:10
outlift and outthink most people in the room,
2:14
and yet they battle a world that comments on their appearance
2:18
before their capability.
2:21
How is this fair, I ask you.
2:26
At the top of her game at world number one,
2:28
Ash Barty walked away,
2:29
choosing to define success on her own terms.
2:34
Elite Olympic gymnast Simone Biles reminded the world
2:37
that mental and physical well-being are performance foundations,
2:41
not weaknesses.
2:43
And here in Australia, AFLW players are juggling work,
2:47
study and public commentary about how they look in their uniform
2:51
when all they want to do is play.
2:54
Why is this still happening?
2:57
Why are we so comfortable judging athletes on aesthetics?
3:02
And what are we going to do about it?
3:05
Now this talk isn’t just about elite athletes.
3:08
It's about what happens when performance and appearance collide.
3:12
Yes, in sport,
3:14
but also in schools, in workplaces,
3:17
and even in our own homes.
3:20
When we celebrate appearance over capability,
3:23
we send that message to our daughters,
3:26
our sons and our colleagues
3:29
that how we look matters more than what we do.
3:31
And that doesn't just hold athletes back.
3:34
That holds all of us back.
3:38
So to start to make a real difference,
3:40
we have to understand where the pressure and commentary comes from
3:43
in the first place.
3:45
Now let's talk about the sources of pressure.
3:48
Some are external.
3:50
The uniform that feels exposing,
3:52
the commentator that talks about how she looks
3:55
before how she plays,
3:56
the constant scrolling through social media of the perfect body.
4:01
And others are internal.
4:04
The comparison of skin folds between teammates.
4:07
The coach that says, "You need to be leaner"
4:10
with very little context.
4:13
And the athlete herself, chasing unattainable goals.
4:18
And then there is language,
4:21
the invisible force that can fuel or fracture performance.
4:27
I once worked with an athlete
4:29
who crumbled after being told, “You’re too heavy to compete.”
4:34
That same athlete later thrived
4:36
when the conversation was reframed
4:38
to “Improving your repeat sprint ability will give you a competitive edge.
4:44
Let's get to work on a training and fueling program
4:47
and make that happen."
4:51
In sport and in life,
4:53
language is not just communication,
4:56
it's a performance tool.
4:59
Research has shown that even subtle word choices
5:01
from coaches, parents and peers
5:04
can significantly impact an athlete’s confidence, motivation
5:09
and even risk of disordered eating.
5:12
The words that we use are the stories that athletes tell themselves.
5:19
Now I'm going to talk about quite a taboo topic of physique.
5:24
Now I know this might be controversial, but here we go.
5:28
Physique matters.
5:31
At the highest level,
5:33
different sports require different builds.
5:36
Lean mass for power in football,
5:38
strength-to-weight ratio in gymnastics,
5:41
lighter frames for endurance.
5:43
So no,
5:44
in elite sport, we should not ban body composition assessment
5:48
because if used correctly, it is an invaluable performance tool.
5:53
However, the damage occurs
5:56
when those numbers are used as an identity.
5:59
The public weigh ins,
6:01
the comparison between teammates
6:03
when measurement is used as punishment.
6:07
That's when science becomes shame.
6:10
And we've all seen the fallout.
6:13
Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam champion,
6:16
was told her power made her look too muscular.
6:21
AFLW player Tayla Harris was body shamed
6:24
for an image that should have been celebrated
6:27
as pure athletic brilliance.
6:30
And even Olympic champion Emma McKeon
6:32
has spoken openly about the pressure of appearance in swimming.
6:37
So the take home?
6:38
Yes, physique and performance may be linked,
6:42
but appearance should never overshadow capability.
6:48
So what happens when the balance tips the wrong way?
6:51
Well, athletes can under-fuel.
6:54
And from here, we see the cascade of events.
6:57
Hormonal dysregulation,
6:59
menstrual dysfunction,
7:00
fatigue, bone loss, slower recovery.
7:03
The result?
7:05
Performance declines,
7:06
strength plateaus, injuries mount.
7:10
And this isn't just specific to athletes.
7:14
Think about your own life.
7:17
When was the last time you skipped a meal,
7:20
trained exhausted or didn't sleep well?
7:23
Did you perform better?
7:26
Well neither do they.
7:28
Except their livelihoods depend on it.
7:32
Prolonged low-energy availability has been shown to reduce power output,
7:36
endurance capability and decision making.
7:39
And that is why we cannot separate body image from performance.
7:46
So is this all doom and gloom, or how do we fix it?
7:50
Well we build environments that are performance-focused
7:54
and athlete-centered.
7:56
So what does that mean?
7:58
Well it means education
7:59
in fueling, in energy availability, in menstrual health,
8:03
and not just for athletes.
8:05
For coaches as well.
8:07
It means individualization
8:09
because optimal body composition is specific to the individual athlete.
8:16
Language protocols that are private,
8:19
functional and constructive.
8:22
And choice in testing,
8:24
in uniform and in timing.
8:28
And here's the thing.
8:30
When we do these things, performance improves.
8:34
I've seen teams transform.
8:37
Confidence rises, engagement lifts,
8:40
results follow.
8:42
And this is not about lowering standards
8:45
or wrapping athletes up in cotton wool.
8:48
It's about raising awareness so we can pursue that excellence safely,
8:53
intelligently and sustainably.
8:57
Now some sports are leading the way in this space.
8:59
IOC safe sport initiatives
9:01
and professional organizations like Swimming Australia,
9:04
who have invested in education, language training
9:07
and measurement standards.
9:09
But it takes everyone,
9:11
coaches, administrators and the public.
9:16
Now you might still be sitting there thinking, really?
9:19
What does this have to do with me?
9:22
Again, this is not just about elite sport.
9:26
All of us have felt the weight of appearance in some way.
9:31
For women, that might be to be smaller, thinner, more feminine.
9:36
For men it may be to be taller, bigger, more masculine.
9:42
Think about it.
9:44
When was the last time you compared yourself in the mirror,
9:48
at the gym or online?
9:52
Praised for losing weight
9:53
when no one is actually asking if you're happy or healthy?
9:58
Or took 20 photos before posting one
10:00
because you didn't like the way you looked?
10:04
Now imagine that pressure times by a thousand.
10:07
Your body constantly scanned, discussed
10:11
and linked directly to your contract.
10:15
And men aren't immune to this either.
10:18
Research has shown that male athletes
10:20
and teenagers also struggle with body image.
10:23
Maybe not to be thinner,
10:25
but to be broader, stronger, more muscular, more defined.
10:30
Different pressure,
10:31
same story.
10:34
The reality is, we're all living under performance expectations
10:38
shaped by appearance.
10:40
But for young women getting into sport out there,
10:42
I want you to know
10:43
your body is not the barrier to success.
10:47
It is the vehicle that will get you there.
10:51
So what's the takeaway?
10:53
That it's time to redefine female performance
10:56
not by size, shape or aesthetics,
10:59
but by power, capability, confidence and resilience.
11:05
For coaches and parents,
11:07
use language that builds.
11:09
For teachers, focus on effort and progress.
11:13
For fans, celebrate strength and courage and not appearance.
11:18
And for friends and colleagues,
11:19
notice when you praise looks over capability.
11:23
Because words shape beliefs,
11:25
beliefs shape behaviors,
11:28
and behaviors shape performance.
11:31
When we shift the conversation, we don't just create healthier athletes,
11:36
we create stronger performances.
11:39
And outside of sport,
11:40
we create a society where women feel free to show up unapologetically,
11:46
just as they are,
11:48
and still perform at their best.
11:50
Thank you.
11:51
(Applause)
The Pressure That Makes Olympians Perform Worse | Dominique Condo | TED - Video học tiếng Anh
