In the world of social media, we’re often exposed to a skewed image of what an athlete should look like. But more often than not, that perfect body image doesn’t match the demand of our sport, or allow our body to compete and train at an effective level. Take it from Mary Theisen-Lappen, an Olympic weightlifter who finished 5th place in the 2024 Olympics, holds two Pan American titles, and a silver medal from the World Weightlifting Championship in 2023. She shares her experiences with body image, and talks about how the number on the scale doesn’t reflect our bodies’ ability to perform at the highest level.
Finding Balance Between Body Image and Sports
It’s much easier said than done to love your body. Finding balance between acceptance and confidence in your sport can be very challenging, and even the best athletes in the world struggle with this issue. Theisen-Lappen says that for her, she is “still doing a lot of work on that balance. Being in the biggest weight class, it's easy for me to see smaller athletes and compare myself to them.”
But she says that she often reminds herself that being in an individual sport, the only thing that matters is herself. “It's me versus me. It's always a work in progress. Even when I think I have it figured out, I have a really bad day with my body,” Theisen-Lappen says. That’s just a part of the journey to becoming comfortable and confident in your own skin.
Strength, Health, and Performance
Being an elite athlete means having the mental and physical ability to perform at the highest level, time and time again. If we struggle with body image, it can be hard to focus on what really matters in our sports. Theisen-Lappen says that to make sure that her training is about performance and not weight or appearance, she’s “doing the things that aren't super glamorous.”
“Things like getting into a sports psychologist or making sure meals are planned, and understanding I can't always expect to go into the gym and lift heavy weights. You can't just work on the technical stuff in your sport, you have to work on your mind too,” she adds.
“My place in the sport isn't just to lift big weights, but to show people that you can be big, you can be feminine, you can be all these different things, and still be a great athlete.”
Redefining Your Athletic Abilities Beyond the Scale
One of the most challenging things as a woman athlete is seeing this “image of a body that someone decided is what we should look like as athletes,” Theisen-Lappen says. So often, we spend time trying to make ourselves smaller, to match this vision of what we think we should look like. Theisen-Lappen said she spent most of her childhood trying to shrink herself down. “At the time what I was doing I thought was normal. I was eating nothing and exercising like a crazy person.” It took time and patience, but she eventually learned how to properly fuel her body and shared that “it's okay to be a bigger athlete. I've done a lot of cool things with the body that I was given.”
“My place in the sport isn't just to lift big weights, but to show people that you can be big, you can be feminine, you can be all these different things, and still be a great athlete.” Being in a weight-class sport can have its challenges, but Theisen-Lappen reminds us that “the weight class exists for a reason. We can find somewhere where we feel comfortable, where we feel like we can actually fuel our body the way it needs to be.”
Don’t Forget to Explore Your Potential
Too often, body image issues become a barrier to us playing the sports that we love. Theisen-Lappen believes that “there is a sport for everybody, and I don't think everyone knows that. If that weren’t the case, we would all play the same position in the same sport. Be curious, look for things you enjoy, and if you don't like it, try something else.”
Theisen-Lappen “can't recommend weightlifting enough. Everybody can do it. It's the perfect sport for someone who is trying to figure out what they want to do, plus it may make you better at your other sports too.” Exploring different sports and finding what fits us best takes time, but our perfect fit is out there, we just have to be open to trying new things.
Taking the Next Steps
Let’s take this advice and put it into action. Being an athlete of any size takes confidence, so as Theisen-Lappen says, “fake it till you make it - practice confidence just like anything else in your sport.” And don’t forget to “surround yourself with people who support you and pick you up when you can't do it yourself, because there's going to be days when you can't."
