Sara Hectors 2022 can be described as a success story.
At the beginning of the year, the 29-year-old won the Olympic gold in giant slalom and racked up several World Cup victories in the Alps.
But about ten years ago, his career did not rise sharply.
– My results should come now. My career is collapsing. Hector says of the time when tears were flowing.
In Sommar in P1 tells Sarah Hector How she struggled with an eating disorder when she was just 18 years old.
She had just won the Junior World Championships in Giant Slalom, and had celebrated several good results when she noticed that she had gained weight. A kilo and a half to be exact.
Although she was proud of her accomplishments, she was very motivated to develop more.
– I would probably have done better if I had lost those kilos. As a competitive person, I am motivated by measurement and the ability to see results. I became very good at improving food intake. My new plan turned out to be very effective. The weight is dropping off really hard and I’m very focused on my training. It’s easy to prioritize parties, friends, guys, and the things I see other people spend time on. I’m still feeling better in the gym, she says in Sommar in P1.
missed menstruation
Hector’s discipline was infallible and she lost a full eight kilograms in a short time. I thought she did everything right.
However, fitness tests showed something else.
According to the tests, Hector lost speed and power and was desperate.
– My results should come now. My career is collapsing. Tears flow. This solution of a little more exercise and more food may be completely strange to me. Reluctantly, I must realize that what I was doing was unsustainable. My period stopped and I became anxious about food as part of my daily life, with the help of an exercise program that counts calories.
I am grateful today
In the end, the situation became unsustainable, which the coaches noted. She was called to a crisis meeting with the technical staff.
– They said I have to check. Either I eat everything that is offered, or I have to come home from camp. It becomes clear that I cannot continue as I did, and it is not on the map of the world that I lose the most important and fun thing that I know – skateboarding.
Today, Hector is grateful that she was caught in time, before she had time to develop a regular eating disorder, and is pleading with people to seek help if they identify themselves in her story.
Summer in P1 was released as a podcast at 07.00 and broadcast on P1 at 13.00.