“Slim-To-Win” to Injury: How Swimmers are Engaging With “Health Risk” Culture Due to Entrenched Body Ideals

Culturally accepted bodies within elite sporting cultures point to entrenched “slim-to-win” ideologies. Consequently, sporting insiders (e.g., coaches, team managers, athletes) perceive “slim” and “fatless” body shapes as a necessary means in order to achieve competitive performance. As such, body practices centring on a “slim-to-win” ideology are practiced through publicly conducted daily weigh-ins, regular skin fold tests, surveillance of athletes’ body shape and eating. As a means of attaining the ideal and culturally accepted shape, athletes’ health and well-being is being compromised within the context of the “slim-to-win” ideology. Indeed, many athletes are becoming injured as they attempt to conform their bodies to a shape which is perceived to enhance competitive performance. Within the present chapter, the focus is on the ways in which one sporting culture (i.e., swimming) has taken up the “slim-to-win” ideology and how, in response, athletes have come to engage with health risk culture (e.g., overdosing on laxative medication; taking illicit substances such as methamphetamines; throwing up after meals; risky medical intervention; overuse injuries). The ways in which long-term health and well-being of athletes is comprised in relation to these practices, in the name of competitive performance, are also of interest.