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NEDA TOOLKIT for Coaches and Trainers A runner’s story Talking with Diane Israel, former triathlete and star of the documentary film Beauty Mark Diane Israel was a highly successful triathlete for 15 years, the Colorado mountain running champion and a world-class racer. She was also anorexic from about the age of 12 until well into her twenties. She did not have a period until she was 30, and as a result, her bones weakened, leading to 17 stress fractures. Diane knew what she was doing to her body. Yet the combination of the teen’s belief that she was invincible and her fear that the added weight of womanhood would put an end to her running greatness made it easy to ignore the warning signs of a serious eating disorder. The 2007 documentary film Beauty Mark told Diane’s story and looked at the effects of popular culture on different athletes’ self-images. The truth for Diane and for many eating-disordered athletes is that, “we don’t know how to handle being and staying a great athlete as our body changes,” says Diane, who is now a practicing psychotherapist in Boulder, CO. Coaches, she believes, must be educated so they can help the eating-disordered athlete “make the transition into adulthood while remaining a great athlete.” At the root of all eating disorders, Diane believes, is a “lack of a sense of self,” what she calls the “self-esteem piece.” She didn’t feel okay about who she was; finding something she could control — how much she ate — numbed her feelings of self-hate and made her feel safer. It helped her make order out of what felt like a chaotic life. sibling relationship. Many coaches “have this belief that if you’re thinner you’ll be better, in gymnastics, swimming, running,” Diane says. “We have to teach coaches that thinner doesn’t mean better.” She counsels coaches to learn how to view the athlete as a complete person, not just as an athlete who must be groomed to perform. The coach needs to care about the athlete’s family life, his or her emotional state, and service to the planet, in other words, “to honor the whole human being,” not just the athletic being, according to Diane. The coach also has to be able to voice concern over worrying symptoms. “If somebody had come up to me in the locker room and said, ‘I’m really worried about you,’” says Diane, “I probably would have denied [being anorexic] but I would have known that at least someone cared about me. Nobody ever did that for me.” She urges coaches and any loved ones to “speak from your own immediate pain. Don’t focus on their problem. Don’t say, ‘You look so sick or skinny.’ Say, ‘I’m worried about you. Fear comes up for me when I think of you.’” Another pointer: “A huge thing when you are sick is that you feel crazy,” says Diane. The athlete needs to hear from a coach, family member or friend, “There is support, and you are not crazy.” Diane urges coaches to learn more about eating disorders so that they can avoid the mistakes her own coaches made. She likens the tremendous influence that a coach has over an athlete to a parent-child or Page  | 45