ABSTRACT
Elite women's and men's gymnastics are sports which simultaneously are able to reach sublime heights of artistry and athletic success, exemplified by the USA Gymnastics Women's National Team performance at the 2012 and the 2016 Olympics. However, gymnastics has other challenges, such as the trauma and sadness in which the sport finds itself amidst an FBI investigation which started in 2015 related to long-term abuse at the highest level. The abuse of the female gymnasts by a sanctioned volunteer and well-known sports medicine physician has shocked the gymnastics community. The International Olympic Committee sports medicine committee has spearheaded a focus on the awareness of "relative energy deficiency" in sports which can be, at its most simplistic, associated with a combination of insufficient disordered eating and excessive exercise. This is a systemic problem that can be associated with a multitude of sports, not only gymnastics, and males as well as females.
