“That became a big burden” - Aussie Olympic champion Alicia Coutts reveals ‘disgusting’ body shaming she faced
Alicia Coutts is a competitive Australian swimmer who specializes in medley, butterfly, and freestyle. She has represented her country on the international stage on many occasions, including the three Olympics.
The ongoing mental health crisis among professional athletes is a serious concern, with many young athletes choosing to leave their sport in order to focus on getting better. Coutts recently revealed her own struggles with mental health after being on the receiving end of a body shaming onslaught. Speaking to The Courier-Mail, she revealed that the words of other people had a severe effect on her health, even making her feel "disgusting" at one point as her weight reached 102.5 kg last year.
The three-time Olympian, who retired after the Rio Olympics in 2016, revealed that during her career, she was forced to attend bootcamps on many occasions after being perceived as 'overweight'. After allegations were made against Swimming Australia last year on the treatment of female athletes, an internal review was conducted in a highly-publicized manner, which forced Coutts into reliving the traumatic experiences she had faced in the past:
"That became a big burden on my shoulders ... It brought up a lot of things about how, even though I was in the shape of my life, you put on a couple of kilos and people were judging you on that."
In January 2022, Swimming Australia released reports of an internal review that saw them recommend banning skin-fold tests and removing the term 'large thighs' from the performance program. Coutts revealed that she had to go through various programs whenever she was deemed overweight:
"I was made to do a lot of extra things – like running and boot camps because I was considered to be overweight, or my skinfolds were not good enough. We were made to weigh in all the time to make sure I was at a certain weight. Things like that."
Olympic champion Alicia Coutts' journey towards better health
Although body weight issues haunted her even during the peak of her career, she revealed that it became intense after gaining 30 kg as a result of her first pregnancy and the depression that came with retirement. She said:
"Going from being that full-time athlete, life was all about being fit and healthy and in good shape, to having kids and putting on that weight and not looking the way that you used to look – it became a real negative for me."
The eight-time Commonwealth gold-medalist reached a turning point in her life last October and felt the need to start working towards a change.
"I found it really hard to get out of that hole which obviously saw me put on a lot of weight. I was feeling really down and depressed and I just really wanted to get fit and healthy again. I hated looking at myself in the mirror. I hated just feeling like I didn’t know who I was anymore."
Thanking everyone for their support throughout her career, the former swimmer took to Instagram to send a message to people who were being vicious with their words towards her. Part of the caption read:
"Remember that people have feelings, while something may not seem like a big thing to you, it can be a mountain to climb for others. Maybe think of the feelings of others before you make a smart ass comment. You have no idea of what someone has gone through in their life time. Don’t be so quick to judge."