Canadian skaters offer praise to Gold

EATING DISORDER

the way you see yourself makes a big difference, and it’s really hard if you are a little bit heavier, the jumps are harder because you’re putting more weight up into the air.”

Russia’s Yulia Lipnitskaya, who captured gold at the Sochi Olympics at just 15, wowing the crowd with her Schindler’s List program, opened up lately about her battles with anorexia. She said the disease dogged her for several years, and checked into a clinic last January. In her final competition, a Grand Prix last fall, the big jumps proved too much and she stopped mid-program, tears welling up. The judges allowed her to eventually finish her program, but she finished last.

“Ultimately, for me, weight is something I have to deal with every year, but I do it with food, because I love food,” Osmond said. “But it’s a struggle, it’s something that I think about.”

Duhamel, who with Radford captured the Skate Canada pairs title over the weekend, is all strength and power in her four-foot-ten frame, but it took her some time to accept her muscular body.

Duhamel and Osmond praised Gold for putting her health first.

“We don’t want the sport to negatively affect somebody, and the fact that maybe being involved in a sport that is about performance and wearing these little dresses on the ice, to think that might have affected their life in such a negative way, it’s sad and it’s disappointing,” Duhamel said. “Everybody wishes well for anybody who’s going through that situation, and wants them to be able to come out the other side with an even better perspective.”

Added Osmond: “The people who are dealing with it now, I have the utmost respect for them because this sport is really hard, it’s hard on the body.”