Gary Russell Jr. was one night away from the opportunity to box in the first round of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Hours before weigh-ins, numerous reports hit that Russell had passed out in his dorm room, lying unconscious on the floor. He was trying to make the weight of 119 pounds. His dream ended before he even had the opportunity to try.
Weight cycling, or yo-yo dieting, has been a long-term issue that many athletes have been dealing with since they were young. In many sports, trainers and coaches ask their athletes to make a certain weight for an advantage in competition. Lately, affects of this are finally being realized.
The dieter may experience loss of both muscle and body fat during this process. The worst part comes after however, as the person is then likely to experience their body gain rapid weight of fat.
Local boxing trainer Galen Brown sees this as a problem, yet it remains the only option for athletes at his gym to try.
"If you don’t do it, you will be in the ring with somebody who out-weighs you by 20 pounds at least," Brown said. "I mean, then you’re talking about a whole (different) situation."
Brown, 30, thinks that the only solution is to try and keep the weight down as the part that is very serious is gaining the weight back so fast. One of his fighters, Steven Johnson, wrestles to get his weight down to 118 pounds as he walks weights around 130.
"Yes, I think it’s a big deal," Johnson said. "The difference between what I do and other fighters are that I just cut out bad food all together and go from there. I get down to 118 easily without starving myself like I did when I was younger."
Johnson, 27, is experienced as he has been fighting since he was 15 years old. He says that weight cycling is one of the worst things an athlete can do to their bodies. Brown agrees.
"I used to do it myself, and look, it doesn’t help," he said. "I heard from every five pounds you lose, you gain one back. I’ve seen fighters lose 40 to 50 pounds."
Another thing people have to take into consideration is the time it takes to drop such a drastic weight. Brown says fighters tend to lose the weight about three weeks before they fight. Some do it even faster. Once, back when he was a fighter, he dropped 20 pounds two days before he fought and the day of the fight he needed intravenous therapy (an I.V.) to hydrate.
"It’s a bad deal, but it’s how I made money," said Brown.
Boxing is not the only sport that puts athletes through this kind of dieting. Even prep sports must take this into consideration. Courtney Caraway, who graduated from Central High School in St. Joseph, Mo, says back when he was in school he would lose 10 pounds the night before weigh-ins by simply going down to the school’s boiler room.
"(We) would jump rope for at least an hour," Caraway said. "But you gotta know, we were doing this without coach knowing." Caraway said the coach did not approve of this, and if he found out, he and whoever was caught would have not been able to wrestle.
So why do athletes feel the need to make a certain weight?
It is a way to get a scholarship and hope to go professional, Caraway says.
"A football player that is bigger, coaches like," Caraway said. "Same thing with a wrestler; if he can make a certain weight and he is good, colleges will want him."
Caraway not only points out a bad situation with weight loss, but athletes must also get bigger in sports which could cause health issues. Many athletes get bigger by taking steroids which, even though illegal, athletes can get very easily.
Former football player Lyle Alzado died at the young age of 43 from brain cancer. He says steroids caused his illness when he talked about it in an issue of Sports Illustrated.
"I started taking anabolic steroids in 1969 and never stopped," Alzado said before his death. "It was addicting, mentally addicting. Now I'm sick, and I'm scared. Ninety percent of the athletes I know are on the stuff."
Alzado said he took steroids so he could play better and stay on the football team. But towards the end of his life, he started to become crazy.
"I became very violent on the field and off it," Alzado said. "I did things only crazy people do." Alzado pointed out to one night when somebody hit his car, he was so crazy he just beat the guy up. Alzado played 15 seasons in the NFL for three teams, but now he is dead.
Steroids, in this case and many others, are not only to play better but to make a certain weight. Alzado said in the interview he wasn’t born to be 300 pounds, but he had to be that weight to play better.
Football players and wrestlers, among other sports, are asking athletes to get bigger, stronger and better so they can excel. Although nobody has been able to really justify steroids playing into an athlete’s death years later, many believe it is the only reasoning behind deaths of heart failure so young.
Eddie Guerreo, former WWE Champion in 2004, died just one year later after becoming World Champion. Found unconscious in his hotel room, Guerrero is just one of many that have died from heart failure.
Without his Gold Medal, Gary Russell still remains a top young prospect in the professional ranks. Since fainting played the role of the villain back in 2008, he now boxes between the weight of 126 and 130. With a professional record of 14-0 with 9 KO’s, he is ranked in the top 100 in the World according to boxrec.com rankings.
But with every Gary Russell there is in the World, there is another Lyle Alzado, another Eddie Guerreo. Even though some athletes are able to get to a weight easier than others, the dieting and stress it puts on athletes cause too many problems. With coaches and trainers being fine with this, maybe there just isn’t a way to stop it.
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