Many women who have shared images of themselves online will know social media can be a cruel place – and it seems even world-leading athletes are not exempt from body-shaming.
Katelyn Osashi went viral in January for a video of her floor routine – it was viewed 43 million times on Twitter alone – but afterwards, she was subjected to criticisms about the way she looked, the American gymnast told BBC Sport.
“I was told I didn’t look like a gymnast,” the 22-year-old said. “I was told I looked like I’d swallowed an elephant, or looked like a pig.”
The routine that propelled her to internet fame, known as a ‘perfect 10’ because of her high score, prompted many people to note that she looked “fun” and that her talents on the mat were “magical”.
But not everyone was pleased for Ohashi. “As gymnasts, our bodies are constantly being seen in these minimal clothing leotards,” she said.
Ohashi, who is from Seattle, was tipped for global success after she beat her teammate Simone Biles (a four-time Olympic medal winner) in 2013.
But she then suffered a back injury which meant her career was put on hold and when she returned to training – having put on weight during her time away – she suffered with the way she looked.
“A coach was upset I had put on weight,” she said. One coach told Ohashi that the reason she was in so much pain when moving [after her injury] was because she was bigger than before.
Ohashi, who has been doing gymnastics since the age of three, says that at that time she “hated everything” about herself.
She says when she was in her teens, she and her friends would not eat because they wanted to be skinnier. “We didn’t understand what we were doing to our bodies and how dangerous that is,” she explained.
This isn’t the first time Ohashi has spoken about being body-shamed. In August 2018 she told The Player’s Tribune: “I was told it was embarrassing how big I had become. I was compared to a bird that couldn’t fly.”
Ohashi says the turning point came when she went to university at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) – which she later went on to represent in gymnastics – to study gender studies.
“Now I’ve been wanting to do this whole women thing. I go for women empowerment,” she says. “Everybody’s bodies are different and there’s not a single body that is the perfect body.”