Therapy wrote:
She needs some therapy for the likely abuse under Salazar and for her own problems. She most likely has an ED.
The first thing I'll say is that this is probably right. This has been speculated on the boards for years, and just looking at her instagram page, it's pretty easy to see something is wrong.
The question that will come with this is...is is cruel to bring this up and talk about it about this on the boards?
I go back and forth with that. She is a person and this is her private life and health that anonymous people are chattering about. She deserves privacy and dignity, and these boards don't get erased.
On the other hand, she is a pro runner and a (somewhat) public figure, that many young girls and women look up to. She has an impact on what they do and how they live. What she says and doesn't say, what she puts into the world...it all has an impact.
When I was a girl, I used to watch certain TV shows with certain actresses, truly believing that their bodies were what women's bodies should look like. I watch re-runs of these shows as an adult and I am nauseated. Those women look horribly sick to me now. But as a girl who didn't know any better, I believed that they were the pinnacle of what a woman should look like. Luckily I didn't develop an eating disorder myself, but I'd imagine that seeing these women regularly on TV was the cause of a lot of ED/disordered eating issues.
In college, the top runner on our team came back from summer training super fit with the goal of qualifying for nationals. I thought she looked amazing. A photo was snapped of her leading a race by a lot looking calm and determined while the runners far behind her were blurred. That picture was framed and hung up in the athletic hall and is probably still there. It's a great picture. Years later, she acknowledged that during that time period she was struggling from an ED and exercise addiction that ended up derailing her career. She acknlowedged this and has recovered, but I think of that picture hanging up in the athletics hall and all the 18 years olds who look at it and are inspired to look the way she did--to believe that that is a runner's body, when in reality it was the body of someone who was very very sick.
Mary Cain had a great conversation about this with Emma Abrahamson recently. People who post pictures of themselves without acknowledging what's really going on behind the photo can end up hurting other people.
I really wish Jordan well. I agree that she herself has probably suffered abuse at the hands of Salazar. Mary even alludes to that happening. I just hope she is also able to think a little more independently now and might consider how she is impacting younger generations--that might inspire her to get healthy and heal.
