She certainly won’t miss being weighed. Those few minutes before a race where she had to stand in the crowded weighing room, the smell of sweat in the air and the jury behind their table with their forms and pencils. The anxiety of getting on the scale, because what if she’d gained a hundred grams?

For a year, everything in twenty-three-year-old medical student Ruth Hommel’s life revolved around these weigh-in moments. Only then would the competitive lightweight rower know that she’d be allowed to race. Or rather, that she and her team could race. That she hadn’t let her team down.

She and her teammates would have to weigh no more than 59 kilos, the maximum weight for female rowers in the lightweight class. Men can be a little heavier; they are capped at 72.5 kilos. The average weight of a male team may not exceed 70 kilos, and female teams need to maintain an average of 57 kilos. The athletes are weighed officially two hours before the start of a race. 

This means they are constantly focused on what they eat and how much they weigh, says Ruth. ‘I would sometimes weigh myself as much as three times a day.’ This affected her deeply. Focusing on her weight for months on end changed the way she saw herself. ‘I would step on the scale and all I could see was what was wrong with me.’

Accidental

It’s something quite a few student rowers struggle with. Every year, approximately fifty Groningen students join rowing associations Aegir or Gyas as lightweight rowers, without knowing the impact it will have on their lives. 

‘It just kind of happened on its own’, says Ruth. ‘Initially, I just wanted to go out and get drunk, but then I realised that competitive rowing with these other girls sounded really cool.’

I would step on the scale and all I could see was what was wrong with me

Management accounting & control student Loek Verdegaal (22), who rowed at Aegir for three years, also kind of started his competitive rowing career by accident. ‘I was the right weight, so I figured I’d give it a go. I didn’t really think there was a difference between lightweights and heavyweights.’

For the first few weeks, lightweight rowers don’t have to bother with it too much. ‘I wasn’t focused on what I weighed at all.’ But there comes a time when your coach comes up to you with a weight proposal, Loek says. ‘Our coach simply told us how much we were supposed to weigh.’ 

The athletes have to stay focused on that number all year. Because if you happen to weigh too much, perhaps because you went to a birthday party, because you weren’t feeling well, or perhaps simply because you were hungry, it can affect your entire crew. 

Control

This can result in people becoming obsessed with their weight, confirms sports psychology professor Nico van Yperen. ‘Sports are all about winning’, he explains. ‘But most aspects of a race or game are beyond our control. We don’t control the weather, the shape our teammates are in, or how our opponents will do.’

As such, we become focused on the one thing we can control. For lightweight rowers, it’s their weight. ‘They’re in charge of what they eat’, says Van Yperen. 

‘We share a common goal, which is to win’, says Loek. ‘Making our goal weight is simply something we have to do to reach that goal.’ Everyone goes about this differently. ‘In a best-case scenario, everyone eats and weighs the same. But we’re not robots, and we can’t automatically maintain the same weight all the time.’

It took him some time to get used to not being able to eat whenever he was hungry. ‘But at least it’s something everyone in the team is going through.’ 

Perfectionists

What makes the situation more complicated, Van Yperen says, is that top-level sports and the student lifestyle contradict each other. ‘If you think about it, competitive high-level sports and the fun-loving student life is kind of a weird combination. It can be difficult for students to find a balance.’

Lightweight rowers are more focused on food than on rowing

Ruth agrees: ‘Always having to lose weight can make rowers really obsessive and perfectionists about their eating habits.’ 

Loek knows all about this. ‘Especially as the racing season nears, lightweight rowers are more focused on food than on rowing. And that’s saying something, because rowers spend a lot of time rowing.’

So when some of them turn out to be a hundred grams over the maximum weight right before a race, they can come up with some strange hacks to make weight after all. 

Sweating

Loek recalls how he and his team donned thick winter coats and all crowded into a hot car just to sweat out those last few grams. Other people refuse to put salt on their food in an effort to lose as much water weight as possible. 

‘Some people will work out in full rain gear or dressed in bin liners. They’ll do whatever they can to lose those last few grams’, says Ruth.

Loek readily admits that it’s kind of weird. ‘But we’re all in it together.’ The fact that everyone is in the same boat and that it’s so difficult creates a bond. ‘Being in that bubble together is really nice’, says Ruth. 

‘Sure, everyone gets the urge to eat ten sandwiches in a row sometimes, but we help each other out in these situations’, says Loek.

Dangerous

But the constant obsession with their weight can also be dangerous, says psychologist Klaske Glashouwer, who studies eating disorders. Students tend to start having trouble when their competitive rowing career has ended. Only then do many of these former rowers realise their self-esteem has been damaged and that they’ve developed a problematic attitude to eating. 

The pressure to lose weight can be triggering

‘If someone is already sensitive to issues with their weight, the pressure to lose it can be triggering, which could lead to long-lasting problems’, Glashouwer explains. 

Loek says it wasn’t that bad for him. ‘Back when I was still rowing, I didn’t have time for anything else. I’ve become much more outgoing since I stopped.’  

But Ruth is still feeling the effects from her time spent rowing competitively. ‘I started having issues with my weight when I left that bubble’, she says. ‘I was like, fuck, what’s happening here? I hadn’t even realised how obsessive I’d become about food.’

Same breakfast

It’s been two years since she quit, but she still eats the same thing for breakfast every day. If she’s out of the house, she packs her own lunch. That means she doesn’t have to depend on what other people serve her. ‘It makes me feel safe. I still like eating things I know don’t have a lot of calories.’

The scales still have the ability to influence how she feels. She will easily feel insecure about her weight. ‘Just a hundred grams can either make my day or ruin it.’  

And yet. She wouldn’t change her rowing career for the world, not even the weigh-ins. ‘I would do it all over again if I could. The friends I’ve made, the memories I have of that year. It was simply an amazing experience.’

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