Swimming Star Launches New Support Scheme For Athletes
And her struggle, to not only overcome those challenges but return to full mental and physical sporting fitness, has inspired her to set up Athlete Interactions – a free online service dedicated to helping other athletes with whatever problems they may be facing.
To access help or advice, athletes complete an online form which is then assessed to determine the nature and extent of support required and the athlete is then contacted directly by one of the team of volunteers.
They can then access practical and emotional support from one of a team of professional athletes including Amber and her co-founder, GB alpine skier Rachelle Rogers, while a team of medical professionals is also on hand to provide help if required.
Amber was at the start of her senior swimming career when injuries, the accident and an eating disorder caused by undereating and over training threatened to derail her completely and she said: “I really struggled to find someone who understood what I was going through.
“People who understood my sport – my coaches and teammates for example – didn’t necessarily understand my mental health challenges and my friends and family didn’t necessarily understand my sport.
“I’ve worked incredibly hard both mentally and physically to come back from all that but it showed me that sportswomen need a different approach to help and support – they need it to come from other sportswomen.”
Amber’s descent into the grip of an eating disorder (ED) was gradual and exacerbated by a perfect storm of other influences, but “I think the time when it really became apparent that something was not right was in 2017,” she said.
“That academic year I had been finding uni hard, my grandad was really ill and I was also injured. I was, outwardly, in a very privileged position but inwardly, my world was crumbling.
“Eating less and exercising more became a way of executing control over a life which was feeling very much out of control. The need for control was what started my ED, but the desire to be thinner was what fuelled it to continue.
That, coupled with my competitiveness and perfectionism meant I became competitive about doing the most exercise I possibly could on the least amount of fuel… an incredibly messed up picture, but that’s what my life was for a while.
“I had been bombarded with this message throughout my whole life that gaining weight was bad and being fat was something to be feared. It’s a message we receive both in normal life too, and with even more prevalence within elite sport,” she said.
Now, she hopes that, through Athlete Interactions, she can prevent other athletes from struggling in silence.
“I love my sport,” she said, “and while I have no doubt that swimming did contribute to me developing an eating disorder, I am also in no doubt that swimming was the reason that I got help and ultimately got better.
“Sport is an incredible vehicle that we can use to educate the next generation of athletes and their parents – and to help them.”
For more information about Athlete Interactions, or to access its free, confidential help, visit www.athleteinteractions.com