Chloe Kim, Erin Jackson, Mikaela Shiffrin, Simone Biles promote positive body images, Olympic mental health

Chloe Kim and Erin Jackson have written themselves in the Olympic history books with their stunning performances in the snowboard halfpipe and speed skating.

Thousands of young women and girls across the world will have watched both athletes take their respective sports to new levels and admired the athleticism, technique, creativity and courage that it takes to do that.

But the athletes’ positive impact on women goes beyond sport and extends to something even greater.

At Beijing 2022, 45 per cent of athletes were women, setting a Winter Games record.

Female athletes shining on primetime TV

As Elizabeth Daniels, associate professor in psychology at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, points out to NBC News, the Olympics continue to be a platform for women to shine on primetime television, crucially putting them front and centre in front of young viewers across the country.

"Much of what girls and young women see in the media represent unhealthy and narrow standards for beauty — for example, overly thin and toned female bodies that are generally unattainable without strict dieting and excessive exercise," Daniels writes.

"When girls and women compare themselves to these images, we generally come away feeling poorly about our own body. Partly as a result, body dissatisfaction is widespread among women, and it’s considered to be a normal part of girls’ development for them to feel dissatisfied with their body. Boys and men can also experience body dissatisfaction, but it is less common."

Cross-country skier Jessie Diggins, who took her career Olympic medal haul to three at Beijing 2022, has spoken about suffering from an eating disorder after becoming convinced that only skinnier athletes were successful in her sport.

The power of images of active female athletes

Daniels has spent much of her professional career studying how adolescent girls are affected by different portrayals of women in media, and the results are clear: active athletes excelling in their sport, and who are not being objectified sexually, help young women see themselves in a more positive light, encourage them to be more active and achieve their goals and help break from unhelpful stereotypes.

During her studies, she presents images of athletes to adolescent girls and follows up by asking them to describe themselves. Her research consistently shows that after viewing images of athletes in competition instead of women dressed like models, girls describe themselves with more positive adjectives like "strong".

In the age of social media, the Olympics play an even greater role in empowering women to view themselves positively and, as Daniels says "to think about what their body can do rather than simply what it looks like."

Role models on mental health

The open discussion on mental health continues to grow in a positive way as well thanks to athletes like Simone Biles, who spoke on NBC's "Today Show' in support of Shiffrin, who had a difficult Beijing 2022 from a performance perspective.

Biles took time out at Tokyo 2020 to focus on her mental health, and her contribution to that discussion has prompted several athletes to speak out on the issue.

"It’s a really tough place, especially during a pandemic. You’re competing at an Olympics and America is kind of gold medal or bust, which puts a lot of pressure on ourselves," she said. "But we also put a lot of pressure on ourselves already because it’s the pinnacle of our careers, so we want to do our best.

"Whenever we don’t, it’s kind of a punch in the throat, but then we have all of America saying, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re a failure.’ But at the end of the day you have to realise you’re one of the best athletes on the planet and you’re at the Olympics. How many people get to go to the Olympics? What are you guys doing? You’re watching on the couch.

"I love Mikaela Shiffrin and I hope that she embraces the Olympic experience because we don’t know how many we’ll be able to go to."

By having more role models like Kim, Jackson, Shiffrin, Diggins, Biles and many more, the number of women competing at the Olympics - Winter and Summer - will only continue to grow.