Injury and Illness

[ponchi101]

Reports that Carlitos will not be able to play next week, or the Aussie.
Major blow to the event.

[skatingfan]

Reports that Carlitos will not be able to play next week, or the Aussie.
Major blow to the event.

[ti-amie]

NOOOOOOO!

[ashkor87]

Now Venus is out too..

[ti-amie]

[JazzNU]

Was anything posted about Caroline Garcia talking about her eating disorder? Trying not to duplicate, but not sure I looked in the right places. Let me know if nothing's been posted about it yet and I'll post it.

[ponchi101]

First I have heard of it. I think you have the scoop.

[JazzNU]

Here is an AP article about it.

World No. 4 Caroline Garcia opens up on her eating problems

BRUSSELS (AP) — Caroline Garcia says she had to deal with bulimia for a spell, triggered by losses and pain from a lingering foot injury that affected her daily life.

Now back to a career-high No.4 in the WTA rankings and in bright spirits, the 29-year-old Garcia opened up about her struggles in an interview with L’Equipe sports newspaper.

After several inconsistent years marred by doubts and injuries, Garcia took a break from tennis in March to nurse her foot. The pause brought dividends as the Frenchwoman enjoyed a tremendous second half of the 2022 season with titles at the WTA Finals, Cincinnati, Bad Homburg and Warsaw to go with her semifinal appearance at the U.S. Open.

Before that successful stretch Garcia said “there have been many tears, many sleepless nights”.

Garcia — who first reached the No. 4 spot in Sept. 2018 — said she took refuge in food to compensate for the unease created by pain and defeat.

“You feel so empty, so sad, that you need to fill yourself up,” she said. “It was the distress of not being able to do what I wanted to do on the court, not winning and suffering physically. Eating soothed me for a few minutes. We all know it doesn’t last but...it was an escape. It’s uncontrollable.”

Garcia said being alone in her hotel room while on the tour made things more difficult to handle. Speaking about her problems with family and friends helped her improve her relationship with food.

“Since I’ve been enjoying everything around tennis a little more and taking more time for myself, it happens less,” she said. “And when it does happen, I accept it more and feel much less guilty about it. Allowing myself small pleasures on a more regular basis prevents me from having that craving for something too often. At one point, I didn’t allow myself much. It became too much.

“Now, if I have a craving for pizza for two days, I’ll just have my pizza and stop obsessing about it. I had a hard time accepting the fact that it wasn’t going to transform my body. I allow myself a little dessert every now and then instead of just thinking about it all week and eventually breaking down completely.”

Garcia became in November the second player from France to win the season-ending WTA Finals after Amelie Mauresmo in 2005. She is expected to compete at the Australian Open, the first major tournament of the season beginning Jan. 16 at Melbourne Park.

She said in an interview last month with the WTA website that winning a Grand Slam title is her big goal in 2023.

“Being healthy first, but winning a Slam is probably one of my goals and dreams since I was a little girl, and with the last couple of results, with the WTA Finals, with the semifinal at the US Open, made it obviously more concrete and something I can reach, something I can achieve,” she said.


https://apnews.com/article/sports-carol ... 54ace3a1c9

[JazzNU]

This is a NY Post (I know, but go with it) story on it.

Caroline Garcia opens up on bulimia battle: ‘Those were moments of crisis’

By Jenna Lemoncelli


World No. 4 tennis player Caroline Garcia has opened up about her “uncontrollable” struggles with bulimia and binge eating during the 2022 season.

In an interview with French outlet L’Equipe on Thursday, Garcia said she “took refuge in food” when she felt “empty and sad” to “fill a void” when she wasn’t winning or was physically hurting.

“Some people don’t go out to eat anymore, but for me it was the opposite: I took refuge in food,” Garcia said. “Those were moments of crisis. You feel so empty, so sad, that you need to fill yourself up. It was the distress of not being able to do what I wanted to do on the court, not winning and suffering physically.

“Eating calmed me down for a few minutes. We all know it doesn’t last, but it was an escape. It’s uncontrollable. Afterwards, I started talking about it, to my relatives, to friends, to my parents. You start to understand. You realize that if it happens to you, it’s not the end of the world. Sometimes it’s just tiredness that makes your body need sugar.”

Garcia, who reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open last season, said sharing her experience has helped and now she better manages her relationship with food.

“Since I’ve been enjoying everything around tennis a little more and taking more time for myself, it happens less,” she said. “And when it does happen, I accept it more and I feel less guilty. Now, if for two days I feel like having a pizza, I’ll take my pizza and it will stop obsessing me.

“I’m more of a weigh myself type of person, I’m more of a gram person. At one point I was quite hard on myself. I had fallen into excess. Today, it’s better. I can enjoy myself when I feel like it. Sometimes you need proof that it won’t do anything to your body.

“For example, I ate a pizza the day before my match against [Daria] Kasatkina [at the WTA Finals]. I wanted to eat it. I found a gluten-free dough. I was so happy with my pizza! And I lasted two and a half hours on the court the next day.”

Garcia took time off in March and April to address a lingering right foot injury, which she underwent surgery and relearned how to walk.

The 29-year-old appeared reinvented upon her return to the court and finished the year ranked No. 4 in the world after being 75th in June. She won five titles in the 2022 season, including the WTA Finals and the doubles title at the French Open.

In a November note on Twitter, Garcia got candid about her relationship with food and binge eating while discussing the silver lining of her injury.

“I’ve had sleepless nights, binge eating, cried in my hotel room, cried on tennis courts, been on crutches, swore, relearned to walk, I struggled to find shoes, I suffered physically and mentally,” Garcia wrote.

“… This injury allowed me to play more liberated, I learned to let go, I learned to accept my mistakes, the unexpected, to delegate, to trust myself, to follow my instincts, than I can eat a pizza from time to time, it was not ogling to change the result of the next day, if I was dying to eat one ‘that was good too.'”

Garcia is slated to compete at the Australian Open later this month.


https://nypost.com/2023/01/05/caroline- ... interview/

[JazzNU]

This is the November post from Caro that is mentioned in the NY Post article

[JazzNU]

The original interview that Caro gave was with L'Equipe, which is not just in French, but behind a paywall. If someone has access and can better share, please do so.

I've seen bulimia mentioned, and now in this NY Post one, binge eating. Binge eating seems closer to what is described in the snippets that other outlets picked up, but I'm guessing it's been one or both at different times, that binge eating led to bulimia. Regardless, it's great she's sharing more of her journey with her eating disorder, maybe it will help other players and people in general.

There are reports that she wasn't expecting so much reaction to her sharing this and she's not sure she would've shared it if she had known. She doesn't regret sharing it, she just wasn't expecting the level of media attention it is getting. I think this might be because that November post on Twitter seemed to have escaped most tennis journalists because I don't remember this being a fall story at all. But she seems to be in good spirits and adjusting okay to the attention on this particular story, WTA had up stuff up on social media from her meeting with press at AO and she was smiling and looking very happy.

[ponchi101]

I said this when Naomi came forward with her struggles. The WTA had to investigate that: was it a Naomi problem, or is it more spread? After that, now we have this story of Caroline, and in the Netflix documentary, both Badosa and Ajla talk about some struggles.
There are some things that you can't do anything about: if you feel down after you lose, then this is not a lifestyle for you. You don't like traveling and get homesick very easily? The same. But if there are other factors, then that has to be studied. Is the tour too lonely? Is the schedule too tough? Or any other possible factors.
After all, these are a group of very healthy, successful young women. If a significant percentage of them are not feeling well on tour, maybe something can be done.

[JazzNU]

Haven't watched Break Point, but Badosa has discussed her mental health struggles in the past, but I'm not sure it got much attention. I recall mentioning it on here before and one of the regulars asking where I got that from cause it was the first they'd heard of it, which is not a great sign that it was covered well to me.

[JazzNU]

[ti-amie]

But didn't Kyrgios just play an exo? Is that where he was injured?