Olympics 2024 | A weighty issue of Olympic proportion

Bengaluru: According to several reports, the first ever weight-measuring device was found in the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh who died in 2300 BC and the origins of wrestling - the oldest combat sport - dates back to 3000 BC in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt.

Now, historians/ archaeologists will tell you that the weighing scales were used for trade and commerce and it had no correlation with wrestling. This, most likely, might be true. But as human history evolved over the centuries, body weighing machines would go on to become a combat sport athlete’s best friend and worst enemy.  

Here’s why...

Except fencing, the other four -- boxing, judo, taekwondo and wrestling -- disciplines under the combat sport section separate their athletes into weight divisions associated with a feature known as ‘weigh-ins’. It is a process to determine if a participant’s body weight is under or over the limit of the weight category he/ she is competing in. 

However, this isn’t as easy to manage as it sounds because the entire careers of such athletes revolve around ‘weigh-ins’ which play a critical role in deciding the competitors’ fate before, during and after a fight. 

While boxers attend an official weigh-in each day which takes place at least three hours prior to each of their bouts, wrestlers go through the process the day before the competition. In the case of taekwondo and judo, both follow similar methods where the weigh-ins happen twice - the first on the previous day and the second (for a random set of athletes) on competition day. 

Essentially, a combat athlete is forced to strategise weight cutting or gain each and every day of the season in order to be well-nourished and well-hydrated to produce optimum level performance during target tournaments. 

“For example, let’s take a 60kg category boxer in the women’s section,” begins John Warburton, head coach of boxing at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), Ballari. 

“Her training weight will be anywhere between 62-64 six weeks prior to a competition she is slated to enter. The weight is gradually cut down during this period so that on the day or previous night of the bout, she doesn’t find it difficult to maintain her body weight even if it exceeds 60kgs by a few grams. A few 100 skips or a jog up and down the stairs should be enough to cut that down easily. 

“A boxer checks his/her weight every morning during the training period as soon as they wake up. A good night’s sleep reduces weight up to 800 grams. So the athlete needs to be around 64.2 the night before sleeping so when he/she wakes up and the target weight for that week is 63.4 kgs, it is maintained,” explains the Brit. 

Along with the right kind of training schedule or disciplined sleep hours the most important component for such kind of body weight manipulation is diet. A structured programme of everything that enters an athlete’s anatomy leads to a healthy body and mind which fuels positive outcomes and enables longevity of a sporting career. 

“Let’s say a boxer or wrestler belonging to a certain weight category wants to switch over to a lower one because of better opportunities, then the athlete needs to start working on weight reduction at least 180 days ahead,” says Ryan Fernando, a well-known nutritionist.

“Speaking about reducing kilos in a scientific manner closer to an event, there are three ways to cut weight about 4-5 days before a weigh-in. The human body is made up of 60-65 percent of water. The first method is to go on a low-carbohydrate and high-protein diet. Sometimes athletes cut out carbs completely before the weigh-in and stick to only protein and fibres. Secondly, it is by losing some muscle by burning calories. 

“Apart from sticking to a high-protein zero-carb diet, engaging in calorie-burning exercises like running helps lose a few kilos. Thirdly, they also have to reduce salt in their diet. Salt retains water so they have to reduce the salt intake, keep it to bare minimum. Lastly, increase the potassium intake,” he offers. 

If these are some of the scientifically proven and safest ways of weight management in combat sports, lack of expert advice or knowledge, sheer ignorance or extreme practices of weight loss/ gain out of desperation to perform hinder the growth of several upcoming athletes in the country. 

Warburton, who travels to most domestic boxing events in India, makes an observation still prevalent. 

“One of the main issues with most boxers and the coaching methods in India is that they are not well educated with the process of maintaining weight. Some of them are heavier by two kgs even on the evening before the bout. That forces them to do two sessions of boxing and training for something we term as Rapid Weight Loss (RWL) that eventually results in the boxer entering the ring already tired or exhausted,” says Warburton. 

Reducing fat mass while maintaining or gaining lean muscles is the primary definition of weight loss. To attain rapid results in this regard, athletes/ coaches get tempted to adhere to time-saving approaches. One of the most well-kept secrets in combat sport is the use of diuretics (also known as water pills) which are medicines that help flush extra water and salt out of the body. The other worrying practice is sporting bulimia or self-induced vomiting.

If RWL is one complication, athletes indulging in unscientific methods of Rapid Weight Gain (RWG) to recover quickly after a match before getting ready for the next, has its own disadvantages. 

One of the responsibilities of Dr Samuel Pullinger, physiologist and head of sports science at IIS, is to ensure that the athletes in the academy are kept far away from such extreme practices. The Brit says that even sauna baths as a means of cutting weight are done away with at IIS after understanding the injury risks associated with it. 

“We had a female athlete who wanted to compete in a lower weight category,” Pullinger tells DHoS. 

“After initial studies, we observed that cutting weight would result in her having issues in and around female athlete health such as irregular menstrual cycle which then means she would be more susceptible to injuries. So we told the coach that there is a health risk associated with her playing in a lower weight category. The coach let her compete in a higher weight category that was healthier for her in the long run,” says Pullinger.  

Such dialogues and the support staff working in tandem becomes crucial to build athletes in fight disciplines that are by nature risky, in some instances leading to death. Maximising performance while minimising the risk of weight gain/ loss repercussions is key in combat sports which constitute nearly 25 per cent of the medals on offer at the Olympics. 

The next time you watch a boxer, wrestler, judoka or a taekwondoin punch, grapple, kick or strike, know that these athletes are fighting an everyday battle with the weight machine to outmanoeuvre an opponent inside a ring or on a mat.