Is Model Adriana Lima an “Athlete”?

Groaning in a puddle of sweat while holding a pose that would be considered obscene in any environment outside of the gym (quite a few exercises fall in this category, to my constant amusement), I considered taking a rest but just then Turbo Jennie yelled, “Come on athletes! Don’t quit now!” That was exactly the first time in my life anyone has ever called me an “athlete.” And I liked it! After we finished the 5 minutes of ab hell – during which I did not take a rest – it occurred to me that she might have been being sarcastic. After all, what could be further from the talent-oozing, Nike-sponsored, Gatorade-sweating, medal-winning, million-dollar-earning, nude-posing world of pro athletes than a 33-year-old suburban mom in Minnesota? But then I remembered that Turbo Jennie works with 8th graders all day and realized that she probably has a broader definition of “athlete” than “Serena Williams.” And if she wants to include me in that then by golly I’ll take it.

So what exactly makes someone an athlete then? If it’s not their sponsorships or salary or sex-crazed groupies then what is it? (And what fun is it??) Talent? Achievement? Recognition in their sport? Because I don’t have any of that either. How about dedication and training hard? I could argue that I have those. And so do a lot of other people. Even… Victoria’s Secret underwear models? This issue of what constitutes an athlete came up when Victoria’s Secret supermodel Adriana Lima gave an amazingly honest interview about what she does to prepare for the annual Victoria’s Secret show. It’s intense:

“Lima, 30, has been working out every day with a personal trainer since August. For the last three weeks, she’s been working out twice a day [focusing on intensity rather than duration]. She sees a nutritionist, who has measured her body’s muscle mass, fat ratio and levels of water retention. He prescribes protein shakes, vitamins and supplements to keep Lima’s energy levels up during this training period. Lima drinks a gallon of water a day. For nine days before the show, she will drink only protein shakes – “no solids”. Two days before the show, she will abstain from the daily gallon of water, and “just drink normally”. Then, 12 hours before the show, she will stop drinking entirely.”

Lima adds that she eats “no carb” saying, “I only can eat green vegetables, everything grilled or steamed, or four ounces of any type of protein.” (And hey with Lima not eating for 2-9 days before the show – depending on how you define eating – she definitely won’t have to worry about a “food baby.”)

The issue started when the chief stylist for this show, Sophia Neophitou, added, “It’s like they’re training for a marathon. Adriana works really hard at it. It’s the same as if you were a long-distance runner. They are athletes in this environment.”

At face value I can kind of see her point: athletes work really hard at what they do best and underwear models works really hard at what they do best. But she kind of lost me (and a lot of other people) when she compared it specifically to long-distance running. Like my girl-crush-site Jezebel pointed out this is not an apt comparison because “runners eat solids.” I don’t know that walking down a runway in platforms is on the same level of athletic achievement as running 26.2 miles. The gist of the Jezebel post focuses on the idea that most endurance athletes carb-load before the big event but as most of you already know there are as many different dietary plans as there are runners and carb-loading isn’t as en vogue (or as scientifically supported) as it used to be.

However, I don’t know any runner who would purposely deplete themselves of water before a race but I have known two other groups of people to do this as a practice: pageant girls and bodybuilders. (Because dehydrating yourself not only kills bloat but it shows better muscle definition.)  And while pageant girls aren’t typically seen as athletes, bodybuilders are. In fact, the few bodybuilders I know personally follow a contest-prep regime almost exactly the same as Lima’s (but with more lifting and waaay more tanning lotion).

So, does this intense regimen of dieting and exercise make Lima an “athlete”? If you say no then are you saying bodybuilders are not athletes? Does the fact that someone works out hard and diets with the singular focus of manipulating the way they look make them less of an athlete than one who does the same maneuvers but with the emphasis on performance? And when does this cross the line into disordered-eating territory?

I have to admit I’m torn on this one. When I first read the article I rolled my eyes and thought no way is a V.S. model an athlete but then I remembered how awesome it felt when Turbo Jennie called me one and I don’t do half as much as Lima does (and if I did I can guarantee you my family would have me in an in-patient ED clinic in 0.2 seconds). I also want to admit that some of the most pernicious ED tricks I ever learned were not from other anorexic girls but from a group of competitive mostly male bodybuilders who befriended me.

So help me out: What makes someone an athlete? And in your opinion, does Adriana Lima count as one? Do you consider yourself to be an athlete?

51 Comments

  1. I don’t know about the athlete question – you’ve got me scratching my head as usual – but I think it’s pretty cool that Adriana Lima was so frank about the extremes she puts herself through in preparation for that show. It’s nice for us mere mortals to know that even Victoria’s Secret models don’t just roll out of bed looking like that!

    • I agree, I’m pretty torn. I appreciate her truthiness, but I hesitate to call her an athlete. I’m scared though that some sub-conscious “I hate models” side of me is coming out though when I say that. I feel like athletes are working more toward performance instead of looks, but by that reasoning body builders and the people at the gym just trying to lose a few aren’t athletes. Maybe they aren’t. Not sure.

  2. Recently I went to Gold’s Gym and did their free fitness evaluation (I received a free one as an attempt to persuade me to become a member). I don’t know why, but something pulled me to take them up on the offer… Anyways, according to my % body fat and other scores I qualified as an “athlete” — which I found hilarious, because I wouldn’t consider myself one… at all.

    My running heyday was the only period of time when I considered myself an athlete… why? Because I actively sought to not only participate in physical activities, but to excel and increase my abilities. I was competitive and everything I did (before it became eating disordered) centered around those goals. Running became a lifestyle for me.

    Nowadays running is just a part of my lifestyle. It was when that shift occurred that I quit viewing myself as an athlete…

  3. Hmmm, I’d consider her dedicated but I don’t know if athlete is accurate. I was a runway model years ago and while I was strict about my fitness routine (not as intense as Adriana’s!) and in shape, I wouldn’t say I was an athlete. I’m with the previous poster that thinks you have to be trying to improve your ability in some sport. So far, I don’t think runway modeling is categorized as a sport.

    • What’s to say she isn’t trying to lift harder and move faster and otherwise improve her personal best? In that case, she would be improving her ability, just not on a grand stage for all to see, the way her modeling is.

  4. I would consider someone an athlete for their training regimin, not the competition. So I would consider a bodybuilder an athlete for everything that goes into training, but the final few days are contest prep, not athletics. Same with Lima — she is probably very well an athlete for her fitness routine in the rest of her life, and those final days before the show neither add to nor detract from her athletic accomplishments, but are an entirely separate thing.

    • I agree with this 100%. As Charlotte touched on in paragraph 8, I think that being athletic IS all about performance. Even before this debate about models, I did not think of bodybuilders as athletes. The training itself is athletic, but there’s no goal based on anything besides looks. (Now, if they were forced to have an wrestling contest at the end…)

  5. I don’t believe Adriana is an athlete. Although she is incredibly beautiful! I have put myself through both – I did a ridiculous diet similar to the one she outlined (and good on her for admitting she didn’t just fall out of bed to look like that!) but I am also training for a figure competition. Bodybuilders are definitely athletes given the hard work and sweat they put in, but I don’t think dieting automatically makes you an athlete.

  6. Well, according to YourDictionary.com and YourDictionary’s listed definition from Merriam Webster, the term “athlete” seems to be related to ability, skill and training for a particular sport or game. However, I would definitely call her “athletic” (again, by my interpretation of the definition of the word). I know, I’m getting into technicalities, but you did ask! 😉

    Someone is an athlete to me if they have skills, talents or abilities to compete in a particular sport. However, I think plenty of people are athletic, as they are physically fit and train to be so.

    And, like others commented, I’m happy to hear a model tell the truth about what she does to look like that – none of that “oh I eat hamburgers and I just exercise a little and it’s oh-so-easy” stuff so many like to say.

  7. I think Amy’s distinction is a helpful one. You can have athletic abilities, an athletic build, maybe even athletic dedication. But I think being an athlete requires real skills in a particular form of sport. I say sport rather than exercise, because the term athlete comes from a word that is means “a contest”, so I actually think that it suggests someone who is actively using their athletic skills in a contest of performance.

    For that reason, I wouldn’t put Adriana Lima in the “athlete” column, or even bodybuilders – although they compete, I think the competition is about the appearance of their body rather than their skill/performance, even though it takes immense skill to get a body like that. Same for me – I might be edging towards athletic, but certainly not an athlete.

  8. No – after all walking down a run way isn’t an athletic event – and to be honest, i don’t think bodybuilding is an athletic event either. After all it’s all about the way you LOOK – not actually about anything you DO (apart from flex some muscles maybe). Plus no real athlete would weaken their bodies by not eating anything or drinking anything (which I find worrying) for such a long period of time. After all you need to make your body stronger, not weaker.

  9. In my opinion, if you’re exercising regularly and working towards specific fitness goals, i.e. losing 5 pounds, jumping onto a higher plyo box, lifting your body weight in the bench press, etc. then you are an athlete. I guess, the line I draw between athlete and non-athlete is a little blurry. Someone who doesn’t care about their health, eats whatever, and rarely moves is not an athlete, but everybody else…? If it makes you feel good and work harder, why not call yourself an athlete?

  10. I think my definition is a little narrower than this… athlete suggests a physical goal that involves exertion and movement .I’m sure Lima works as hard as an athlete, but that doesn’t make her one./ The food and training stuff is irrelevant, your target is what makes you an athlete. Looking hot in your knickers is not an athletic goal! Dictionary confirmed, Charlotte you are almost definitely more of an athlete than Lima. I think we all knew that anyway!

    Px

  11. In my mind, an “athlete” is someone who plays a sport and competes in said sport on a near-professional level. Olympians are athletes. Professional tennis players and footballers are athetes. Us mere mortas (Lima included) can be athletic, motivated, and and train hard, but we’re not “athletes”. That’s the way the words define themselves in my mind.

  12. Good question on what makes an athlete and I agree with most of the other commenters that Lima is not an athlete. I think of an athlete as one that excels in a certain sport and also fuels their body to work as a machine to play that sport. That doesn’t include depleating it of necessary nutrients.

    It is intriguing all the press that this is getting and I am happy that she is open about it. Perhaps all this hard work before the show revels that she doesn’t really have “that body” the rest of the year and may in face be a mere mortal. I have quite a few friends that work for VS corporate (I live in Columbus, OH) and often when the models come in they don’t look at all like their pictures. VS is photoshopping to the extreme!

  13. Definitely agree there is a huge difference between being athletic and being an athlete. Anybody (even me) can be athletic… participating in activities that move your body – but to be an athlete (imho) brings to mind excellence in those activities. Yah. Not me. Or a runway model. Or even a body builder. But a runner? Sure! I even considered my horse an athlete when we were competing. HE was the athlete – not me.

  14. There is no question that I train like an athlete, but am I an athlete? I’m going to say no , because at this point, I don’t compete in a sport. I’m going to go with unless you compete in a sport, you are not an athlete, though you may be quite athletic!

    What is a sport? If drinking makes you better, then it is not a sport 🙂

  15. I agree with Alison and other who are pointing out the missing part to athlete: your sport.

    Working out and exercising is one part of being an athlete. Having the skills necessary to perform your sport is another. Having the talent to smash a tennis serve at over 100 miles an hour (and then return said ball), or dribbling a soccer ball down the field avoiding defenders, keeping possession and then kicking a goal. Those are the attributes that make someone an athlete. Not just working out.

    I workout and attempt 😉 to play several sports, however I would never call my self (or a model) an athlete. Although people often say I am “athletic” which I appreciate.

  16. According to the Internet an athlete is “a person who is proficient in sports and other forms of physical exercise.” I guess I’d be inclined to say that athletes workout to preform a physical event to the best of their capability. I don’t think I’d consider Lima an athlete (unless you consider walking down the runway a physical event), maybe athletic and physically fit, but not an athlete. To be fair though, I don’t really consider body builders to be athletes either. They may have lots of muscles, but what are they doing with them? In many cases, all those huge muscles can impede physical performance.

    I’m a little miffed that they would compare what Lima is doing to marathon training. I am sure starving yourself and working out is extremely difficult, but there’s a lot more to running a marathon. I would also argue that athletes eat to preform better, while non-athletes might workout but do so to be thinner.

  17. If she’s an athlete, I’m even further from athleticism than I thought. And I’m screwed. In the bad way.

  18. I tend to think of an athlete as someone who participates in a sport – running, biking, hockey, what have you. They don’t have to compete professionally, but an athlete is a person who puts a lot of time & effort into their chosen sport.

    Being athletic is different.

    Someone once referred to me as athletic and you could have knocked me over with a feather. I am a bookworm. I don’t play any sports. I’m not a runner. But, I do make an effort to exercise and I even enjoy it. I aim to have a certain level of physical fitness for health reasons and because I like to be able to do things…I don’t have natural athletic ability, but I guess I do have the inclination, if that makes sense.

  19. It sounds like that model is training just as hard as someone in a bodybuilding contest would. The whole no water and liquid foods beforehand though? Seriously? I nonw the world will see you in your undies, but seriously…I’m glad she’s at least admitting all that she’s doing to look like that. I’d hate for everyday people to feel jealous of her looking like that thinking she’s just “like that” and feel bad about themselves by comparison.

    How about just feeling sexy?
    I think to me an athlete is someone who exercises seriously. More than here and there. Someone with a goal they are training for. There are different levels of that I think…you don’t ahve to be on a team to be an athlete, but I bet it helps 🙂

  20. In my mind, the term “athlete” and if you are one, is in your own distinction. I think of myself as an athlete. I am a mother, of a very active 2 year old, and now 23 weeks pregnant with my 2nd. I workout 5-6 times a week in addition to a full time job and keeping up with my family. I am training for a specific event: childbirth! I see myself as an athlete. I do not eat certain foods because of what it does to my body, and that of my baby. I participate in specific activities such as yoga and lower body exercises to prepare for labor. I see my body as a tool, and what I eat and do with it keeps it in it’s best performing state.

    Also, I see my husband as an athlete. He is active duty in the Army and exercises very, very hard daily, sometimes pushing to the point that I think is relatively over the top. However, he must keep his body in tip-top shape in the case that he must survive in less than ideal situations, or fight in a war.

    So, in my opinion, “athlete” is not a noun, but a state of mind. I think I am, therefore I will be!

  21. I’m sorry but I can’t see VS models as athletes. It seems she training more to be a person with an eating disorder than to be an athlete to me. How can you deny your body of fluids!?

    • Loads of athletes do deny their bodies of fluids ahead of a competition. Clearly body-builders spring to mind, but also pretty much everyone who is competing with weight classes are prone to it (martial arts, lifters, jockeys,…).

  22. I was going to say that her regimen is not that far removed from that of a bodybuilder leading up to competition, but you made that point for me. So it becomes this weird question of whether training your body for a specific appearance counts as a sport, especially when you are doing it as part of a competition. (I would argue that Lima is doing this as part of a competition, because she’s competing against hundreds of other hopefuls for that coveted spot.) I have no idea what the answer is, because I have a hard time saying bodybuilders aren’t athletes.

    Anyway, I consider myself a fairly serious athlete and I would never do half the shit Lima does to prepare for the VS show. I mean, I’m a distance runner, and so I eat. I have to, because otherwise my muscles won’t work. Anyone who thinks you can run a marathon on nothing but protein shakes and liquids has obviously never tried to run a marathon before.

    What I want to know is how our standards for feminine beauty have become so stringent that a model must basically go on a liquid fast for two weeks in order to be considered perfect?

  23. I think her diet and her exercise regime make her really good at what she does and mean that she is super committed…but I’m sorry…SHE IS NOT AN ATHLETE.

    I’d love to see how many calories she is actually consuming during those last 9 days. I doubt it’s very many…

    (P.S. Protein shakes aren’t NEAR delicious enough to drink that many of!!!)

  24. I had a hard time with this one. In the end, I think ‘athlete’ connotates ‘sport.’ So, while Lima may be intensely and enviably fit and strong, no, I don’t consider her an athlete. That said, I don’t necessarily think ‘athlete’ implies any superiority, either. Because I DO play various sports, and have all my life, I do call myself an athlete, and I’m in nowhere NEAR as good of shape as Lima (or you, Charlotte, for that matter!).

  25. I’m gonna go with Amy on this one: I think, technically, an athlete is a person who trains specifically for one or more sports, rather than training for a role in a film, a photoshoot, or a strut down the catwalk.
    Having said that, the few times I’ve been referred to as an Athlete, I swear I grew a couple inches taller. (And, IMHO, anyone who works with kids all day, be they parents, teachers, pediatricians, therapists, etc. deserves the title of Endurance Athlete!)
    So, no, I don’t believe Adriana Lima is an athlete. She works hard, but, at the end of the day, it’s not for performance, it’s to look good in lingerie.
    And what REALLY gets me about this is that these ladies are held up as the “ideal” woman. Who the he** can do what she does for 3 months every day of their lives?!?!?!

  26. I started my weight loss journey almost two years ago and it took me a while to consider myself an athlete due to a bad self image. But now I believe that anyone who lives an active life should be considered an athlete. Whether your life includes walking, gardening, yoga, or hard core body building or running marathons, you’ve improved your athleticism with each workout you do. Just because I don’t intend to show up my muscles on a stage, doesn’t mean they’re worth less or more than a fitness model. If Adriana Lima works out, for whatever reason, she is an athlete.

    I also don’t like the opposite view – I’ve been in races with competitors who smoke me from start to finish, but weigh probably 40 lbs. more. Does that mean that, just because I’m thinner, I’m more of an “athlete” than they are? No. We are equally athletic because we are equally improving our athleticism.

  27. It’s interesting hearing your take on this. I’ve got to admit, when I initially heard the reports, I had a knee-jerk ‘BAD EXAMPLE! UNHEALTHY DIET ALERT’ reaction, but the comparison to bodybuilding makes sense. I still don’t think it’s a sensible thing to do, but hey, if that’s what floats her boat…

    As for whether Lima is an athlete… I’d say probably not, as (from what I know!) she isn’t competing in anything. Athletic, maybe, but for me, to be an athlete, you’ve got to be training for competition or a competitive activity, and (excluding any backstage catfighting!) Victoria’s Secret isn’t about competing.

  28. Why catergorize?

  29. Pingback:Attaining The Thin Ideal: It's Not Easy For Models Either | Weightless

  30. Just the whole “who can and should be considered an athlete” debate is fascinating, but this really ramps the question-mark up a notch! I’ll be stewing on this all day… Thanks, Charlotte 🙂

  31. I only work with athletes so I am NEVER being sarcastic when I say that!! Vickie’s model??? Not an athlete!! Have a strong feeling there is no endurance happening in those lungs!!!

  32. I read the Jezebel article also, and at first I was kind of like “WHATEVER”, especially since I ran the NYC Marathon this past weekend. But – a lot of people would call me a “jogger” and not a runner, and a lot of people would want me to say I “ran/walked” the marathon instead of ran it. I hate getting tied up in Semantics and so I can’t do so here just because I’m not a big fan of praising runway models. So, golden rule and all, I say they can be whatever they want to call themselves.

  33. I personally think that everyone can be an athlete, its just a matter of connecting with your sport, and not everyone does.

    Is modeling a sport? Not really. I also don’t think of body building as a sport, its more like modeling.

    You know who are athletes? Professional Dancers, now that is a sport.

  34. Something I stand by: an athlete is someone who strives for a physical goal that uplifts both self and others and is not expected of the average person (this way, we’re excluding the eating disorders, which aren’t uplifting, and childbirth, which is amazing and beautiful, but fairly common). I’m grateful that Adriana was open about the lengths to which she goes to look the way she does at shows, and I believe it makes her an athlete, but only to the extent that it motivates others to achieve their goals and represents a measure of achievement.

    Another thing I’ll say is that I *prefer* to think of VS models as athletes, rather than as standards. No one expects men to look like Dean Karnazes (a seriously amazing athlete, and my

  35. Oops…

    …anyway, Dean Karnazes = my hero. But some folks do expect themselves or other women to look like Adriana, and that doesn’t quite make sense. Her body is the exception because she works very hard to get it that way, and anyone who strives to achieve a physical goal that uplifts themselves and other folks should get the title of athlete, Adriana included.

  36. From Wikipedia:
    The word “athlete” is a Romanticization of the Greek: άθλητὴς, athlētēs, one who participates in a contest; from ἂθλος, áthlos, or ἂθλον, áthlon, a contest or feat. The term may be used as a synonym for sportspeople in general, but it also has stronger connotations of people who compete in athletic sports, as opposed to other sporting types such as horse riding and driving. In British English (as well as other variants in the Commonwealth) athlete can also have a more specific meaning of people who compete in the sport of athletics.

    From the origin of the word, it seems that a VS model is not an athlete (as she does not compete) whilst a body-builder is. Of course so is a chess-player (including chess boxing http://fit-zaang.com/2011/03/28/monday-self-argument-is-chess-boxing-the-worlds-most-absurd-sport/) and spelling bee participants, so maybe this definition is no good.

    Assuming that an athlete is someone doing athletics she clearly isn’t one – but neither is a football player, a boxer, a biker (and are triathletes and biathletes athletes then?!?).

    Using the duck-typing principle (if it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck then it is a duck) I would say she is an athlete, mainly because she clearly trains like one. And arguably there is some competition, in that there is a selection process to become a model.

    Ultimately of course it does not matter – if you want to call her an athlete then do so, if you don’t, don’t….

  37. I think she is beautiful and everything but I really don’t believe this hard regime of diet and exercise. I mean I know a lot of people who look leaner, even after they had babies, and they eat normally.
    I suppose she is an athlete but not a professional one.

  38. I do, this is another form of athleticism and skill. It’s in another category entirely.

    I modeled for a short time when I was younger, and by no means was I toned even close, but I remember posing and the most ridiculous stances you had to put yourself in for a decent photo to make it look “normal” It was excruciating because of my lack of tonality. I applaud the health of it all as opposed to the total starvation. A piece of lettuce and a push does not make one healthy. This is a role model, this is discipline, I would much rather have my daughter or son look up to someone going through this type of discipline for their profession than what young models had to look up to in the past.

    • Modeling is not in any category of athleticism and what this girl is doing to her body before a runway show isn’t that healthy at all. She dehydrate and starve herself then go walk under bright hot lights. Not smart not smart at all and her workout regiment is my warm up as a D1 athlete the only difference is I don’t starve myself. The only models that are athletes are Athletes first models second.

  39. If you are working out and engaging in athletic activity, regardless of the reason why…yes, you are an athlete. If you are calling the act of walking down a runway an athletic event…no.

    You don’t have to be a professional to be an athlete. I consider myself one (been to state and national tennis competition or two in my heydey) but I’m no where close to being a professional. I have friends who are marathon runners, motocross riders, roughwater swimmers, canoe paddlers…I consider all of them athletes.

    I have mixed feelings about the disclosure of her pre show routine. On one hand, it is good people know the unreasonable deprivation these models (& celebs) go through to look “perfect”. On the other hand, I hope it doesn’t promote unhealthy behavior in young women who don’t have a strong sense of self and can’t see it’s not worth it or healthy.

  40. She doesn’t participate in a sport, hence she isn’t an athlete per se. A dedicated employee, I won’t knock, but athlete is stretching it.

  41. I’m a D1 track athlete at Indiana State University and I have to say that body builders are not athletes nor are Victoria Secret models. Now there are Fitness models and body builders who are ex-athletes. But what makes an athlete is training your body, mind, and reflexes to perform at top intensity in a competition of action. Examples; Track and field, basketball, football, tennis, golf, swimming, wrestling ect. A person standing and posing is not athletic there is no athleticism in posing. Yes they may work out hard but that’s for visual appeal not performance so no Body builders and models are NOT ATHLETES!!

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  44. Sophia NeoPhuckingIdiot also publicly insulted supermodel Kate Upton for no reason and said she was “common”. Then Kate Upton got the SI cover and laughed all the way to the bank.

    Bottom line, just disregard anything that comes out of Sophia NeoPhuckingIdiot’s mouth.

  45. Athletes at the top level of competition (Olympics, Tour de France, marathoners, etc.) regularly acknowledge that they are taking years off of their lives by competing at that level of sport. Top level athletic competition is actually quite unhealthy for your body. So I’m not sure the “What models and bodybuilders do is unhealthy thus they are not athletes” argument stands up. I’m not sure if they are or they aren’t athletes, but by that argument, nobody on the pages of Sports Illustrated qualifies as an athlete. Are we really going to make that argument? I don’t think so…