Dozens of student-athletes graduate from UA each year, though it’s unclear how many seek reimbursement for medical or mental health treatment associated with injuries sustained while competing on their teams. Between 2019 and 2021, 336 student-athletes graduated from the school, according to data provided by the athletic department.
Courtesy of Sydney Freidin
“I needed space to work on myself”
Freidin came to UA from Westchester, California, in the summer of 2017, before the start of her freshman year. That freshman year wasn’t easy, with Freidin saying she didn’t get along with the other three freshmen on the gymnastics team and often felt isolated.
“I was trying to figure out life without my parents, and gym culture is so far removed from what nutrition should be in real life,” she said. “I’ve been told untrue things about food all my life.”
Freidin said that when he came to UA, he had already dealt with a coach who had unhealthy ideas about portion control. She said that, through gymnastics, she grew up in an environment where food was considered unhealthy.
Self-proclaimed orthorexic, a person who is obsessed with her health, said that she only puts healthy things in her body.
Freidin competed in two meets her freshman season, scoring a career high on the balance beam in a February 2018 meet at Oregon State. That April, everything changed. Freidin underwent a postseason body composition test intended to track athletes’ progress. Her coach told her that the team nutritionist was concerned about her body composition, and a few days later she was sent to the team doctor, who told her that she had been diagnosed with anorexia.
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