Henrich
...aly. In early 1988 she placed tenth at the senior national championships and her dream of making the Olympic team seemed a reality. But Christy didn’t make the Olympic team in 1988. She missed a berth by 0.118 of a point. At the 1989 World Championships, Christy placed fourth on uneven bars and second all-around at the national championships. By this time she was already struggling with an eating disorder. Christy’s eating disorder can be traced back to an incident in 1988, at a meet in Budapest, when a United States judge remarked that she would have to lose weight if she ever expected to be on an Olympic Team. She began eating an apple a day and then just a slice of an apple. This while still training six to seven hours each day. Christy’s weight began to drop from 90 to 80 then 75 pounds. Her body became so weak she fell twice on her head during a competition. Finally in late 1990, less then a year and a half away from her second shot at an Olympic team, Christy retired from gymnastics. Many believed this was the end of her eating disorder but it wasn’t. Soon her weight was 60 pounds, and she had to be checked into a hospital. In the hospital she had to be tied to a wheel chair because she liked to run around the hospital to try to loose weight. When she was forced to ...