As of: March 18, 2024, 8:18 a.m
By: Korbinian Kothny
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Dominik Peter ended his ski jumping career at just 22 years old.
The Swiss suffered from an eating disorder for years.
Zurich – “I sat on my bed and didn’t know what to do.”
This is how Dominik Peter describes his emotional state after missing qualification at the 2023 World Ski Jumping Championships in Slovenia.
Around a year later it was over for the Swiss.
Peter ended his ski jumping career at the age of 22 - before it could really begin.
Peter changed his diet at the age of 14
It's not the many training sessions that make the Swiss despair.
It's his eating disorder.
Peter repeatedly suffers from eating attacks - including the night before the World Cup qualifiers in Slovenia.
“I stuffed everything I could find into myself.
As soon as I closed my eyes, all I saw were pizzas, spaghetti or sweets,” the former ski jumping talent said in an interview with the newspaper
Blick
.
At the age of 14, Peter changed his diet because he thought: “If I want to fly far, I have to be light.”
Dominik Peter ends his career at the age of 22.
© IMAGO/MANUEL GEISSER
Comments from trainers bother Peter
From then on, the Swiss skipped breakfast and dinner during the season and also consumed various diet products.
“When I woke up in the morning during the season, my vision was black when I got up,” explains the 22-year-old.
For years, Peter has lived under the pressure of weighing as little as possible.
The former talent is also troubled by thoughtless comments from his trainers.
“Today you have big thighs again,” a trainer once said to Peter, hitting a sore spot.
As a result, the Swiss tried to eat even less, but suffered from binge eating more and more frequently.
At first, Peter doesn't even trust his family
“From Monday until the competition on Sunday I hardly ate anything.
On Sunday evening I lost control.
Afterwards I had a guilty conscience and an enormous anger at myself. Then everything started all over again,” says the 22-year-old, describing his situation back then.
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Not even his family dared to confide in Peter.
“I explained to them that the binge eating was good for me and that I had everything under control,” reports the Swiss.
It was only after the evening before the World Cup qualification that he told them about his problems and decided that things couldn't go on like this anymore.
Peter wants to pursue a career as a policeman
Starvation is a well-known problem in ski jumping; there are frightening pictures from Sven Hannawald, among others, around the turn of the millennium.
The winner of the 2001/02 Four Hills Tournament later spoke openly about his problems at the time.
In response, the world association FIS has been measuring the body mass index (BMI) since 2004, which affects the permitted ski length.
Peter says he is doing well now.
“I feel comfortable in my body again,” said the Olympic eighth-place finisher with the team, who now wants to pursue a career as a police officer and has said goodbye to ski jumping.
(
sid/kk
)