It has been argued that for aesthetic lean sport athletes, a thin body clinches an important performance advantage. Thus, an adolescent athlete “confronts” body-image pressures at a number of levels, ranging from the performance-related pressure by coaches , parents and team- mates to those inherent in the judging criteria that give physically attractive athletes the winning edge. The aim of the present study was to examine the speech of nine French rhythmic gymnastic international and national judges (M=37.22 yr +/- 11.55) related to the relationship between the gymnasts’body type , physical appearance and judgement. Analyses of interview transcripts showed three categories : body and performance , thin body control, health and body type. Results showed that all judges were aware of the a) made a distinction between body type and physical appearance; b) did not seem to think that their manner of judging can directly play a role in the development of gymnasts’unhealthy practices. Although the results cannot be generalized, this study underlines the complex reality of this aesthetic lean sport and the pregnancy of a thin body model in rhythmic gymnastics.

The paper introduces original data collected from a sample, representative of the adult Italian population, of 1.152 persons. Subjects were asked items about many behaviours, values and personality traits, and about “sport Activism”. Data show that the sport activists tend to be, in greater measure: men, young people, highly learned. The sample can be segmented in two main general clusters: “Sportspeople” (38,5%) and “Satdowns” (61,5%). Sportspeople tend to be: men, young, learned, single, dynamic, imaginative, circumspect, individualist, ambitious, concrete, success and health and culture oriented, politically active, with a light political disposition to the right, optimist. The Satdowns tend to be: women, less young, less learned, with some tendence to the left, religiously engaged, family and home and table oriented, with ethical and social worries, a little anxious and renouncer.