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“BMI doesn’t tell you what I can do.”

It seems like at least once a year, the topic of “BMI,” or “body mass index,” being a flawed measuring system for fat mass and health comes up in conversation.

Experts will explain how BMI leads to an incomplete perspective at best—since it doesn't take into consideration several key factors that influence a person’s body composition—and at worst, actual health risks, affecting eligibility for things like weight loss medications, insurance rates, joint-replacement surgery and fertility treatment. And then life moves forward.

And yet, despite the constant debunking, the belief in BMI still marches on. And this time, it was hurled at the USA rugby star and Olympian Ilona Maher.

More specifically, someone commented “I bet that person has a 30% BMI” on one of Maher’s TikTok videos.


Could this person have simply been pointing out the inherent flaw of BMI? Saying that Maher, an elite athlete, would be considered “overweight” using this system? Perhaps. But this is the internet we’re dealing with, so Maher (and others) interpreted it to be an insult.

And under that context, Maher wasn’t having it, and chose "not to just ignore the haters."

“Hi, thank you for this comment. I think you were trying to roast me, but this is actually a fact. I do have a BMI of 30. Well, 29.3 to be exact,” Maher said in response video…which became something of a roast itself.

Maher talked about how she had been considered “overweight” her entire life, and even recalled being “so embarrassed” to turn in a physical form to the office which had “overweight” written on it.

“I chatted with my dietician, because I go off facts, and not just what pops up here. You know, like you do.” she quipped while tapping her temples.

Maher is 5-ft.-10-in. and 200 lbs, which is considered “overweight” by BMI standards. But as she explained, about 170 of those 200 pounds are “lean muscle mass.”

“Do that math in your head…you probably can’t,” Maher said sarcastically.

It’s easy to see through this example how bogus BMI really is, especially for athletes.

Essentially, “BMI doesn’t tell you what I can do.”

“It doesn’t tell you what I can do on the field. How fit I am. It’s just a couple of numbers put together,” she said. “It doesn’t tell you how much muscle I have, or anything like that.”

Maher concluded by faux lamenting, “I do have a BMI of 30. I am considered overweight. But alas, I am going to the Olympics, and you’re not.”

While Maher’s clapback was certainly satisfying, it also provided some much needed reassurance to folks. So many commented on how this outdated concept has affected (or still effects) their own body image of that of a loved one.

How can I get my teenage daughter with a high BMI (but fit!) to understand this?! She feels shamed even at the doctor for her BMI.”

“Dancer here, I'll never forget at 13 being told I had the BMI of 24 of ‘overweight.’ I broke down and the nurse said it didn’t mean anything and all I could think was then WHY are you making me do this?!”

“I had to ask the doctor’s office to put a note on my child’s file to not bring up/talk about BMI in her check ups. It isn't an accurate representation of health!”

“Thank you for sharing your weight, bc seeing lbs numbers in different bodies has been so helpful in me loving mine. I’m nowhere near an athlete's body but damn, the numbers really do us in.”

Until a more affordable solution pops up, BMI will continue to rear its ugly head in doctor’s offices and in our psyches. Maybe this is a reminder that our bodies are so much more than height and weight every now and again is a good thing. And if it comes from an Olympian…even better.


This article originally appeared on 7.29.24

Joy

An Olympian lost his wedding ring in the Seine. His apology to his wife is perfection.

High jump champ Gianmarco Tamberi was serving as Italy's flag bearer during the opening ceremonies when his ring slipped off and bounced into the river.

Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi had an oopsie with his wedding ring during the opening cermonies.

A wedding ring is supposed to be a symbol of lifelong commitment that you never take off—but what about if it falls off? Into a 30-foot-deep moving river no less?

Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi was proudly serving as Italy's flag bearer during the Paris 2024 Olympic opening ceremonies on the Seine when a terrible mishap occurred. As Tamberi tells it on Instagram (auto-translated from Italian), "too much water, too many kg lost in the past few months or maybe the uncontrollable enthusiasm of what we were doing," led to his ring flying off his finger while he was waving Italy's flag.


He had a "glimmer of hope" when he saw it bounce off the inside of the boat, but alas, "the bounce was in the wrong direction and floating more than a thousand times in the air I saw her dive into the water like that was the only place she wanted to be."

"A few moments that lasted an eternity," he wrote. One can only imagine the mix of emotions he must have experienced in those moments.

But whatever despair he felt seems to have turned to positive acceptance as he said he "couldn't imagine a better place" for his wedding ring to be lost.

"It will stay forever in the riverbed of the city of love, flown away while I tried to carry the Italian tricolor as high as possible during the opening ceremony of the most important sporting event in the world," he wrote. Aww, seriously.

But then it got even better as he made a suggestion to his wife, Chiara Bontempi Tamberi.

"I think there might be a huge poetic side to yesterday's misdeed, and if you want, we'll throw yours into that river, too, so they'll be together forever, and we'll have one more excuse to, like you've always asked, renew our vows and get married anew."

Come on. Throwing her ring in the river too so that they would be together forever and they could get married all over again? That's like a scene out of a romcom you want to hate but just can't.

People loved how he handled the lost ring dilemma in such a romantic way:

"This guy is literally straight out of a romance novel."

"This is a man who knows how to say... honey, I lost my ring.without ending up in the dog house."

"That Italian charm is undefeated."

"Bro won the Olympic gold medal for romance damn."

"Dude is smoother than Reese’s peanut butter. Well done bruh."

Tamberi wrapped up his public apology with "I love you my love ❤️ May it be auspicious to come home with even bigger gold!!!"

The high jumper has some experience with both Olympic gold and viral fame, as he and his closest competitor tied for gold in the Tokyo Olympics. Rather than do a jump off to determine a single winner, the two decided to share the gold medalin a beautiful display of sportsmanship. (Tamberi is also known for shaving half his beard before competitions, hence the half-bearded "Lord of the Rings" reference in the final Instagram slide.)

Here's to amor

Joy

'Nerdy pommel horse guy' success story holds a key life lesson to share with our kids

"Sometimes, the world needs a Simone Biles to blow us away with raw talent, and sometimes, we need someone like Stephen Nedoroscik…"

Stephen Nedoroscik clinched the bronze medal for Team USA at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Once in a while, an unlikely American hero emerges from an Olympic games, and that hero at the 2024 Paris Olympics might just be Team USA's glasses-wearing pommel horse specialist, Stephen Nedoroscik.

The 25-year-old gymnast from Worcester, Massachusetts, helped break Team USA's 16-year Olympic medal drought, clinching the bronze and launching him to viral fame with his epic team final performance.

It's not just that he delivered when it counted most; it's the unexpectedness of his story. Nedoroscik showed up to the Olympics looking less like an elite gymnast and more like a guy getting a PhD in astrophysics. He had one job, and he cheered for his teammates while waiting for his big moment. And then, in true hero fashion, he took of his thick, wide-rimmed glasses and performed superhuman feats on the pommel horse.


But that's not all. As writer Whitney Fleming pointed out, there's an important life lesson buried in Nedoroscik's story that shouldn't get lost in the celebration.

"Sometimes, the world needs a Simone Biles to blow us away with raw talent, and sometimes, we need someone like Stephen Nedoroscik to remind us that a nerdy (his words), bespectacled engineer who can solve a Rubik's Cube in under 10 seconds can be a hero," Fleming wrote on Facebook before sharing why she loves his story.

"When he didn't progress in gymnastics like he wanted to, he threw himself into the one event he excelled at: the pommel horse. He's won all sorts of competitions as an event specialist, and literally was put on the team because he scores so big on this one apparatus.

During today's team finals, he spent the day bringing his teammates water, giving high fives, and cheering on every performance with incredible enthusiasm. And then it was his turn.

Nedoroscik was the last athlete to compete on the team's last rotation. He needed to hit his routine for the Americans to end a 16-year medal drought. No pressure.

It was a build-up right out of an iconic sports movie (Do you believe in miracles?)

While the pressure kept building in the gym, he meditated. A slight smile crept onto his face when he heard the cheers for his teammate's score. And then, like Clark Kent turning into Superman, he took off his jacket, removed his glasses, and puffed out his chest--and HE KILLED IT!"


Fleming shared the lesson we can all take from Nedoroscik's unusual success story:

"Nedoroscik took an untraditional path to get to the pinnacle of his sport and it paid off with an Olympic Bronze medal.

There is no one way to success, there is no one way to do this life, and there is no one way to find your purpose.

Be unapologetically and unabashedly you in every way possible, and you might end up the hero of your story as well."

That's such an important lesson to share with our kids, who may look at big name athletes and start believing there are limited ways to find success. The reality is every story is unique, every person has their own way of doing things, and there's no "right" path to achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

Thank you, Stephen Nedoroscik, for being a delightful example and the hero we didn't know we needed.

You can follow Whitney Fleming on Facebook and Instagram, and find her upcoming book, "You're Not a Failure: My Teen Doesn't Like Me Either," here.

(And in case you missed Stephen Nedoroscik's team final pommel horse routine, here you go.)