HOW ABOUT THOSE GRECIAN GAMES. Were they the same as the games held in Rome? Probably not, but University of Michigan’s David Potter, associate professor of Greek and Latin, can shed a strong light on the ancient games in Rome where the spectacle of imperially sponsored chariot races was a common and popular entertainment during the height of the empire’s power. Potter’s course “Sport and Daily Life in the Roman World” is one of U-M’s largest undergraduate humanities courses and explores the history of competitive sports in the ancient world, and the relationship of sport to social and political movements. Potter can be reached at (313) 936-2249 or through e-mail at [email protected].

EATING AND BODY IMAGE DIFFICULTIES are much more common in athletes than in the general population, according to U-M clinical psychologist and researcher Suzanne F. Bates, who specializes in the treatment of eating disorders in athletes. Eating disorders are more common in women than men—estimates of prevalence rates in female athletes range from 15.4 percent to 62 percent. Athletes participating in individual sports and sports where body appearance is evaluated by judges—such as gymnastics, swimming, track, cross-country and wrestling—are at increased risk. Treating eating disorders is difficult, Bates says, because athletes, coaches and family members often see pathogenic eating styles as important to success in training and competition. “Effective treatment and prevention of eating disorders in athletes requires a multidisciplinary treatment team of specialists working together with leaders in the athletic community,” she says. Bates can be reached at the U-M Counseling [email protected].

TOO FRAGILE FOR ATHLETIC ACTIVITY? That was the common thought in the late 19th and early 20th centuries about women and girls engaging in athletics. Not all women shared this opinion, and a number of women enrolled at U-M began to show their strength in fund-raising and political maneuvering to obtain their own gymnasium. Men of that time considered athletic activity a threat to a woman’s fertility and capacity for childbirth, thereby relegating females to playing tennis on private courts and walking on campus boulevards or leisurely hikes. One physician declared that women who participated in athletics would suffer from “hysteria and other derangements of the nervous system.” A lot of changes have come about since that time. Female athletes are wholly accepted and featured in athletic competitions. Current studies indicated that females can lengthen their life span, increase their quality of life, and even enhance their mental capacities through athletic endeavors. U-M’s Bentley Historical Library has photos and background information on the beginnings and rise of the female athlete at U- M. The Library’s reference staff can be reached at (313) 764- 3482.

AGE AND PEAK PERFORMANCE. Despite intensive training, age puts athletes at a disadvantage. How much of a disadvantage? “Over a century of competition for Olympic gold medals shows that while record-setting performances have improved by 20 percent to 90 percent in various events,” says John Faulkner, a physiologist at the U-M Institute of Gerontology who directs the new Nathan Shock Center on the Biology of Aging, “the age of the majority of the record holders has remained between 16 and 31 years.” Studies by Faulkner, Susan V. Brooks and others have shown a 30 percent to 40 percent decrease in muscle mass between maturity and old age, and even greater drops in muscle force and power. In people of all ages, similar changes in muscles and muscle fibers occur as a result of low physical activity. But highly trained Masters and professional athletes also experience such decrements in performance beyond the age of 30. These observations suggest that age-related changes are not just a result of decreased physical activity, says Faulkner, but are immutable and to some degree irreversible. Contact Faulkner at

[email protected]Bentley Historical LibraryInstitute of Gerontology[email protected]