Bobby Clay: More Needs To Be Done About Red-S

SIX MONTHS ON FROM THE ARTICLE WHICH MADE WAVES, THE 21-YEAR-OLD WANTS TO SEE THE “TABOO” CULTURE BEING CHALLENGED

- Jessica Whittington

BOBBY CLAY believes athletics could – and should – be doing much more to build an awareness and support system around relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S), but that challenging a “taboo” mentality in wider society is necessary first.

Six months have passed since the 21-year-old told her hard-hitting story in Athletics Weekly, sharing in-depth insight into her osteoporosis diagnosis which came about due to her regime of over-training combined with inadequate nutrition.

“I have become ‘that girl’,” she wrote. “The girl who overtrained. The girl who under fuelled. The girl who we are all told about, yet we all just believe ‘it won’t happen to me’.”

One of Clay’s reasons for writing the article was to help raise awareness of the issue and the 2015 European junior 1500m champion believes many people have a part they can play in reducing the number of future cases like hers.

“There is a fine line between passion and obsession,” says Clay. “I think targeting athletes at the right age is really important and it not just being females. There is so much focus on females, and I feel like males are neglected heavily in this area. At the same time, I feel like males almost think that they don’t have a duty of care towards females when it comes to things like periods.