Establishing the ideal weight and body composition for each sport is important for athletic performance, but concurrently, dissatisfaction with body image and an obsession with thinness may result in poorer performance and health issues (Hagmar et al., 2008). Artistic swimming (AS, previously referred to as synchronized swimming) is a unique sport due to its physical requirements (Mountjoy et al., 2009; Schaal et al., 2017). Despite its significant aesthetic component, body appearance is not judged, but coaches and swimmers do consider it to be an important factor. Coupling this aspect with intense training, it follows that the nutritional and psychological demands on artistic swimmers are complex. Some studies indicate that a greater incidence of eating disorders is found in AS (ED, Robertson et al., 2014). The consequences may be particularly serious in young and adolescent girls, both for their health and development and for their athletic performance. Therefore, early detection and prevention is important, but there are no publications on the relationship between AS and eating disorders in girls. Given that fact, a multidisciplinary research team at Universidad Europea comprised of Dr. María Ascensión Blanco, Dr. Laura de la Calle, Dr. María Gaibar, Dr. Apolonia Novillo, Dr. Ana Fernández Santander, Dr. Cristina Andreu, and Dr. Alicia Romero Lorca, from the School of Biomedical and Health Sciences and the School of Physical Activity and Sports Science, believed a study of school-aged girl artistic swimmers needed to be conducted. To this end, a sample of 60 girls between the ages of nine and 17 who participate in national-level artistic swimming in the Autonomous Region of Madrid was used, comparing them to a control group of 90 girls. The objective was to compare the somatometric measurements, menarche data, genetic data related to stress and muscle fiber, and eating habits of the swimmers with the control group. Additionally, the study aimed to link the different data points of the swimmers to their athletic performance. A very important objective was to contribute to the early detection and prevention of ED and development problems in artistic swimmers and to their athletic performance, primarily through communication with the athletes themselves and with their parents and coaches. The young female swimmers belonged to three AS clubs in the region of Madrid (CN Arcadia, Real Canoe NC, and AD Sincro Retiro), which participated in national competitions and represented 70% of all artistic swimmers in the Madrid area for the 2016-2017 season. Age subgroups were established in accordance with the International Swimming Federation (FINA) for both the swimmers and the control groups: under 12 (Grade-schoolers), 12-15 years old (Early-teens), and 16-17 years old (Adolescents).
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