{"id":55576,"date":"2025-08-09T19:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/55576\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T19:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:21:09","slug":"i-wasnt-healthy-i-wasnt-happy-i-wasnt-me-clara-koppenburg-reveals-her-personal-battle-to-recover-from-eating-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/55576\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I wasn\u2019t healthy. I wasn\u2019t happy. I wasn\u2019t me’ – Clara Koppenburg reveals her personal battle to recover from eating disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clara Koppenburg<\/a> has been praised by fellow riders Demi Vollering<\/a>, Alison Jackson and many others for speaking openly about eating habits, mental health and her own personal journey of recovery.<\/p>\n

The Cofidis rider also asked if teams, fans and the cycling industry are willing to give athletes the time to heal as well as expecting them to perform in races.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Koppenburg’s deeply personal post on Instagram comes a week after Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a> (Visma-Lease a Bike) spoke openly about the pressure to lose weight to be successful at the Tour de France Femmes. C\u00e9drine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) also spoke out about women’s health during the Tour de France Femmes, helping to launch the Fueling for Endurance, Energy and Durability (F.e.e.d) campaign to fight back against eating disorders, missing periods and energy deficiency.<\/p>\n

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In an Instagram post on Friday, Vollering made it clear that she “will continue to make every decision in my career by putting my health first.”<\/p>\n

Koppenburg was inspired by their words to reveal her own personal story. She included a series of images that showed how she had lost weight in previous seasons but said being back to her true self “was my greatest victory.” A final photo showed her smiling.<\/p>\n

Vollering and Jackson praised Koppenburg in replies to her post but the message setting appears to have been changed and the messages are no longer visible.<\/p>\n

“Lately, there\u2019s been a lot of talk about eating habits and mental health in women\u2019s cycling \u2013 sparked by brave voices like Demi & Pauline. I\u2019m grateful these conversations are happening. But this isn\u2019t new. It\u2019s a shadow that\u2019s hung over our sport for years,” Koppenburg wrote.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve lived it. I pushed my body to the limit. And I was flying up the mountains. But I wasn\u2019t healthy. I wasn\u2019t happy. I wasn\u2019t me.”<\/p>\n

Now 30, Koppenburg has been a professional for a decade. She raced for the Bigla Pro Cycling Team, WNT-Rotor, Rally Cycling and EF-Oatly-Canondale. She joined Cofidis this year and rode the Tour de FRance Femmes, helping teammate Julie Bego defend the best young rider white jersey for seven days.<\/p>\n

Early in her career, Koppenburg was considered a climber but that only pushed her to lose weight. She has now realised she had to change.<\/p>\n

“I didn\u2019t win races lately \u2013 but I won myself back,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

“After 6 years, my period returned. I reconnected with my body, my worth.And yet, it still feels like I\u2019m being penalized for healing.”<\/p>\n

Koppenburg’s contract with Cofidis appears to end this year. She highlighted the pressure put on riders to achieve results and<\/p>\n

Choosing recovery was the hardest \u2013 and bravest \u2013 step I\u2019ve ever taken. And I\u2019d do it again. But what no one tells you is: Doing the right thing can feel like a punishment,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

“Recovery isn\u2019t linear. It\u2019s messy. Weight fluctuates. Hormones shift. Your power-to-weight drops. It can feel like you\u2019re riding backwards. You question everything \u2013 even though you\u2019re finally doing what\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

“What we need isn\u2019t just awareness of RED-S or EDs. We need space to heal. Time. Understanding. Belief.<\/p>\n

“And the real question is: Are we ready-as teams, fans and industry – to give athletes that time?”<\/p>\n

Whatever her future in the sport, Koppenburg’s biggest result is her returning to be her true self.<\/p>\n

“Atm I don\u2019t have big results. But I have myself \u2013 and that\u2019s my greatest victory,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m getting stronger every week. And with the right support, I\u2019ll be back \u2013 truly back.<\/p>\n

Because recovery isn\u2019t weakness. It\u2019s strength. And it\u2019s time we recognize it as such.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clara Koppenburg has been praised by fellow riders Demi Vollering, Alison Jackson and many others for speaking openly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-55576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}