Chloe Kim, Erin Jackson, Mikaela Shiffrin, Simone Biles promote positive body images, Olympic mental health

Chloe Kim and Erin Jackson have written themselves in the Olympic history books with their stunning performances in the snowboard halfpipe and speed skating.

Thousands of young women and girls across the world will have watched both athletes take their respective sports to new levels and admired the athleticism, technique, creativity and courage that it takes to do that.

But the athletes’ positive impact on women goes beyond sport and extends to something even greater.

At Beijing 2022, 45 per cent of athletes were women, setting a Winter Games record.

As Elizabeth Daniels, associate professor in psychology at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, points out to NBC News, the Olympics continue to be a platform for women to shine on primetime television, crucially putting them front and centre in front of young viewers across the country.

"Much of what girls and young women see in the media represent unhealthy and narrow standards for beauty — for example, overly thin and toned female bodies that are generally unattainable without strict dieting and excessive exercise," Daniels writes.

"When girls and women compare themselves to these images, we generally come away feeling poorly about our own body. Partly as a result, body dissatisfaction is widespread among women, and it’s considered to be a normal part of girls’ development for them to feel dissatisfied with their body. Boys and men can also experience body dissatisfaction, but it is less common."

Cross-country skier Jessie Diggins, who took her career Olympic medal haul to three at Beijing 2022, has spoken about suffering from an eating disorder after becoming convinced that only skinnier athletes were successful in her sport.

Daniels has spent much of her