{"id":36,"date":"2026-05-26T21:41:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=36"},"modified":"2026-05-26T21:41:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:41:44","slug":"audi-crooks-plays-for-iowa-state-and-for-all-those-whove-been-told-their-body-is-too-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=36","title":{"rendered":"Audi Crooks plays for Iowa State \u2014 and for all those who\u2019ve been told their body is too big"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

UPDATE (March 21, 2026, 3:30 p.m. ET):<\/strong> Iowa State lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament, falling to Syracuse 63-72. The disappointing result was not for lack of effort on the part of Audi Crooks, who finished the game with 37 points, more than half of Iowa State\u2019s total score.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more New IOC policy bans transgender women from women\u2019s Olympic events<\/a><\/p>\n

Iowa State basketball player Audi Crooks is one of the best athletes in the country, and that\u2019s no exaggeration. In the past week alone, she has been named second-team All-American by The Associated Press and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and she\u2019s a semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy Women\u2019s College Player of the Year. They\u2019re well-deserved accolades as Crooks \u2014 the second-leading scorer in college women\u2019s basketball \u2014 is coming off a monster season: averaging 25.5 points per game while shooting nearly 65% from the floor, grabbing 7.8 rebounds and scoring double figures in 97 consecutive games. She also became the fastest in Big 12 women\u2019s basketball history to score 2,000 points, solidifying herself as a generational talent. Saturday, she led her 8th-seeded Cyclones into the NCAA women\u2019s basketball tournament.<\/p>\n

So why, given her remarkable collegiate career, is there such a cultural obsession over Crooks\u2019 body? Basketball is a sport dominated by size. When it comes to the 6-foot-3 Crooks, however, the criticism \u2014 mostly around the size of her body \u2014 is often as loud as the applause of her on-court performance. In a particularly troubling Reddit thread, Crooks is accused of being \u201cout of shape,\u201d of not taking her \u201cconditioning\u201d seriously and of being the reason Iowa State was bounced early from the Big 12 Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such body-shaming insults are lobbed at athletes of all genders who defy narrow perceptions of how an athlete\u2019s body should look. Just ask Serena Williams, who spent a record-breaking professional tennis career being accused of having a body that was \u201ctoo masculine.\u201d\u00a0In 2009, Williams said she was called \u201cfat\u201d and \u201cunfit\u201d after she had surgery and fell to No. 200 in the women\u2019s tennis rankings. \u201cYou have to enjoy what you look like,\u201d she said at the time. \u201cSometimes I read things [that say] I\u2019m too fit or my arms are too muscular, but that\u2019s how I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the 2024 Summer Olympics, rugby star Ilona Maher responded to a fat-shaming TikTok comment that said she had a BMI over 30, suggesting she was not an ideal athlete for Team USA. \u201cBMI doesn\u2019t really tell you what I can do,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t tell you what I do on the field, how fit I am. \u2026 So yeah, I do have a BMI of 30. I am considered overweight. But alas, I\u2019m going to the Olympics and you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even NBA player Zion Williamson has been navigating claims that he \u201covereats\u201d since he came into the league six years ago.<\/p>\n

Read more Tiger Woods is done. We should be too.<\/a><\/p>\n

When an athlete as powerful as Crooks comes on the scene, it is easier for some critics to lean into fatphobia to discredit her than to simply admit that what they\u2019ve been taught about the relationship between body size and fitness is one-dimensional and outdated. Williams is one of the greatest players to ever grace the tennis court. Maher is an essential member of Team USA\u2019s bronze-winning Olympics team. When Williamson isn\u2019t navigating injury, he\u2019s one of the most explosive players in the NBA. And, if her junior year is any indication, Crooks is destined to break more NCAA records her senior year.<\/p>\n

Size hasn\u2019t been a deterrent to those athletes\u2019 greatness because size has nothing to do with athleticism. All bodies are capable of all things. Allie Kieffer, a professional runner who has placed fifth in the New York City marathon, is more proof of how illogical it is to associate size with fitness. As she notes in a 2018 essay for SELF, the stereotype of the \u201crail-thin elite\u201d athlete can push larger athletes toward dire outcomes, including quitting sports altogether or developing eating disorders. \u201cI\u2019ve known and heard of many collegiate and elite female runners who suffer from eating disorders because their coaches tell them that they need to be as light as possible to win races,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe consequences of this messaging are severe, as I soon learned firsthand.\u201d Pushing herself to \u201ccut weight\u201d to compete at an elite level led Kieffer to develop a stress fracture in her tibia that prevented her from competing in the 2012 Olympic trials.<\/p>\n

When we push athletes like Crooks to embody the \u201cideal\u201d athletic body instead of simply accepting that their body is one of the reasons they\u2019re able to excel, it unfairly detracts from their talent and their accomplishments. It\u2019s something Crooks is seemingly aware of, and to her credit, refuses to submit to. \u201cMy family, we\u2019ve always been bigger, stronger people,\u201d she told ESPN. \u201cLike tall, big humans. That\u2019s just kind of who we are. That\u2019s our identity. I\u2019ve utilized that as more of a tool because this body has gotten me so far in life, and it enables me to do what I do on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being able to drown out the noise will benefit Crooks as she navigates a promising career, but she shouldn\u2019t have to hear the noise at all. Accepting that athletic bodies come in all shapes and sizes, and that what we\u2019ve been taught to believe about fatness is nonsense, will help set Crooks up for the basketball career she \u2014 and all plus-size athletes who come after her \u2014 deserve.<\/p>\n

Read more MAGA evangelicals cry foul after Jaden Ivey cut over anti-LGBTQ+ rants<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When an athlete like Crooks comes on the scene, some critics would rather lean into fatphobia than admit much of what we\u2019ve been taught about body size and fitness is wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nAudi Crooks plays for Iowa State \u2014 and for all those who\u2019ve been told their body is too big - Long Distance Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=36\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Audi Crooks plays for Iowa State \u2014 and for all those who\u2019ve been told their body is too big - 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