Rio Olympics 2016: Elite athletes and their nutrition

Last week I went to a conference at The Royal Society of Medicine in London on the impact of sport and exercise nutrition.  May I say this establishment is very grand, and once my coat had been taken on arrival and i had seen the glass atrium i realised i was not on my usual kind of course. It was refreshing to hear speakers who have hands on experience with athletes at the top of their game, like Jennifer Ennis.

Although the focus was Rio and the Olympics, I think so much of what i gleaned can be applied to the recreational athlete.  James Moore is head of Performance Services for GB Rio which means he has a bit of a logistical nightmare from what i could see!  He called it the biggest show on Earth and I see what he means now.  I will pass on some tit bits behind the scenes of the Olympics.  Now Rio is a rather beautiful location with the sea, mountains and a white sandy beach that would not be out of place in California.  In contrast there are the flavelas which perch vacariously on the side of the mountain.  The Olympic location is on the outskirts of the high rise buildings hugging the coast to the right of the picture with the statue.

GB secured its base during the Olympics five years ago.  It is a whole village, the centre of sporting excellence for Brazil which has left the brazilians a little surprised! The meticulous detail to creating this "camp" is phenomenal, right down to the residential part which is a block of flats all interiorly designed with the british flag on every cushion, duvet cover and floor to remind the athletes of home so they focus on their performance and nothing else.   The teams of people helping them achieve their goals is pretty impressive too, from Games Services, Performance Services to Sports and Athlete Services.  The performance centre for strength and conditioning is a site away from the games where athletes can connect with family and have some time out.  I'm thrilled to say there are hot and cold baths at the wet site as part of the recovery program.

The variety of problems that have been identified for the athletes competing in Rio are:

* Travel (jet lag/sleep)
* Injury
* Clinical issues
* Weather/environment
* Catering & food availability

Nutrition is the bedrock of performance and recovery and is a lot more complex than i imagined.  Dr James Morton and Dr Graeme Close belong to the Sport, Exercise and Health Science department at Liverpool John Moores University.  Dr Moore has taken lab research on endurance nutrition to the GB cycling team in competition mode at the Tour de France to see what works.  His conclusions simplified are:

> Unlike runners, cyclists do not ride a constant pace or flat out so requirements will be different
> Carbohydrates play a huge role on competition day
> Eat and drink carbs during the competition on an hourly basis
> Nutrition is decided day by day, meal by meal as fuel for the work required 
> More carbs needed on a cold day
> More carbs for hills, less for flatter racing
> Refuelling required at the end of the race and reflects what the next morning's demands will be
> Athletes need to be able to switch between carbs and fat for fuel

> Protein intake should be continually high
> What does it take to win?  Fuelling and recovery, training adaptations and weight management

For Rio, one of the key factors will be hydration. It could be 35 degrees celsius and 65% relative humidity . It is key to know on a person to person basis their responses to a) heat tolerance and b)sweat rate/composition in order to understand their hydration needs and have a race strategy.  Heavy sweating can cause whole body cramping which will affect performance and high sodium loss.

Vanessa Mansergh
http://www.completeworxpilates.co.uk/
01491 577480