PARIS – Justin Phongsavanh, like many other athletes, has a comment about the chocolate cupcakes in the Paralympic Village.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” said Phongsavanh, a U.S. Paralympian and bronze medalist in the sitting javelin. But Phongsavanh and other Paralympians can’t live on cake alone. They and their diet teams face complex challenges, but scientists and athletic staff are developing their own solutions even as research lags behind.
Applied sports nutrition scientist Joëlle Leonie Flück said the biggest challenge of a paranutrition strategy is that athletes’ needs vary greatly not only according to their sport, but also according to their disabilities and other underlying conditions.
“The types of disabilities are very different in terms of needs and requirements from a nutritional perspective, but also from a medical perspective,” said Flück, who is also president of the Swiss Association of Sports Nutrition. “Many things have to be taken into account, such as energy expenditure, which can be completely different from individual to individual or disability to disability.”
For example, a wheelchair basketball player with full mobility of his or her arms may need very different refueling strategies than a tetraplegic wheelchair rugby player, Flück said.
Special needs
All athletes have specific nutritional needs, but the disabilities and underlying conditions of para athletes make strategy difficult. Gastrointestinal issues are especially common among para athletes due to lack of fiber, high sodium levels, and even sensitivities to spices.
At the Team USA High Performance Center in Eaubonne, just north of Paris, many meals are sourced “straight from Colorado Springs,” home to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s training center and home to many Paralympic athletes, said Brian Knutson, director of nutrition, and Hilary Kave, a dietitian. Fresh ingredients are purchased domestically, while supplements and American snacks are shipped in.
“We know some athletes like things done a certain way,” Knutson said. “For us, it just gives us a little advantage. That familiarity, that home and comfort piece, it makes their life easier.”
Para triathlete Allysa Seely said she and her teammates eat most of their meals at the HPC in Eaubonne for that very reason.
“We know the chefs, we know the food, the recipes, the menu, we know all of that,” said Seely, who won bronze in the women’s PTS2 event for athletes with coordination difficulties. “It’s something we feel comfortable and confident about.”
But gastrointestinal issues are only one aspect of the para-athletic nutrition strategy. Andrew Shepherd provides workshops, consulting and other services to athletes and para-athletes at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.
Shepherd said para athletes sometimes face specific challenges in staying hydrated. For example, those with spinal cord injuries may have difficulty regulating their body temperature. Nutrition staff employ more cooling strategies for Paralympic athletes than for Olympic athletes, including “ice vests, ice packs, slushies,” Shepherd said.
Providing accessibility to the dining hall
Accessibility isn’t just a conversation about elevators and ramps. Certain food delivery methods can be problematic for para athletes. Self-service buffets often make food inaccessible to wheelchair users and those of short stature.
Small changes, such as providing boxes and bowls that lean forward, can make all the difference, Shepherd said.
“Simple things, but identifying and doing them consistently, making sure we’re making it fair rather than just equal,” Shepherd said. “It’s really important that they can be full users of this space.”
At the USOPC center, Kave said the nutrition team is accommodating to many different disabilities. Self-serve food is placed at a lower height so everyone can reach it. Registered dietitians can prepare plates for athletes who are visually impaired.
Delivery isn’t always a matter of physical space. Neurodivergent athletes can be sensitive to textures and food mixtures, so Shepherd said the team at Loughborough took those concerns into account as well.
Lack of learning
Kave, Shepherd and others say their work to help Paralympic athletes get the most out of their meals happens in the context of a larger societal problem: Most people, with or without disabilities, lack adequate knowledge about healthy eating.
This means that the key challenge for dietitians working with para-athletes is not only to get to know each athlete and their individual needs, but also to teach athletes to approach nutrition as a life skill.
“The more you absorb, the better it is when you’re on your own,” Kave said. “At that point, when you’re no longer that athlete, maybe you’re not in the competitive arena anymore, I want you to have that knowledge so you can continue.”
Para triathlete Seely said her current diet team was relatively new but she had been working with the same dietitian for seven years prior to this.
“I still go back to our notes, our references, and use all that information almost every day to advocate for myself with my new team,” Seely said. “Without that dietitian, everything I’ve accomplished and everything I know today wouldn’t have been possible.”
Paralympic army walks on its stomach
The United States brought an army of cafeteria staff and registered dietitians to the Paralympics from training centers in Colorado Springs. Some countries, such as Japan, brought none. The difference in approaches reflects the fact that scientists do not have enough information about the physiology and health needs of Paralympic athletes to create best practices that will serve all athletes and all classifications. Currently, most Paralympic athletes’ nutritional challenges are addressed on a case-by-case basis.
“We have no idea about fuel strategies for different types of disability; we just use the general guidelines of healthy people and try to adapt them a little bit,” says Swiss nutrition scientist Flück. “A lot of research is really needed.”
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Julianna Russ is a student in the undergraduate certificate program at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
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