A great mix of diverse cultures from all over the world in one place. That is one of the selling points of the Games Village at every Olympic Games as ‘THE place to be’ for those two summer weeks every four years. That mix of so many different cultures brings with it a wide variety of cuisines to meet the cultural habits and needs of over 12,000 athletes from over 200 territories and countries. While it is undoubtedly tempting to have the opportunity to enjoy such a diversity of food, it can create a lot of confusion and uncertainty for many athletes, especially with a measured diet plan to adhere to in the quest for peak fitness.
This is certainly true for many Indian athletes.
“Athletes and their support staff have reported instances from the Asian Games or other global events where athletes have come across new dishes and are unfamiliar with them, so they don’t know what was in the food they end up eating or they opt for a lot of desserts,” said Aradhana Sharma, the chief nutritionist for the Indian contingent for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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Sharma’s appointment marks the first time India has been at the Olympics in such a capacity. Sports nutritionists have long been a key part of the contingents of larger and more successful Olympic nations, and India is now showing signs of catching up and filling in the missing pieces of the backroom staff.
During our conversation, Sharma, who led a team of two nutritionists for India in Paris, was quick to make it clear that her job as chief nutritionist was not to dictate what athletes could or could not eat in the Village. That is the prerogative of athletes’ personal nutritionists, who may be those appointed by the national federation of their particular sport, by sponsors who back specific athletes, or simply a nutritionist who works full-time with an athlete on their payroll. Sharma’s team was the unifying force that ensured that food was the least of the athletes’ worries.
“We were there primarily to make sure they were following the plans of their nutritionists and to help them with any new issues or confusion about food that might arise in Paris,” Sharma said. “If athletes were unsure about something or just wanted to try something new but were hesitant, we would advise them on the best time to eat that particular food, before or after training.”
Small details such as the right time to consume certain foods and the quantities to be consumed, as well as the nutritional composition of meals depending on training and competition schedules, can easily be ignored. But these factors can lead to major consequences, especially at this level where such small margins are involved. That makes the presence of a specialist or a guide all the more important.
Aradhana Sharma, chief nutritionist of the Indian contingent for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
To make life easier for the Indian athletes and create more awareness among the group about the science of sports nutrition, the IOA also set up a mobile application. Apart from guidelines such as anti-doping rules and medical support, and all other necessary details that the contingent would need in Paris, the app contained nutritional details and the food menu for the entire duration of the Games, with plenty of vegetarian and vegan options – a key requirement for many Indian athletes that ensured that they did not have to rely on Indian restaurants outside the village. Sharma and her team were responsible for the diet and nutrition part of the app and ensured that the nutritional value of the food items available in the village were properly mentioned, such as the presence of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, etc. This informed athletes about which foods to eat in greater or lesser quantities, which foods to avoid altogether, and which foods could be ideal or harmful depending on the time of day, taking into account their normal diet plans and food intolerances.
“The benefit of having an app with all this detailed information is that athletes know well in advance what they can expect to eat and what they should or shouldn’t eat on a given day, rather than just walking in and trying to figure out what’s going on. It’s just much more efficient for them,” Sharma explains.
However, nutritionists clearly advise athletes not to experiment with food right before their competition. “It’s kind of a rule of sports nutrition: keep eating your normal food before your competition,” Sharma said.
But it’s not that simple. Closer to events, many athletes rely on “comfort food,” which often consists of foods that aren’t part of nutrition plans. The challenge for Sharma and fellow sports nutritionists is to help athletes get the comfort they seek, while also ensuring that nothing athletes consume ultimately negatively impacts performance.
“We also have to look at it on a case-by-case basis,” Sharma said. “Sometimes, if we know that an athlete’s comfort food is not going to help them much in terms of performance, there’s no harm in allowing them to consume it in small or well-measured amounts.”
Comfort food is an even bigger factor for female athletes, especially those who are in the middle of a menstrual cycle during the Games. Sharma sheds light on how menstrual cycles affect not only women’s wants, but also their needs, in terms of food and nutrition.
“For female athletes, the plans can change depending on what phase of the (menstrual) cycle they’re in,” Sharma explained. “And accordingly, their energy, protein and micronutrient needs can change. But they’re very familiar with this because they’ve been in a high-performance setting for a long time.”
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Manu Bhaker of India (2nd from left), who won two medals in Paris, in action during one of her shooting competitions.
On the other end of the spectrum, there is anxiety leading up to competition, which can get in the way of proper nutrition. Many athletes often can’t eat at all on the day of their event, let alone comfort foods. That’s where having someone like Sharma around can be a big help.
“In such cases, we make sure that the food they eat the night before their event gives them enough energy during the competition… So if they are not able to have a good breakfast in the morning, we can still do well.”
Of course, there are other variables involved, such as extra care, especially when it comes to food intake for boxers, weightlifters and wrestlers, among others who compete in sports that adhere to strict weight requirements on each competition day. Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification on the morning of her final at the Paris Olympics for being 100 grams overweight was one of the biggest talking points of the Games. While it’s not yet clear whether a miscalculation of food intake was the reason she gained more weight than she could lose overnight, it shows just how challenging and complicated the job of a nutritionist is.
“We are what we eat,” goes the old saying. While awareness of the science of sports nutrition and its benefits has increased dramatically at the elite level of sports in India over the past decade, Sharma is adamant about the importance of spreading the message at the grassroots level and “teaching them young.”
“The younger you teach a child, the more likely you are to change or improve their eating habits… I always pay a lot of attention to children when I work with them because that is a time when we as nutritionists can easily instill good habits,” Sharma said.
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