Paris Olympics 2024: What do Olympians eat during the competition?

The road to an Olympic medal is lined with carbohydrates.

As the Paris Olympics 2024 gets underway, a lot of attention is being given to the food that the athletes are consuming before they step on the mat, run on the field or dive in the pool. After all, what an athlete eats could fuel their way to victory.

As sportspersons put their bodies under immense strain and stress during the Games, here’s what we found out about what they eat in a typical day, what powers them on and what they would secretly like to binge on.

Eat as per your sport

The diet of an Olympian is very different from the diet of an average Joe. All Olympians have detailed plans of what to eat — and more importantly even the timings of their various meals.

But it all starts with a plan. “Part of their training is their nutrition,” Sarah Wick, a sports dietitian and the director of sports nutrition for the Ohio State Sports Medicine Institute told the New York Times. “It’s just like strength and conditioning. They need to know just what nutrition they need, and when they need it.”

Athletes’ diets are decided by the sport they pursue. Calorie intake can range from around 2,000 calories per day for a shorter duration sport, such as sprinting, and up to 10,000 calories per day or more for training in a higher demand sport such as swimming.

Joanna Irvine, a dietitian with the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific who works with athletes on Team Canada, told Vox that the kind of sport is the most important consideration when charting an athlete’s diet plan. “A longer endurance event will require athletes to load up on carbohydrates to maximise the glycogen and energy stores leading into their event.”

However, for sports where starts are critical to performance, carbohydrate intake won’t be high. For instance, think a 100-metre sprint.

However, almost all Olympian diets are built around four main pillars: a variety of carbohydrates, which are pivotal for energy; protein, which is essential for building lean body mass and ensuring stable blood sugar levels; omega-3 rich foods (like fish), which contain healthy fats and help regulate blood pressure; and lots of fruits and vegetables for their antioxidants and fibre.

When you picture an athlete’s plate at the Olympic Village for breakfast, think avocado toast, smoked salmon, eggs and a banana.

Personal tastes matter

Apart from what the sport requires, dietitians and nutritionists also focus on the athletes’ personal likes and personal injuries. Rikki Keen, senior sports dietitian at the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), was quoted as telling CNET that first and foremost, she looks at the athlete’s preferences.

“No matter the sport, the first step is to start with individual preferences, tastes and taking into account if they’re vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free and so forth,” she said.

For instance, the diet for Suni Lee, an American gymnast who was the 2020 Olympic all-around champion, is modelled around her kidney disease diagnosis and eczema. For this reason, she eats a low-sodium diet to prevent any flare-ups.

She told CBS News, “I like to eat pretty healthy because if I feel my best I know I can go out there and compete at my best. I love my fruits and my vegetables. I try and eat as healthy as possible, especially leading up to competitions — getting my good protein in and carbs because that’s important too because we need energy.”

Another example would be Usain Bolt. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the sprinter ate 100 McDonalds chicken nuggets each day because they were a familiar food he knew his stomach could handle. He went on to win three gold medals.

Even for Helen Maroulis, the US wrestler who is also the oldest female wrestler to ever compete in an Olympics, her food is planned as per her age as well as her pre-existing brain injuries that she has suffered on the mat. She told TIME that she eats foods that are good for brain health.

On season vs off season

And if what an athlete eats before during the Olympics is important, then equally significant is what that athlete consumes during off season. Dietitians note that calorie intake would be significantly lower for an athlete during off season.

Keen is of the opinion that even though nutrition changes during off-season, it still focuses on healthy living. “We still focus on the quality of the food, focusing on colour, healthy fats, lean protein, whole grains, as well as monitoring bloodwork for key nutrients.”

However, she warns that it’s important to make sure that the athlete is still meeting their base energy needs to support overall health and avoid falling into a low-energy state, which can ultimately affect their recovery and overall health.

Trash that junk food

One thing that all Olympians will have in common, irrespective of their sport or weight is that they eat remarkably little processed food. Fast-food items such as burgers and chicken nuggets are a strict no-no. However, veggie versions like the soy-based nuggets will feature at the Olympic Village restaurant .

Another big no-no for Olympic athletes is alcohol. And this is reflected at the Paris Olympics Village. There is a bar outside the lounge — but it only serves Corona Cero, a non-alcoholic beverage from Olympic sponsor AB InBev. Teams can choose to bring in their own alcohol for celebrations, but its use isn’t something Paris organisers are promoting.

But why no boozey nights for athletes? Experts explain that alcohol promotes dehydration and delays recovery. It can also slow down the building and wear and tear of muscles and alter sleep stages, which is important for physical and mental recovery.

Laura Moretti Reece, the lead sports dietitian for the female athlete program at Boston Children’s Hospital, in a CNET report also pointed out, “Alcohol also acts as a vasodilator, which increases blood flow to certain tissues in the body; in the case of an injury, this could lead to increased inflammation and delayed recovery.”

Eat like an Olympian

While an Olympian’s diet may not be suitable for an average person, it comes with lessons. Nutritionists say that one should follow the same tenets as Olympians do when it comes to their grub.

Be regular, don’t skip meals and prioritise protein. Also, they say your diet doesn’t need to be perfect — neither is an Olympian’s. As Reece and Keen said, “Olympians are just like us and enjoy eating treats, and not all of their meals go as planned.”

As Vox wrote, winning these days, it seems, starts at the breakfast table.

With inputs from agencies