Olympic Sport Essay

Any athlete in training will always emphasize the importance of hard work during training and keeping a balanced nutritional diet in an effort to reach his maximum peak during competition. For an Olympic athlete in training, his diet will always spell the difference between winning or losing his sport. The reality of training for an Olympic sport such as swimming is that the speed of the swimmer does not depend on the food intake of the swimmer. What makes him skim through the water much faster is his physical training and physique. Proper diet and nutrition is what will give the body the energy to complete training sessions and become more efficient while performing the trained tasks. This is why a diet analysis is highly important when training a swimmer. The diet analysis is composed of two parts according to the usaswimming. org website: Diet analysis is comprised of two parts, needs and intake. Optimal nutrition is a matter of balance (nutrients-in versus nutrients-out). In other words, a swimmer’s intake of nutrients must match his/her output of nutrients during rest and exercise. In terms of energy (aka calories), if the needs are greater than the intake, the net result is weight loss. Conversely, if the needs are less than the intake, the net result is weight gain. Therefore, an athlete must always be focused on healthy eating and conscious of having to substitute lower fat foods for whole fat foods as well as reducing any snacks that will not contribute to keeping his energy level high. The athlete will best be served by loading up on whole grains, cereals, and legumes with at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables in a day. His protein intake should be limited to lean meats, fish, and poultry. A typical diet for swimmer would be composed of the basic food groups but on a varying scale. For instance, Carbohydrates are used as the fuel of the body and therefore a swimmer should consume about 55-60% of his daily calories from grain and cereal products. Protein in the meantime builds the swimmers muscle tissues and other chemicals needed for body function. So protein intake would be recommended at about 15-20 % calories. Fat in the meantime is the transporter of the body. Swimmers will consume only 30% of fat calories while limiting the intake will result in a desirable fat consumption range for the athlete.