Para Sports Nutrition

Susannah Scaroni is a wheelchair racer who has won nearly every wheelchair marathon race in 2025. We first spoke to Susannah in 2021 while she was recovering from a training accident. We catch up to discuss everything she's been doing in the past 5 years including her career as a dietitian, her ongoing success in wheelchair racing, and the impending birth of her first child.

Dr Anneke (Ann) Hertig-Godeschalk is a Research Associate at the Swiss Paraplegic Centre in Notwil. Ann has been involved in a number of research projects in individuals with a spinal cord injury (SCI), including athletes. We discuss a few of these projects to find out what she knows, including the topics of Urinary Tract Infections, Vitamin D and Pre- and Probiotics.

Dr Gary Farkas, Dr Sven Hoekstra and Dr Christof Leicht are the co-authors of a chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Disability Sports Science entitled "Inflammatory responses to exercise and related health interventions". Gary, Sven and Christof talk to us about what inflammation is, the impact inflammation has on health and disease, and how exercise and other factors such as heat, cold and diet help to mitigate inflammation and thereby improve health and disease risk.

Dr Kristin Jonvik is a Norwegian researcher and dietitian who has undertaken research into aspects relating to low energy availability and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) in para athletes. She also co-authored the chapter Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport and disordered eating in the Routledge Handbook of Disability Sport Science, published early in 2026. Kristin talks to about what REDs is, how it impacts on athletes, what the process of assessing and diagnosing REDs is and how this can be complicated in para athletes due to interactions with their impairment.

For those interested in reading Dr Jonvik's research further, these are some relevant articles, together with those provided for episode 102:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35268044/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11061701/

https://www.jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(24)00248-X/fulltext

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41442093/

 

Dr Nathan Delang is a dietitian and the Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the Acquired Brain Injury in Children Group at the University of Queensland. Nathan talks to us about research into nutritional support of the brain during or after brain injuries, from concussion through to acquired brain injuries.

Sally Baumann is the senior sports dietitian working with Para athletes at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Sally co-authored (with Dr Michelle Minehan) the chapter on "Hydration monitoring and management in para sport" in the recently published Routledge Handbook of Disability Sport Science. Sally provides us practical tips and strategies to help athletes and sport scientists effectively assess and improve hydration in para athletes, including some useful questions to ask athletes to better understand their specific barriers to hydrating well.

Prof Jill Parnell is the Chair, Health and Physical Education at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada.  Jill co-authored a chapter on "Navigating Supplement Use in Para Sport" in the recently published "The Routledge Handbook of Disability Sport Science" (https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Disability-Sport-Science/Griggs-Arnet-vanderSlikke-Flueck/p/book/9781032502656). Jill walks us through the supplements covered within the chapter, the considerations that athletes should take when assessing supplement use, and the decision tree that is included within the chapter.

Julia Battams is the head para equestrian coach for Australia, and the founder of the Equine Pathways Australia charity which supports the development of para equestrian riders across Australia. Julia tells us all about the sport of para equestrian, the nutrition challenges athletes face, and the pathways available to coaches to get involved in the sport.

Elliot Stewart won a silver medal in the 2020 Paralympic games for Judo, and has since begun a role as the National Para Lead for Judo Australia. Elliot tells us what Para Judo is, the demands of the sport, and his experience in progressing from being an able-bodied Judoka and coach into Para Judo with a newly acquired vision impairment. He has great advice for Judo coaches, athletes and support personnel.

Vera Weijer is a Dutch researcher who, together with Kristen Jonvik from Norway, undertook a research project regarding the energy expenditure and intake of Paralympic athletes. What is unique about this research is the number (70) and breadth of athletes studied (Norwegian and Dutch from a range of sports and impairment types), mostly at the elite level, and the range of techniques they've used in the study, including doubly labelled water. The details of their results can be found in these links:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38763462/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38694186/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38194704/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39587809/