Para Sports Nutrition

E83 Jessica Heims Para Athletics

Jessica Heims is a 2 time paralympic discus thrower and previous world record holder. Jess talks to us about her impairment, her training, how her nutrition has changed to help improve her strength as a thrower and the challenges and benefits she's experienced when increasing her energy intake for this.

E82 Performance recovery and optimisation with Jamie Stanley

Dr Jamie Stanley is the senior sport physiologist working with the Australian para cycling team. Jamie talks to us about the work he does in conjunction with athletes and coaches to optimise performance through monitoring how the body adapts to training and recovery practices in order to produce the best performances within any individual.

E81 Mental Performance with Sommer Christie

Dr Sommer Christie is a mental performance consultant with the Canadian wheelchair rugby team. Sommer explains to us how a mental performance consultant (or sport psychologist) can help athletes improve their mental approach to training and performance, and how they interact with coaches and other performance support personnel to create the most productive environments for athletes to thrive. 

E80 Sports Nutrition with Miriam Van Reijin

Dr Miriam van Reijin is a sports nutritionist working with the Dutch wheelchair tennis and ski / snowboard programs. Miriam talks to us about her approach to working out the nutritional needs of her athletes and improving their intakes to better support training and competition.

E79 Physique Assessment with Gary Slater

Dr Gary Slater is an associate professor in Nutrition & Dietetics at the University of the Sunshine Coast and the National Nutrition lead for the Australian Institute of Sport. Gary talks to us about physique (or body composition) assessment of athletes - why it might be undertaken, what methods are best to use and for what purpose, when it might be appropriate to undertake and some precautions practitioners, athletes and coaches may want to consider.

E78 Dietary Supplements with Jill Parnell

Dr Jill Parnell is a Canadian researcher who has investigated dietary supplement use and nutrition knowledge of paralympic athletes. Jill explains what we mean by dietary supplements, tells us why we would study dietary supplement use, what para athletes and coaches need to consider before deciding to take a supplement, and sources of useful information about dietary supplements.

E77 Sports Nutrition with Rob van der Werf

Rob van der Werf is a sports dietitian who works with the Dutch para cycling and swimming programs. Rob talks to us about some of his experiences in working with para athletes, how that's different to working with able-bodied athletes, some of the research they've done on energy requirements of para cyclists, and the opportunities for young sports dietitians / nutritionists coming into para sports.

E76 Josh Pauls Para Ice Hockey player

Josh Pauls is a 4 time Paralympic gold medallist with the Team USA Para Ice Hockey program. Josh talks to us about how he got into playing ice hockey, his impairment, his training and the work he's done on improving his nutrition to support his performance.

E75 Diede de Groot Wheelchair Tennis player

Diede de Groot is the world number 1 in wheelchair tennis singles and doubles who won the Gold medal in both events at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games, as well as winning the Golden Slam in 2021. Diede talks to us about her impairment, how she got into playing wheelchair tennis, her training and how she manages her nutrition through all the travel she does each year to compete.

E74 Joengmin Lee Para rower and nordic skier

Jeongmin Lee was a South Korean para rower and nordic skier who competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic games. Having completed his PhD, Jeongmin now works as a researcher for the Korean Paralympic Committee. We talk to Jeongmin about his journey through paralympic sport.