What Olympic Athletes Eat!

If you have ever wondered what it takes to fuel the bodies of Olympic athletes here is your answer. I found an interesting and informative article on CNN the tells you what a few of the athletes are eating to perform at such high levels.

If carb-loading were an Olympic competition, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps would probably medal there, too. His day starts with three cheese-tomato-onion-fried egg sandwiches, an omelet, three powdered-sugar-covered slices of French toast, a bowl of grits and three chocolate chip pancakes to top it off, according to news reports.

Phelps told reporters earlier this week he was instructed to eat between 8,000 and 10,000 calories every day. Other news reports put the total as high as 12,000 calories.

This sounds extreme, even to some dietitians. But Olympic athletes' nutritional needs do vary widely according to their sports and body sizes, and swimming for long periods of time will naturally burn a lot of calories, experts told CNN.

Phelps' intake is just what his appetite requires, said Nancy Clark, a sports nutritionist in Boston, Massachusetts.

"He's a limousine, he's tall. A limousine needs more gas than a Mini Cooper," said Clark, who has worked with Olympic athletes. "Hunger is simply a request for fuel."
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Olympic Athletes

These people are some of the most in shape people in the world. They dedicate their lives to their sports and training in hopes of winning Olympic gold. Yes all Olympic athletes are in great shape but they train specifically for their sports and have different body types. Comparing Micheal Phelps, a U.S. swimmer and Usain Bolt, a Jamaican track & field sprinter it is obvious their bodies are very different. They are both built for speed but Phelps needs a huge upper torso for swimming compared to Bolt who needs his legs to power him over the track.
There are also sports like shot-put and rowing which are completely different and the athletes that compete in them need very different body builds. For example in the men's shot put final in Bejing the three men who got medals, Tomasz Majewski of Poland, Christian Cantwell of the USA, and Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus are all huge men. They all stand above 6'5" Cantwell being the shortest and Majewski being the tallest at 6'8". Not only are they tall but they are wide, all weighing in around 300 bounds. Majewski is the lightest at 287 pounds and Cantwell the heaviest at 331 pounds. If these three men were to stand next to the gold medal rowers from Canada it would be obvious that they are two very different athletes. In the boat from Canada the shortest guy was 6'2" and the tallest was 6'6" and they all weight between 203 and 220 pounds
Clearly not similar body types at all. yes most of it has to to with genetics but alot of it has to do with sports specific training and getting you body to be exceptional at what you need it to do. swimmers need shoulders and lats to pull themselves theough the water. Runners need powerful and quick legs to push them across the track. Shot putters need arms and legs and hughe body mass to throw the ball the greatest distance. Rowers need speed and endurence in their legs back and arms to gracefully glide the boat acorss the water.