What Do Olympic Athletes Eat, and Are Their Diets Wholesome?

Right here’s a glimpse at what a number of the world’s greatest athletes reportedly nosh on to carry out (and really feel!) like winners.

Lindsey Vonn: Avocados and Ice Cream

The 41-year-old ski racing champion, who’s popping out of retirement to compete on this yr’s Olympics, informed Self in January that she begins each morning with three eggs, half an avocado, and a cinnamon raisin bagel.

Avocado can also be on the menu for dinner, tucked right into a veggie-packed quinoa salad alongside steak or salmon. For lunch, Vonn stated she eats a plate of hen with rice, broccoli, and steamed greens.

Whereas her consuming plan is mostly wholesome and balanced, she informed Self that she does take pleasure in dessert. Vonn stated her consolation meals is Ben & Jerry’s ice cream — particularly, the Half Baked or Mint Chocolate Cookie flavors.

Ilia Malinin: Chocolate Bars

The gravity-defying, world-champion determine skater will compete with Group USA for the primary time this yr, bringing his quad expertise to the worldwide stage.

Malinin informed Northern Virginia Journal in January 2023 that he prefers consuming home-cooked dinners together with his household over eating in eating places.

 If he does exit to eat, although, he stated his favourite spots are 5 Guys and Carraba’s Italian Grill.
One indulgence he doesn’t miss out on is chocolate. Malinin has stated he at all times eats a Hershey’s milk chocolate bar earlier than he takes the ice to compete.

“Once I was youthful, I at all times favored sweets and Hershey’s chocolate was my favourite,” Malinin informed NBC Olympics in December 2025. “Now, it’s change into a factor that takes a bit little bit of the nerves off my competitors. It adjustments how I really feel, so it helps me compete higher.”

Chloe Kim: Protein-Packed Meals

For years, snowboarding gold medalist Chloe Kim has been vocal about her love of meals, together with consolation meals like ice cream, pizza, and churros. However after a coaching break throughout the COVID-19 pandemic left her with additional weight that began to have an effect on her efficiency and made her really feel misplaced in her physique, Kim says she began paying extra consideration to her consuming plan, specializing in extra protein-packed choices.

Now, Kim informed Girls’s Well being in January {that a} typical coaching day begins with a smoothie, together with frozen bananas, peanut butter, almond milk, and protein powder. As an after-training meal, she’ll have soft-scrambled eggs, sourdough toast with avocado, bacon, and hash browns. For dinner, she favors Banza chickpea pasta with hen and a protein-packed home made pesto.

Berries, papaya, and hummus are her go-to snacks, Kim informed Girls’s Well being, and for a lift, she usually reaches for an iced oat milk matcha with a splash of maple syrup.

Jordan Stolz: Pizza and Pasta

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in February 2022 that the velocity skater “eats pizza every single day earlier than coaching.”

 However Stolz informed Folks in January that this was an exaggeration.

“It’s not every single day, but it surely’s frequent,” Stolz stated of his pizza behavior. And he admits he doesn’t draw back from carbs normally. “It’s often pasta or pizza,” he stated of his pre-training meals.

The 21-year-old Stolz has a candy tooth, too. For dessert, he informed Folks that he prefers his mother’s home made cheesecake topped with Hershey’s fudge.

Jessie Diggins: Advanced Carbs

The extremely adorned cross-country skier has been open about her struggles with an consuming dysfunction up to now. As of late, although, she will usually be discovered speaking in regards to the significance of meals as gasoline for efficiency and well being.

On the subject of what fuels her, Diggins spotlights protein and sophisticated carbohydrates, noting that she purposefully will increase her caloric consumption within the winter when she’s coaching and racing.

“Once we’re racing two to 3 instances every weekend within the chilly, I have to be positive I’m giving my physique sufficient power from meals to maintain that quantity of snowboarding,” she informed Exterior in October 2022.

Alongside espresso within the morning, Diggins has a breakfast of oatmeal with berries, yogurt, almonds, and honey. Her morning snack is commonly carb-heavy — an power bar or muffin — after which lunch is 2 items of toast topped with mustard, cheese, and fried eggs, with a salad on the aspect. For a day snack, she’ll have yogurt, granola, and a banana. For dinner, it’s usually salmon, roasted candy potatoes, and a kale salad with feta cheese, pumpkin seeds, and lemon dressing, together with darkish chocolate for dessert.

Normally, Diggins informed Exterior, “I prefer to eat all kinds of recent greens, proteins, and carbohydrates, like candy potatoes, bread, quinoa, rice, farro, [and] pasta.”

Mia Manganello: Contemporary Fruit and Juice

The velocity skater fuels herself with clear, healthful meals earlier than competitors. She revealed to Delish in July 2021 that her pre-practice breakfast consists of oatmeal with orange juice; lunch is avocado toast with an egg; and dinner is teriyaki salmon with white rice and sautéed veggies. She may also snack on fruit earlier than her afternoon apply, in response to Delish.

Shaun White: Beef Jerky

In July 2021, the now-retired snowboarder — who will attend this yr’s Winter Video games as a commentator — informed New York Journal’s The Strategist that his post-workout replenishment comes within the type of a plant-based meal substitute shake. His go-to model? Ka’Chava.

“If I’m in a pinch, I simply stir it in some water. However usually I take advantage of oat milk or almond milk, add in a banana or a bit avocado, then mix it collectively,” White informed the publication.

One other snack he retains readily available? Beef jerky. “It’s the good chairlift snack: There are solely so many who I can convey on a mountain that don’t disintegrate after I’m driving,” he informed The Strategist. “And you may solely eat so many bars. I maintain some in my backpack after I skateboard, too.”

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