Cathal Dennehy: Balance key as athletes' diets serve up food for thought 

Most top athletes have good relationships with food – but many have unhealthy, destructive approaches that emerge from the sport’s largely unspoken pressure to be lean. 

Spend enough time around elite athletes and you realise there’s a wide variety of behaviours when it comes to nutrition and weight management.

There’s a story I heard recently about one of the female stars of athletics. She was with her husband at an event on the circuit, perusing the buffet at the athletes’ hotel. Among the options were freshly-made cookies, which caught the athlete’s eye. “Should I have one?” she asked her husband, who responded in a stern, parental tone that left little room for misinterpretation: “What do you think?” The cookies were left where they were.

Spend enough time around elite athletes and you realise there’s a wide variety of behaviours when it comes to nutrition and weight management. Some Olympic champions eat fast food every day. Some also-rans won’t touch a square of chocolate. Some elite sprinters and jumpers are regular smokers, which isn’t because they love nicotine, but a way to suppress appetite.