Science in Sport unveils personalized sports nutrition service for elite athletes

20 Mar 2020 --- UK-based Science in Sport (SiS) has unveiled Performance Solutions, a sports research and nutrition service. The platform is designed to “elevate elite teams and athletes to the next level of performance,” according to the company. The service will be delivered by SiS nutritionists, who will be working in close collaboration with the England Women’s Football Teams, Adam Peaty, Team INEOS Cycling and INEOS Team UK. In each occasion, SiS experts will be embedded within each partners’ performance teams and cater to each athlete’s specific needs. The platform sets the stage for more personalization in sports nutrition, which in the future may also reach active consumers.

“Depending on the extent of the solution required, the service could present itself as changes to dietary patterns or, alternatively, as more bespoke solutions that supplement what the athlete is already doing. The approach is about dissecting all of the potential components that impact performance within each sport and for that specific athlete. Performance nutrition is not a one-size-fits-all and what works in one sport and for one athlete may not always translate to the next situation,” Professor James Morton, Director of Performance Solutions at SiS, tells NutritionInsight.

Professor Morton notes that the service is initially focused on elite athletes but “without doubt” there are many learnings that active consumers and the general population can learn from elite sport. “We will be making an active push into understanding the elite athlete and I am positive there will be many learnings in this space that we can share,” he adds.

Personalization to the max
The service is marketed as the “world-first” by the company. SiS already works with Team INEOS cycling but will now utilise Performance Solutions to deepen its engagement and help deliver peak performances for the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

Professor Morton notes that the service is initially focused on elite athletes but there are many learnings that active consumers and the general population can learn from elite sport.Performance Solution’s dedicated and tailored approach will combine research on sports nutrition with the application of bespoke delivery strategies to meet the complex and varying needs of different athletes, according to the company.

“This is an integrated approach – the athlete may require us to focus on specific macronutrients or micronutrients. It may require a manipulation of the total energy intake, the timing and daily distribution of energy intake or it may require a novel approach to supplementation and ergogenic aids. The solution required for a younger athlete at the beginning of their career could and should look very different to that of an athlete at the top of their game, in the latter, the small ‘one percenters’ can often be the difference between winning and losing. It is our job to find them and do something about it,” Professor Morton highlights.

Given that performance is influenced by both physical and mental capabilities, the SiS experts are taking a holistic approach.

“We will be approaching the mindset of considering performance in its entirety from a physiological, psychological, technical and tactical aspect. Nutrition can positively or negatively affect all of those parameters and so to truly impact performance, we should consider them as a whole and not in isolation. At the individual level, one athlete may require support in one specific area whereas another athlete may require attention elsewhere,” Professor Morton adds.

Academics for elite athletes
Performance Solutions partnered with Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, where Morton is a Professor of Exercise Metabolism. The university is one of the world’s leading academic institutes on sports science, allowing the SiS team to access the university’s best-in-class sports laboratories and academic staff to conduct research and tailor bespoke performance solutions for their partners. The lab will also help drive product innovation throughout SiS, through in-depth research and testing, SiS notes.

“Essentially, we are bringing a new model and methodology of how to deliver high performance nutrition in sports. Our Performance Solutions framework is a way of thinking that helps sports identify their key performance determinants, priorities and solutions, the result of which will help deliver winning outcomes” says Professor Morton, who has also worked with the Team Sky and Liverpool football club over the past ten years.

Professor Morton adds that he believes the bespoke package provided by Performance Solutions will deliver big gains in some sports. “We are bringing a combination of academic rigour and world class practitioner skills to the frontline of elite sports. By bringing a performance first approach, we are going to help athletes get faster, stronger, fresher, smarter and above all, hopefully contribute to winning.”

Ashley Read, Science in Sport Group Managing Director, comments that Performance Solutions is built on a science-led approach. It’s a framework and best practice sports nutrition delivery model that will help transform the performances of individual athletes and teams. Performance Solutions will generate fresh insight on sports nutrition to support future step-change innovation and more importantly help fuel our partners to success, she states.

“Our collaboration with SiS as our Performance Nutrition Research Partner will help us further develop our women’s teams’ performance nutrition program. Having access to cutting-edge research at the Liverpool John Moores University lab will help to better profile the performance nutrition needs of our players, and lead to increased performance of our teams, whilst providing us with a resource that is not only practically applicable but provides real performance solutions,” underscores Christopher Rosimus, Lead Performance Nutritionist for UK’s Football Association.

By Kristiana Lalou