As some of the world’s top athletes gather in northern Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, many may enjoy the country’s pasta and pizza while sticking closely to their optimal nutrition routines and plans.
For many Olympians, knowing when and what to eat can be just as crucial as the hours spent training on the ice, snow or track.
Inside the Milan Olympic Village’s main dining hall, where athletes and team officials gather throughout the day, there are various menus tailored to athletes’ nutritional needs and cultural preferences. The scale of the operation includes preparing about 3,000 eggs and approximately 450 kilograms of pasta each day, according to the Olympics website.
Nutrition supports the “actual physical training” and fuels peak performance, said Kristen Gravani, a performance and food allergy dietitian at Stanford University who has worked with numerous Olympic athletes.
Of course, due to how active they are, most Olympic athletes probably consume and burn more energy than the average person. For instance, during his Olympic training, US competitive swimmer Michael Phelps claimed to consume 10,000 calories in a day, and Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake said 16 ripe bananas every day were his secret for running.
But calorie intake and extreme eating habits aside, there are some key practices in Olympic athletes’ training and nutrition that the average person can emulate.
The intricacies of the dietary recommendations Gravani makes for highly active Olympians differ from what she would recommend for the average adult working a desk job, but she says the general public can still “get inspiration” from how Olympians eat.
When to eat
In high-stakes competition, nutrition — and the timing around it — can shape how well athletes train, recover and ultimately perform, said Dr. Dan Benardot, a professor at Emory University and registered dietitian who has been the nutritionist for several Team USA athletes.
“When I was working with the US marathon team … I asked them, ‘What’s your eating pattern like?’ And they said, ‘Well, we wake up in the morning, we go for a morning run, we come back home, we have breakfast, something to eat.’ And I said, ‘Well, wait a second, don’t tell me anything else. That’s already a mistake,’” Benardot recalled.
One of the most important things an athlete can do in the morning is eat something before they start training, he said.
“Have a little something. It doesn’t have to be a lot. Just enough to have a normal blood sugar and hydration state,” said Benardot, who worked with US marathoners at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. “The next time I met with them, most of them gave me a hug. They said, ‘I’ve never felt so good.’”
What to eat
For the average person, Gravani also recommends a quick snack before exercise. But timing is just one piece of the puzzle; what that snack may be can make a difference for training and performance.
A preworkout snack
“A preworkout snack I love is a low-fiber fruit or crackers, and if there’s enough time before the training, then we can pair that with a small amount of protein or a small amount of fat. For instance, a banana with a little bit of peanut butter would be great,” said Gravani, who also serves as consulting sports dietitian at Stanford Medicine.
Pair iron with vitamin C
The quality of food is equally important, especially for athletes who compete at high altitudes and in cold temperatures, Benardot said. He has worked with Team USA figure skaters, including some who are competing at this year’s Olympic Games.
How often to eat
Benardot and Gravani have encouraged Olympic athletes they work with to eat frequent small meals throughout the day instead of three large meals.
“It prevents you from getting really hungry or really full in between. And I think that a lot of people do have that challenge,” Gravani added. “To me, it’s about getting that consistency and kind of having a little more stability with blood sugar throughout, rather than leaving those big gaps.”
Frequent small meals can help reduce the blood sugar crashes that may happen after eating three large meals. Low blood sugar typically occurs about two to four hours after a meal.
“What I tell people is, whatever you have for breakfast, don’t eat it all at once. Take a little bit, have the rest mid-morning. Whatever you have for lunch, don’t eat it all. Take a little bit, have it midafternoon. Whatever you have for dinner, don’t eat it all. Have a little bit and the rest later in the evening. Then have a little snack before you go to bed, so that you can sustain blood sugar while you’re sleeping,” Benardot said. “This way they are eating what they ate before, but they are distributing it in a way that is more likely to sustain energy balance and improve nutrient utilization.”
Read the full article by Jacqueline Howard and Michal Ruprecht / CNN
