Burning large chunks of calories with every practice and competition, athletes, especially endurance athletes, are at risk for undernourishment or low energy availability, or LEA.  LEA can turn into relative energy deficiency in sport, known as RED-S, where the undernourished athletes incur fre quent injuries. A symptom for female athletes can be impaired menstrual function.  A standout track star at Park City High and soon Yale University, Sierra Darling dedicated her AP Statistics and Research capstone project to learning more and educating others about undernourishment in women’s sports and its consequences. On Thursday night in the school’s lecture hall, Darling held an expert panel discussion about the subject.  About 50 female athletes, parents and others sat for about an hour to hear from Darling and her experts, which included former University of Utah football Director of Nutrition Tyler Roof, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Head Primary Care Sports Physician Dr. Carrie Jaworski, University of Utah Health and Shriners Hospitals for Children perioperative services lead Dr. Jen Wagner, former University of Utah cross country and track athlete Nikki Dotter and 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympian Liz Stephen.  Darling’s panel included experts from medicine and sports in Utah, including, from left, Tyler Roof, Dr. Carrie Jaworski, Dr. Jen Wagner, Nikki Dotter and Liz Stephen. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record “It impacts how you perform and how your body functions,” Darling said about undernutrition in sports. “Sometimes the signs are there, but misunderstood. … That’s exactly why this event exists.” Darling continued, “Today is about sharing real information, breaking down harmful myths and giving you all the tools to perform as your strongest and most-energized selves.” Darling broke her presentation into sections about nutrition, training and recovery and personal anecdotes from Dotter and Stephen. She carefully paused after each section to allow her panel to field questions from the audience and fielded data via pre- and post-discussion surveys.  The overwhelming advice from the panel was for athletes and parents to be mindful about the athletes’ nutrition and to not put so much pressure on themselves. They discussed how most athletes simply don’t eat enough. Roof said some of her biggest orders for the Utes football team were fruit snacks and Rice Krispy Treats, which are totally fine for athletes to eat. Stephen repeated that it’s OK if you’re not performing at 100% every single day — nobody does, she said, not even her or other Olympians. “You will never be perfect,” Stephen said. “It’s actually like a gift if you think about it that way because you can show up and give whatever you have that day as best you can. … Maybe you’re at 60% that day. Giving all that 60% is being elite.” Stephen continued, “That’s what makes people progress in any sport, and wherever your progression ends up at, whether it’s the Olympics or through high school, that’s great. That’s like how it’s supposed to be; it’s supposed to be a dream that comes from inside you.” Additional pieces of wisdom from the panel were to work toward finding nutritional plans that work for them; just because eating a granola bar before a game works for one athlete doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for everyone. They advised drinking calories can be an effective piece to the nutritional puzzle for many athletes, though dispelling that athletes need to train or compete on empty or close-to-empty stomachs. The panel said with proper habit building, athletes can and should become accustomed to training while properly fueled and full.  Darling will return to the Miners track team, where she has been part of five winning relay race teams through two meets this spring. The track team is one of nine spring sports teams at Park City High, and has one of four girl’s spring sports teams.  “I can’t put into words how proud I am of her,” said Miners track and field Head Coach Dave Yocum. “The growth that she has shown as a person in the last four years is just incredible.” Yocum continued, “She’s tackled a subject that’s very difficult for people to deal with, and I thought they did an extremely, extremely good job with it. … As we finished it up, I think I told Steve Cuttita, ‘I wish we had that videotaped and they could show that as a as a presentation.’” The post Park City High’s Sierra Darling enlightens female athletes, parents about nutrition in women’s sports with expert panel discussion  appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less