Paralympics: Rio 2016

By Liz Broad RD and Nuwanee Kirihennedige RD

It’s still fresh in our memories; September 7, 2016, Latin America’s 1st Summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. With growing momentum in the Paralympic movement, the games were celebrated with 4,316 athletes competing in 22 sports, 159 countries (plus Independent Paralympic Athletes), and 220 new world records. 

The U.S. Olympic Committee has three sports registered dietitians supporting its Paralympic program; Liz Broad, the Head RD, along with Jacque Scaramella and myself, Nuwanee Kirihennedige.   

While working with Liz I was assigned to my first Paralympic games to support Team USA in Rio. Our responsibilities were wide ranging and included checking food provisions and labeling accuracy at the village and venues; providing snacks and hydration stations at home-base, accommodating special nutritional needs of athletes and the occasional consultation with individual athletes. Many of the days started before 7am and were action packed with tasks such as organizing and re-stocking the fueling and hydration stations at the lounge, testing urine specific gravity, making recovery smoothies, conducting inventory as well as travelling and supporting the competitions and planning our activities for the next day. 

One unique challenge we encountered was the peanut butter incident. Rio’s dining facility was peanut-free and so peanut butter was not available. It is quite common to have extra food supplies (including peanut butter) left behind by the U.S. Olympic team. We counted on this to be the case, however, the U.S. Olympic team almost finished all their peanut butter supplies. As we were about to depart we found out that the Paralympic staff had to bring extra jars of peanut butter in their personal luggage from the U.S. Sure enough our athletes ate peanut butter every day. 

For a variety of reasons, para athletes may require nutritional modifications or accommodations to their meals plans. For instance, one athlete I consulted with had dysphagia as a result of Cerebral Palsy. The athlete also had numerous food allergies, intolerances and required specific food textures with frequent small feedings. All of these special nutritional needs made eating in the dining hall very difficult.  To help the athlete meet her required nutritional intake, we went to dining hall together and reviewed the food labels. I made suggestions on food items she could tolerate and helped her create a meal plan based on her food requirements. 

I have to say it was a great first game experience for me working alongside extremely dedicated and fun athletes, team and staff.