As the 2020 Olympics unfold in Tokyo, we, the audience at home, can only imagine the pressures on athletes to perform.
This week on Our Changing World, researchers from the University of Waikato talk about their work on a condition called Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport – where athletes consistently don't take in the right amount of calories to do the high intensity exercise they are doing.
Katie Schofield speaks about her PhD work in this area, as well as her personal experience as an athlete who had this condition. Holly Thorpe explains why the problem is much more complex than the amount of calories athletes eat, and the importance of researching this condition in a multidisciplinary way.
RED-S infographic explaining the physiological impacts. Photo: Supplied
