Sarah Wick has been credited with starting a revolution for athletes.

“Sports nutrition is a field that is just blowing up,” she said.

Wick, a sports nutritionist, spoke Wednesday in the Life Sciences Complex, room 001 about healthy eating as an extension of training to a lively crowd of students, athletes, staff and faculty. Wick is a registered dietitian and director of clinical sports nutrition for The Ohio State University’s 36 athletic teams.

The David B. Falk College of Human Dynamics’ Nutrition Education and Promotion Association, a student-run organization that brings together Syracuse University students interested in nutrition and encourages them to share that interest with the surrounding campus and community, sponsored Wick’s presentation.

Wick was a gymnast when she was younger and has always had an interest in nutrition, she said. She had her own private nutrition counseling practice where one of her clients was the head of sports medicine at The Ohio State University, which is how her sports nutritionist profession at OSU began. In 2004, when she started at the university, there was no sports nutrition program in place.

“Eleven years later, we have just blossomed in sports nutrition,” she said.

However, it wasn’t until this past July that she and her two other registered dietitian colleagues officially became their own sports nutritionist department. Between Wick and the two other registered dieticians on her team, they manage 36 sports teams on campus.

“We focus on the long-term health of the athletes,” she said. It’s not just about athlete’s food choices in college, but “what are they going to do after they leave their sports?” Wick said.

The majority of the work the sports nutrition team does is one-on-one counseling with athletes for anything from anemia-related issues to dysfunctional and disordered eating and injury recovery.

There is no centralized dining facility for athletes at OSU. Therefore, Wick created the “Buckeye Fuel Zone,” offering athletes healthy snack options 90 minutes prior and 90 minutes post practice. Wick’s office is located next to the Fuel Zone allowing athletes to ask questions as needed.

Wick said she and her team incorporate lots of pictures and visual aids explaining to athletes what types of foods they are eating. She said, “Athletes are drawn to pictures, they don’t like to read.”

“The best part is when I see success,” she said. “When you see that athlete that has lost five or 10 pounds and they are excited and motivated.”

The audience seemed to enjoy Wick’s presentation and spoke highly about her words and advice after the event.

“I definitely liked that OSU has a program that is tailored to athletes focusing on nutrition allowing them to get the best results from their game,” said Laura Boucher, a junior nutrition major.

Martina Loncarica, a graduate student in nutrition science and a graduate assistant for the women’s field hockey team, said it was interesting “to see what they actually do in a different program, and it would be nice to start applying those things to the athletics department.”

“We could really benefit from having a sports nutritionist on board at SU,” Loncarica said.

Published on April 8, 2015 at 10:39 pm

Contact Sarah: sbrichhe@syr.edu