Introduction
Spectators perceive the life of the international
athlete as glamorous and exciting, but the travel
involved in training and competition can have a
devastating effect on performance. Many profes-
sional and elite athletes travel long distances on a
regular basis to train and compete. Top American
basketball players are away from home for a
large part of the year, and travel is so much part
of the routine that it has become a way of life. In
many sports, travel must be accommodated in a
rigorous training and competition schedule: jet
lag and travel fatigue are not accepted as excuses
when there is a high expectation of success. A
good example is the US Women’s Olympic bas-
ketball team, who travelled more than 161 000
km in 14 months prior to the games to promote
women’s basketball and to win the gold medal in
Atlanta (Wolff 1996).
Whether flying for 12 h or longer to another
continent or jumping on a bus to compete in a
neighbouring town, travel can cause a major
disruption to an athlete’s training programme.
Major events may require extended periods of
travel: the Sydney Olympics, for example, will
require competitors from Europe to travel for
at least 24 h to reach their accommodation or
pre-Games holding camps. Successful athletes
should have an established training programme
that includes a workout schedule, proper nutri-
tion, adequate sleep and stress management,
although in reality this is often not the case.
When something happens to interfere with this
schedule, the break in routine can be physiologi-
cally and psychologically damaging. Diet is one
of the major factors that may lead to disruption of
an athlete’s training programme away from
home. Food intake often depends on local restau-
rant facilities, concession stands, or vendors,
which means access to familiar foods may be
limited. Consumption of unfamiliar foods and
beverages, especially in large amounts, can result
in severe gastrointestinal symptoms: even minor
discomfort from gas, diarrhoea, or constipation
may be enough to adversely affect performance.
Potentially more serious, and even fatal, illness
contracted from eating contaminated foodstuffs
is as great a risk for the athlete as it is for all inter-
national travellers. Even where familiar foods
are available, interrupting the athlete’s normal
eating and training schedule can negatively
affect performance.
There seems to have been no serious attempt to
quantify the effect of eating disturbances result-
ing from travel on sports performance, and there
is little published information in this area. Much
of the information in this chapter is based on the
authors’ professional experience and on experi-
ences reported by athletes, coaches and team
physicians. Inevitably, most of these reports are
anecdotal, and even individual case reports are
seldom available. To broaden the range of experi-
ences, we surveyed sports nutritionists from
each of the continents to glean information from
their experiences and to provide the reader with
practical suggestions. Interestingly, two prob-
lems were reported by all respondents: food