How to Breakfast Like an Olympic Athlete

Here’s how some members of Team USA like to start the day.

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Photo by: HandmadePictures ©HandmadePictures

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We’re all up to speed on U.S. Olympic athletes’ cheat meals, and we definitely know what snowboarder Chloe Kim wishes she had been more thorough about eating for breakfast the morning she grabbed the Gold. But what are other Team USA members’ go-to breakfast foods?

Not surprisingly, their strategic morning meals combine their personal preferences with the demands of their particular sport. Figure skaters need to stay light and lean, while those competing in “gravity sports,” like bobsledders, get a speed advantage from weight. But they all need the energy to compete.

Here’s how some American athletes competing in Pyeongchang, South Korea, for whom 85 pallets of food have been shipped, prefer to start the day:

Elana Meyers Taylor (Bobsledder): Scrambled egg whites with vegetables, like peppers, spinach or mushrooms; oatmeal; berries, according to InStyle.

Lindsey Vonn (Alpine skier): Scrambled eggs with spinach, peppers, onions, mushrooms, garlic, cilantro and hot sauce; oatmeal with “some cinnamon and blueberries for sweetness,” she told Women’s Health.

Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim (Pair skaters): She has yogurt with blueberries, Cheerios, and coffee with cream. He has a bagel with a schmear of cream cheese and the occasional oatmeal, and coffee with cream, NBC Olympics reports.

Chloe Kim (Snowboarder): "Chocolate pancakes, some biscuits and gravy, toast, and cottage cheese," she recently told Popsugar. (No wonder she wasn’t all that into eating her breakfast sandwich.)

Sadie Bjornsen (Cross-country skier): Yogurt; oatmeal with apples, raisins, almonds, honey; one spoonful of peanut butter; a glass of water; a cup of coffee, according to InStyle.

Jessie Diggins (Cross-country skier): Along with coffee, she usually eats “oatmeal with berries and nuts and yogurt, and whatever I have — I just throw it in there,” she told Yahoo News.

Laurenne Ross (Alpine skier): Stir-fried sweet potato with shitake mushrooms, red onion, garlic and spinach, topped with two fried duck eggs; Yerba Mate with honey and almond milk; carrot and OJ with pro-greens; maybe a fruit like an apple, orange or pear, she told InStyle.

Chris Mazder (Luge rider): Eggs, possibly in a veggie omelet, occasionally accompanied by smoked salmon, avocado or muesli with yogurt and honey, the Daily Mail reports.

Meghan Duggan (Hockey player): Her “special breakfast bowl,” which consists of “3 eggs, fresh greens, variety of vegetables (cooked and raw), nuts and seeds,” she shared on NBC Olympics.

Brianna Decker (Hockey player): “Eggs with vegetables mixed in, like a scrambler with some type of meat like ham, chicken or steak from the night before. Also some berries or banana,” she told Cosmopolitan.

Jamie Anderson (Snowboarder): A green smoothie with protein powder; herbal tea, InStyle reports.

Ashley Caldwell (Freestyle skier): “I eat two eggs, spinach, and cheese on a bagel or toast,” she told Yahoo. “For a bit of caffeine in the morning, I have coffee or tea.”

Adam Rippon (Figure skater): Honey Nut Cheerios, according to NBC Olympics. He tells Yahoo he likes to keep it light, but “live[s] for a cappuccino or latte in the morning.”

Don’t we all, Adam. Don’t we all.

Photo: iStock

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