Snowsports Fuel School with Ali Miles

For the past seven years, Ali Miles has been the performance dietitian for the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia and has supported our Australian athletes during the past two Olympic campaigns in Korea and China.

She has a long history working with thouands of professional athletes throughout the football codes as well as netball.

In a career spanning more than two decades, views of nutrition have changed markedly to the point where it is now considered vital to anyone attempting to progress into a high performance environment.

"When I first graduated as a dietician, nutrition was very much viewed as maybe a one-to-two per center and there’s so many other things that deserve focus in high performance," said said. "Now all the research shows, and our practice as sports dieticians has demonstrated, that nutrition is a massive big boulder or pillar to performance.

"If an athlete is not focusing in and dialling in on their nutrition then they are certainly not going to be able to perform to their potential."

Ali is hosting a Snowsports Fuel School webinar with three-time Olympian Sami Sim this Tuesday so all snowsports participants have the opportunity to take in the key performance nutrition concepts which are taught to our Winter Olympians.

"I’ve seen many athletes that have had skill, talent and ability and are good, but their ability to take it to the next level and be great has been dependent on whether they focused in on their nutrition," said Ali. "Similarly, there’s been some pretty great athletes that because they haven’t focused on their nutrition, have been brought back to the pack."

However Ali says that you don't need to be a World Cup athlete to benefit from the Snowsports Fuel School and understand how best to take care of a part of your health that is easily manageable.

"Without a doubt, any age and any ability can gain benefit and support from focusing in on their nutrition," Ali said. "My personal belief is even if we’re talking about the most elite of elite athletes, we’re all human beings to begin with and if we have a happy, healthy human being we can then have a high performing athlete… or teenager, student, mum, dad, parent, aunt, uncle… the list goes on."

Ali says a greater emphasis on a well-rounded approach to one's health, particularly mental health, in recent times has shown just how important nutrition is. She says there is a direct impact between nutrition and overall wellbeing in all aspects of life.

"I talk a lot about fuelling not just out body, but our brain, and a lot of that comes to do with gut health," she said. "Some of our athletes think fuelling is all about muscles, and then I talk about a lot of what we do as athletes is about feeling your focus: smart decision making, reaction time, critical thinking, listening to coaches, implementing what they’re telling you in terms of technique.

"We can also take that to the extent of sport, school and life - focus, concentration, behaviour management emotional regulation - that really comes into play in terms of that mental component and we also know from a mental health perspective, fuelling and under-fuelling is critical in supporting the mental health of everyone including our teenagers and athletes alike.

"We also know that our gut and our brain are intricately linked. I talk extensively about fuelling not just our body, not just our brain, but are we actually fuelling our gut as well because our gut microbiome is this really interesting area of nutritional science which is exploding in terms of the research coming through - it’s a really powerful space.

"Our gut is our second brain; 70% of our immune cells are located in our gut. It has a really, really big impact on our wellbeing, our mental health, on illness - which is all encapsulated in teenagers and then development in teenage athletes as well."

Ali hopes that those who attend next week's Snowsports Fuel School ask themselves some questions and take away some potentially lifechanging messages and healthy decisions.

"Are you eating enough of the right type of fuel at the right time in the right amount to keep us happy, healthy in high performing in sport, in school and in life? Are you fuelling enough? That is the big question for any human being and high performing athletes… we’ve got to get the basics right."

Click here to register for Snowsports Fuel School - Tuesday 23 July 6:50pm AEST.