Position: Sports Dietitian working with the Gold Coast Titans Rugby League Team, and the Queensland Academy of Sports Cycling and Men’s hockey programs.

Lives: I live in Brisbane, and work in both Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Favourite food: I don’t think I can name just one, so I will name a whole group – seafood in all its various formats!!

Favourite sport: Netball (to participate in) and tennis and rugby union (as a spectator).

Briefly tell us about yourself. How did you become a sports dietitian?  While growing up, I participated in netball, tennis, swimming and dancing. I was also dragged along to watch my brother's cricket, soccer and football matches. So in short, my life revolved around sport. When I was 15 I attended a sports nutrition lecture at a state selection camp for netball (delivered by fellow SDA member Kerry Leech) and my interest grew from there!

What other areas of dietetics are you interested in? I also work as a Public Health/Community Nutritionist at Nutrition Australia where my role is program manager of the Nutrition in Schools Advisory Service. Through this role, I have become passionate about improving the nutrition and physical activity status of school aged children.

Why did you become involved with SDA?  I became involved with SDA as a student member while studying at university. I found SDA to be a dynamic organisation and the members provided a great deal of support to each other and mentorship to new sports dietitians. The camaraderie being involved with SDA has allowed me many great opportunities.  As a way of "giving back", I took on the role of state co-ordinator in 1999.  I decided in 2002 to become involved as a board member of SDA. I have loved every minute of the experience and my passion for SDA is as strong now, 10 years on.

What do you see are some of the major issues for SDA over the next five years?

  Sports nutrition has come a long way in a relatively short space of time, where we have seen the acceptance of the involvement of sports dietitians as imperative in  most, if not all sports and sporting organisations. As practitioners, we will need to ensure that our skills and knowledge are updated regularly and that commitment to excellence in practice is continually sought. If we do this, we may see even more opportunities for sports dietitians in the future.

Which sportsperson (or team) do you admire the most and why?  In Australia in particular it seems we have lots of champion athletes, so it’s hard to name just one. I admire the battlers a little more than the full time professional stars. I work a lot with adolescent and young athletes who are juggling commitments like school, study, part time work AND heavy training schedules and are doing it for no financial rewards (in fact just the opposite if you ask their parents!). Instead they are doing it for the sheer joy of competing and striving to be the best they can be. That to me gets the two thumbs up!!

 

Updated March 2010