Two Voices: Recovery from Disordered Eating as Told by Elite Male Athlete and his Sports Nutritionist

This case report is written from the dual perspective of an elite male track athlete and the registered dietitian sports nutritionist who helped him recover from an eating disorder. The athlete was an international student who came from Great Britain to the United States to compete in track and cross country at the Division 1 collegiate level. Early in his freshman year, he developed an eating disorder that persisted throughout his college career, affecting his health, emotional wellbeing, and physical abilities to train, compete and recover from sports injuries. The athlete and sports nutritionist had a working relationship that spanned a six year recovery journey. Working collaboratively with a sport psychologist, they restored the athlete’s health, his relationship with food, and his ability to achieve success in his sport. During low points defined by self-starvation, he was underweight, anemic and injured. At peak wellness, he set a track record for running a sub-4 minute mile and earned All American honors in individual distances and with several relay teams. Currently, he is a healthy Olympic hopeful who trains and competes with the Great Britain national team. This case report is unique since most often those speaking publicly about eating disorders are women. The report shares the athlete’s experience in his own words alongside the nutritionist’s clinical insights and description of treatment strategies that facilitated recovery. This paper demonstrates the need for comprehensive and ongoing interventions provided by a multidisciplinary sports medicine team to treat college athletes who experience