OLYMPIC athletes know the finest margins can make the difference between glory and failure.
So they are always willing to go the extra mile to find an edge.
Now, boffins think they have cooked up a secret recipe for success – featuring a common kitchen staple.
The Telegraph claim 80 per cent of elite distance runners are using the “game changing” Bicarb System.
Swedish sports nutrition company Maurten have developed a gel featuring sodium bicarbonate – otherwise known as baking soda.
And while it is best known for making cakes rise, it is now believed to raise performance levels on the track.
Scientists first found the link between baking soda and performance almost 100 years ago but ingesting enough of it would unfortunately lead to a trip to the toilet for many athletes.
Maurten’s hydrogel bypasses the gut – meaning athletes can run towards the finish line instead of the cubicles.
Sodium bicarbonate is believed to help the body move on negative by-products of exercise – hydrogen ions and lactate.
Maurten are selling their product, which they gave described as the “holy grail”, at £15 per serving.
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Cycling team Jumbo-Visma have partnered with the Swedish business and The Telegraph say the late running great Kelvin Kiptum used the gel before breaking the marathon record last year.
Team GB’s Paris 2024 medal hopeful Keely Hodgkinson and training partner Erin Wallace have been pictured using the product.
Hodkinson’s coach Trevor Painter told The Telegraph: “We’ve not seen any gastro problems – so now you get all the benefits without the negative side effects – I couldn’t recommend it strongly enough.
“If you make a super spike, you are going to be limited to athletics.
“With this product, whether running, swimming, cycling, football, rugby, you would benefit. The numbers back it up.”
Painter’s wife is Jenny Meadows – a World and European Championship medallist at 800m – added: “Two hours before the race starting – you can see almost every single person having it.
“So you’ve not got an advantage because everyone is using it. You are at a disadvantage if you don’t use it.
“They [Maurten] have spent time with some of the world’s top athletes, asking their opinions, trying to improve the product.”
Maurten’s head of communications Herman Reutersward said: “The feedback from athletes has been amazing.
“It’s a similar debate about the super spikes or aerodynamics.
“Maurten did not invent sodium bicarbonate.
“It is performance enhancing but is it fair that only some people could stomach it?
“You could say that this is levelling the playing field.”
Nearly 15,000 residents – around 10,500 of which are athletes – will be cramming into the Olympic village between July 26 and August 11.
To ensure the athletes feel at home, a number of provisions have been made by organisers.
One of these is the stocking of some 300,000 condoms, in theory enough for around two every day during the run of the Games.
A number of Olympic athletes have opened the door on their steamy lives behind-the-scenes when in camp, including huge sex orgies and parties.
London 2012 had claimed the title of “the raunchiest Games ever”, but the 150,000 condoms ordered paled in comparison to the 450,000 ordered for the Rio Games four years later.
Condoms have been laid on by organisers at every game since Seoul 1988, when it they were used to spread awareness of HIV and AIDS.
Even with an intimacy ban at Tokyo 2020 due to Covid-19, some 150,000 johnnies were handed out.
Read the full story here.
