Functional Sports Nutrition for High Performance: with focus on triathlon, mountainbike and road cycling
- Miguel Hidalgo, 24 years old, Brazilian professional triathlete. Image credits: World Triathlon.
- Gold medal in the World Triathlon Championship Series (Alghero 2025)
- 3rd place in the World Triathlon Championship Series (Yokohama 2025)
- 1st place in the Ironman 70.3 (Brasília 2025)
- 10th place in the Men's Triathlon category at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
- 8th place in the Mixed Triathlon relay at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
- Gold medal at the 2023 Pan American Games.
It's an immense honor to be Miguel Hidalgo's nutritionist — the best professional triathlete Brazil has ever had!"
Thanks to his parents, Eduardo and Fabiana Hidalgo, Miguel was introduced to swimming at a very young age. Concerned with ensuring that his nutrition supported healthy growth and development, they brought him in for his first consultation — he was only 8 years old. Even then, I could already see the sparkle in his eyes and his competitive spirit.
As the years went by, his parents began to recognize a natural talent for triathlon. Miguel was just entering his teenage years when he started training to become a top-level triathlete. But long before that, he was already serious about his nutrition. Thanks to the dedication of his parents, everything he needed was provided from the start.
Miguel has always shown incredible determination and discipline when it comes to his diet, training, and recovery. Over the past 17 years as his nutritionist, he has faced many challenges, and it is truly rewarding to now see him competing at the highest level of the sport — and standing on the podium. In fact, I would go further and say: reaching the top of the podium.
Of course, he is not alone in this journey. Miguel is supported by a strong, multidisciplinary team of professionals, and I'm proud to be one of them. Our shared goal is to help him achieve the greatest titles in his career — including becoming Triathlon World Champion, and, of course, winning Brazil's first Olympic triathlon gold.
As a professional, it is a great honor for me to be part of Miguel's team and his inspiring story!
A Functional Sports Dietitian considers important:
• The adequacy of vitamins and minerals according to individual biochemical needs, and considering the rest, training and competition phases.
• Improved immune function and management of inflammation.
• Improving mitochondrial function, controlling oxidative stress, and prescribing foods/supplements with antioxidant potential.
• The introduction of an anti-inflammatory diet: the athlete may be subject to injuries, which can result in joint and muscle pain, and loss of muscle strength.
• Special care with gastrointestinal function: as it is affected by intense and prolonged training/competition, sleep, physical and mental stress, and travel to competitive events.
• Maximizes muscle work and promotes muscle hypertrophy/maintenance (when necessary).
• Helps restore glycogen stores quickly.
• Delays the onset of fatigue in intense and long-lasting training or competitions.
• Ensures hydration and electrolyte replacement for proper cellular metabolism.
• Maintains adequate weight (adequacy of body fat percentage; and lean mass).
• The timing, quantity and quality of food to be consumed before, during and after training and competitions are tremendously important and make all the difference in your performance!
Focus on professional cycling road
The professional cycling athlete requires incredible power to withstand the suffering of a tough cycling race. It requires aerobic and anaerobic energy. Professional road cycling competitions can last from 1 to 6 hours, while multi-stage races are characterized by several race days consisting of mass start stages, individual and team time trials. Athletes must cover approximately 3,500 km on a circuit across the country, normally divided into 21 race days, with approximately 225 km covered in each stage. Energy expenditure can reach up to 7,000 kcal per day.
Some stages are relatively flat, others windingly mountainous. The difference between the first and second place can be for minutes (e.g., when the athlete manages to escape the peloton and cross the finish line with a certain advantage over the others); but this difference can also be for less than a second!
Functional Sports Nutrition will always be a great ally in winning the medal, being the key to success, because it considers the biochemical individuality of each one to develop a food strategy aiming to improve the metabolic efficiency.
The genetic test came to bring more assertiveness in the elaboration of the food plan and proposal of supplementation to the athletes. And once we prescribe the "right fuel", it makes the athlete to have a better use of their full potential and also have a faster recovery.
Pierre Gautherat, 21 years old. French professional road cyclist of Décathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team.