In the race for every inch the role of nutrition has become a difference-maker in sport. The Irish Times looks at three athletes from across the spectrum in terms of what requirements sport puts on their diet – from a World’s Strongest Man competitor bulking up to a jump jockey trimming down.
The strongman – Pa O’Dwyer
O’Dwyer has been crowned Ireland’s Strongest Man on a record five occasions. In 2018 he became the first Irish person to win UK’s Strongest Man.
After competing in Europe’s Strongest Man this year – during which he had to carry a 454kg (1,001lb) car on his shoulders in a 20-metre race – he decided to give his body a break and fully refocus on the 2025 season.
“I have been able to eat like a normal human for the last while. When I’m competing in World’s Strongest Man, I don’t eat like a normal human,” says the 39-year-old Limerick native.
He has kept himself busy in novel ways; O’Dwyer hosts a popular podcast with his sisters – The Pa’dcast – and has even released a seasonal song called Christmas Party.
But lifting has been his life now for almost 20 years, so maintaining a suitable diet has been a constant battle.
“The diet is hard. As hard as competing at World’s Strongest Man is, the diet is f**king the most awful part of it. Any of the others will tell you the same.”
Next up for O’Dwyer is the European Strongest Man competition on April 5th in Leeds, followed by the World’s Strongest Man in California in May.
Some 16 weeks out from Leeds (on January 13th) his diet kicks in. It will eventually see him ramp up to 10,000 calories per day.
“I can’t just go from a pretty normal average diet, which I’m currently on, to a strongman diet. I can’t simply jump in at 10,000 calories per day, so I’ll start at about 4,000 and increase the calories constantly every week, basically growing into the competition. The more I eat, the bigger I am, the better my training is, the stronger I get. For the four or five weeks before the competition it will be about 10,000 calories a day.”
Here’s what that looks like:
Meal one: Protein shake with 75g of protein. 300g of porridge. Four tablespoons of peanut butter. Two bananas.
Meal two: 12-15 large eggs with two-three slices of sourdough bread. He varies the eggs – scrambled, boiled, poached, fried.
Meal three: 250g of chicken with rice (the carb alternates between rice/ potato/sweet potato) and veg.
Meal four: 250g of chicken with sweet potato and veg.
Meal five: 250g of chicken with potato and veg.
Meal six: 10 Weetabix, full-fat milk, protein shake.
Earlier in his career O’Dwyer used to consume several steaks every day but after getting blood tests done, he pivoted towards chicken.
“I would always have felt bloated after eating steak, lethargic, that was my body’s way of telling me that I can’t digest the steak properly. I was fine when the blood tests showed I shouldn’t eat it because I didn’t ever enjoy steak, to be honest. I only ate it for the athlete inside of me and that kind of macho thing of eating steak.”
O’Dwyer works with a nutritionist but even in the off season he is disciplined with his diet. On the morning we talked for breakfast he had eggs and sourdough bread, and for lunch he ate chicken with rice. “Because I’m so hard-wired to eat lean, that’s basically what I do. I find it hard to eat processed food.”
O’Dwyer wants to make history next year by becoming the first competitor from Ireland to qualify for the final of World’s Strongest Man. He will be among the initial 30 contenders, with just 10 advancing to the decider.
“I’d love to be the first from Ireland to make the 10-man final. But if my strongman career doesn’t take off hopefully my podcast or singing career will!”
The Olympian – Rob Heffernan
A five-time Olympian, Heffernan won bronze at the 2012 Games in the 50km walk. He also claimed gold in the same event at the 2013 World Championships and won a bronze medal in the 20km walk at the 2010 European Championships.
He has taken to coaching in recent years, and is currently a performance coach with the Cork senior footballers. Diet and nutrition were a key area of focus during his career. In the off season he tended to weigh around 64kg but his race-weight was 57kg.
During his career Heffernan used to grow wheatgrass at home for its antioxidant properties. “As an endurance athlete if you are not refuelling and replenishing your body after training, or if you are not getting the right amount of rest and sleep, if all of those things aren’t in place you are going to break down,” he says.
Heffernan worked with Andrea Cullen, getting a full profile of his bloods done at the same health facility as the Chelsea footballers. They would then tailor his nutrition around what the bloods showed up. He would even send away stool and urine samples, everything was checked.
“You want to make sure your gut is okay to allow you to get the benefit of your food. I would have had the mentality that if I felt my urine was good for me and it was going to help me then you’d drink it. Luckily, it wasn’t.”
When it came to race day his stomach had to be ready. It was a crucial factor.
“I used to take in 120-130ml every 10 minutes, you must train your stomach to be able to take in those fluids and redistribute them to your muscles. That’s part of the game.”
For a 50km race here is an example of what he was consuming:
First 10km: Every 2km he would take a mix of carbohydrate and isotonic fluids.
12km: Pure isotonic
14km: Sustained Energy solution. “It’s about 90% carbohydrate, like drinking liquid porridge,” describes Heffernan.
16km: A gel, for sugars.
The process continued thereafter for the rest of the race: Isotonic, Sustained (carbs), gel (sugars).
“You must train your body for that. If your stomach doesn’t have the capability then everything will just start sloshing around, you’ll feel sick and you will get sick. I used to find when I got to 40km if I’d taken on all of my proper drinks then I had way more in reserve. Not fuelling properly is like letting a car run out of petrol or diesel.”
During his days competing internationally Heffernan had a food company supplying his meals. His intake wasn’t rocket science, he says – chicken, meat, fish, veg, brown rice, pasta, potatoes. He even allowed himself the occasionally cake or chocolate treat.
And while he might not be competing these days Heffernan continues to keep himself in shape while also watching his diet – though the prize for pounding the pavements now has changed.
“I’ll try get out to run five days a week so I can drink wine at the weekend,” he says. “I’d be very practical about it, there has to be common sense around it too, people can get too caught up in the whole area of diet and nutrition at times. I think it’s important to give people the practicalities rather than lecturing them. It’s about putting responsibility on the athletes.
“You have to look at nutrition from the perspective that it’s just completely to fuel your body to not break down, getting the benefit of your food so you can get back out and train harder.”
The jockey – Patrick O’Hanlon
O’Hanlon won the 2022 Irish Grand National on Lord Lariat. Born in Dublin, he moved to Meath where he went to secondary school in Ratoath College – just a short gallop away from where he made history in Fairyhouse two years ago. He has spent the last few weeks racing in America, and is currently preparing for the upcoming busy Christmas racing period.
As a teenager O’Hanlon started out as a flat jockey but as he got older naturally his body developed and making weight became an issue. “The average flat jockey is probably under nine stone,” says O’Hanlon. “I’d be out of that category.”
The 26-year-old’s average weight is in around 10 stone (63kg). The top weight in jump racing is 12 stone (76kg with the minimum weight 10 stone. To maintain his size O’Hanlon sticks to a routine when it comes to eating.
“Everybody is a bit different but personally I wouldn’t call it a diet, it’s nearly a lifestyle to me,” he says.
It goes something like this:
6/7am: First thing in the morning he always has a pint of water. Before heading out the door he will either make coffee or grab one on the road. No food.
12pm: If he has spent the morning exercising horses he will have his lunch afterwards, a sandwich or a wrap – chicken or turkey or tuna with the usual dressings such as lettuce and onion.
2/3pm: He might have travelled for an hour or so to go racing and around this time of the day O’Hanlon will have another cup of coffee along with a snack – yoghurt or fruit or a bar. This snack is often eaten between races.
4/5pm: On the way home after racing he will usually have tea, possibly green tea. When he gets back home he might have a bowl of cereal – Weetabix, Special K or some overnight oats.
7/8pm: Dinner. O’Hanlon likes to cook and each meal tends to include protein, vegetables and carbohydrates. On the day we spoke he was thinking about rustling up a chicken stir-fry. The night before he had cooked roasted cod, sweet potato fries and veg.
“My body would nearly know what I want to eat throughout the day because it is such a routine. At two or three o’clock my body would be telling me it’s time for the coffee.”
O’Hanlon is fortunate in the sense his weight and lifestyle don’t see him facing daily struggles to make weight for racing. That’s not the case for all jockeys. “Everybody is different. You hear some lads saying, ‘Jeez, I haven’t eaten for two days.’ I couldn’t do that, I’m so used to the routine and I find it works for me.”
