Edurne Ibáñez and María Moreno are students in the 3rd year of Degree of Human Nutrition and Dietetics combined with Diploma of Sports Nutrition. This diploma, pioneer and unique in Spain, has the participation and support of the Spanish Olympiccommittee . Its goal is to train dietitians-nutritionists specialized in sports nutrition to be able to advise athletes, coaches, doctors or sports organizations to improve their performance in sport. And this is what Ibáñez and Moreno are doing this year: advising students of 'Talento Deportivo', a program that aims to help students to combine a university degree program with sports performance internship .

How do you follow up with the Talento Deportivo students?
Moreno: We meet with each one for the first time at enquiry and we interview them about their habits and the sport they practice. There they give us some completed questionnaires that we send them previously by mail. Then we do a complete anthropometric assessment , and at home we make a report explaining the results obtained: frequency of consumption of certain foods, calories eaten and spent daily, etc.. And for those who need to lose weight, a personalized per diem expenses .

Ibáñez: In total we have 4 consultations with them: two at assessment, one for follow-up and one in which we explain the results of the study and the per diem expenses they have to follow in case it is necessary.

How is the experience?
Moreno: It's been very good, we are learning a lot because we do the whole work alone, although with the financial aid and committee of our teachers.

Ibáñez: The experience of monitoring the athletes has been very positive.

What are the biggest difficulties?
Moreno: At the beginning it was very difficult for me to make the report and the per diem expenses correctly to those who needed it. It was also complicated to schedule the consultations so that the athlete, the teacher and I could coincide, without interfering with my partner's appointments.

Ibáñez: The first time you face a patient/athlete alone is always complicated and even more so in this case since we had not done any other similar internship . You have to get used to dealing with them. We had some problems when making the first reports and diets, but thanks to the teachers' financial aid we were able to solve them. In the second enquiry, the follow-up, we already knew what we were going to face and we managed it much better.

Any challenge?
Moreno: The biggest challenge has been to present correctly to the athlete in the second quotation with the report and the corresponding per diem expenses perfectly presentable and to know how to explain to them everything they have to do and in what conditions they are in. The first time we did it accompanied by our teacher, but later we had to do it independently.

Ibáñez: Achieving the objectives that have been proposed to the athletes is a whole challenge and we know that it will be complicated because we do not have much experience, but we are doing the best we know and we can.

Do you think that monitoring athletes gives you more knowledge?
Moreno: Of course, I am convinced that this diploma is giving us much more knowledge than if we only did the Degree. Both with the subject on monitoring and sports talent and with the others in this course. The professors transmit a lot of passion and tell us how things are and how we should act in front of the athletes to get their attention and obtain good results.

Ibáñez: Definitely yes. Thanks to the monitoring of the athletes we have had the opportunity to discover what the profession we plan to dedicate ourselves to in the future is like. It is an opportunity that our classmates have not had and from which we are learning a lot, since we can apply some of the things we have learned in the other subjects.

What is your evaluation of Diploma in Sports Nutrition?
Moreno: It is true that there are some aspects to improve since it is the first year it is taught, such as the order in which we teach some subjects. In this diploma we have needed knowledge that we did not have yet because we were taking them later or at the same time and that is why it was so difficult at the beginning when it was time to make the diets, etc. But due to all the knowledge and progress that we have obtained in this course, I think it is an excellent tool to improve and enter the working world better prepared. I am very happy with everything I have learned.

Ibáñez: In general, we are quite happy with diploma because it gives us opportunities and experiences that we would not have been able to enjoy if we had not chosen it; and above all, it has helped us to have more confidence in ourselves, to lose the embarrassment and nerves of facing a real status .