Athletes featured in Peter Bronski and Melissa McLean Jory’s new book showed the world their gluten-free edge at the London 2012 Olympics.
Millet, arrowroot, corn, rice, teff, sorghum—the list goes on. Such sources of gluten-free carbohydrates are not usually regarded as the stuff that dreams are made of, but that may be about to change. Several gluten-free athletes made the trip to London this summer, and for swimmer Dana Vollmer and pole-vaulter Jenn Suhr their dreams of Olympic gold were realized. Their triumphs are the latest in a slew of successes by gluten-free athletes, and further evidence of the way that this increasingly prevalent diet—thanks to rising rates of diagnoses of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity—can be a game-changer.
Diagnosed with celiac disease in 2011, ten-time American champion pole-vaulter Jenn Suhr’s adoption of a gluten-free diet came at just the right time. Stomach issues and other symptoms such as fatigue, dehydration, and muscle cramps “had been surfacing on and off for a few years. . . [but] during summer 2011, it was different,” write Peter Bronski and Melissa McLean Jory in their new book, The Gluten-Free Edge. “There was a more fundamental change in her health. Suhr failed to defend her outdoor title and barely qualified for Worlds.” After her celiac diagnosis and dietary changes, her season took an extraordinary turnabout: “She posted the second-best jump of her life—4.91 meters—which ended up being the best height of any female vaulter in the world for all of 2011. By the end of the year, she was in top form, ranked by Track and Field News as the top female vaulter on the planet,” report Bronski and Jory. Her gold medal in London proves that, with a gluten-free diet, even celiac disease can’t slow her down. Continue reading
