St Mary’s University, Twickenham (SMU) Applied Sports Nutrition academic, Dr James Fleming, has been awarded funding from Research England to host a new sports nutrition networking event for those who work with adolescent athletes. This includes academics, practitioners, athletes, coaches, and parents.
The ‘Adolescent Sports Nutrition Research Networking Event’, will be held on March 19, 2025, on the University’s campus. Speakers from Sport Wales, The Royal Ballet School, Chelsea Football Club, and more will come together to discuss the challenges and opportunities in working with young athletes.
The aim of the event is to foster collaborative links and initiate new research to address the unique dietary and developmental needs of adolescent athletes.
The networking event will also mark the launch of the ‘Adolescent Athlete Research Community’. This is a dedicated working group that will be established to focus on advancing research in adolescent sports nutrition and help develop broader, practical partnerships to support adolescent athletes' health, development, and performance. Initial findings from this group will be shared later this year.
Speaking on the project Dr James Fleming said, “Adolescence is a critical period for establishing lifelong health practices, yet the field of sports nutrition for young athletes remains under-researched and lacks comprehensive, age-appropriate guidelines. This project addresses this pressing gap by bringing together a multidisciplinary community to collaborate and generate actionable insights for supporting adolescent athletes’ nutritional and health needs.
“We’re really excited to be launching this project and hope it will create a lasting foundation for collaborative, impactful research that enriches the field of adolescent sports nutrition.”
Find out more details and get your tickets for the event.