A comparative study in the Nutrition knowledge of short distance swimmers

High levels of food knowledge is an important factor in the performance and health of swimmers, and knowing the relationship between nutrients and metabolism in health, disease, energy production and recovery from effects of training are important aspects that many swimmers miss due to misconceptions and misleading information about Nutrition. The swimming training program takes from 2 to 6 hours a day divided into two units with an additional land workout, and the competition might take from 14 to 17 minutes in 1500 meters for the top swimmers, also they may participate in more than one race per day between the qualifications and the final, which requires merged nutrition strategies to the that allows to compensate energy lost during these competitions. The aim of the study was to compare the short-distance swimmers’ nutrition knowledge during training and competitions, by building a questionnaire to measure the nutrition knowledge by gender, performance level and body mass. The researcher followed the descriptive method. The research sample was consisted of (287) from (34) club from short-distance swimmers, randomly selected, as those aged less than 10 years to over 18 years, from different levels. One of the most important results was statistically significant differences between the physical patterns of the body during the competition, correspondingly the nutrition style. In addition of statistical function differences between swimmers (national team – clubs’ team) in both main food elements, after the training period, and the total of the questionnaire in favor of the national swimmers.