Q&A with Team GB Athlete, David Ames
This week, we had the privilege of chatting up with Team GB Olympian, David Ames. A tale of passion, dedication, and the game-changing magic that happened when David decided to pick up a hockey stick.
So David, how did it all start?
In terms of sport, as far as my mum recalls, I was swimming before I could walk and kicking a football before I was 2. Sport has been my passion and my life and that hasn’t changed. Swimming and Football were my main 2 sports and it wasn’t until I was 15 that I picked up a hockey stick and started to give it a go! It’s turned out to be a good choice since then!
What have been some of your most memorable career moments to date?
Definitely representing TeamGB at 2 Olympic Games is right up there. I’m proud to have done that and hopefully with a bit of luck I can go to one more in Paris. Becoming a European medalist was a great moment for me as well as being able to play a World Cup in India in a country that is completely hockey mad was something I’ll cherish.
Can you tell us more about the process of becoming a team GB athlete?
I had a slightly different process being Northern Irish. I was fortunate enough to represent Ireland 64 times before I made a decision to transfer and represent Team GB. This involved a 3 year ‘waiting period’ where I wasn’t allowed to compete internationally for 3 years. Having to wait that long made the chances of being selected even tougher because of the amount of hockey I was missing in that period. Thankfully I was able to prove my worth when I became eligible to play for Team GB and so was able to be selected for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
How important is nutrition when it comes feeling & performing at your best?
Massively! I think every athlete knows the importance of nutrition when it comes to training, tournaments, time off etc. It is something we can’t take for granted or slip up with due to the competitiveness in sport and the fine margins for results. Having the correct nutrition / guidance on nutrition has helped me immensely through hard training blocks but more importantly in my current state of coming off knee surgery a few months ago. I am a big believer in giving the body the food that it needs in order to perform and for us athletes, that means giving up a lot of food we could only dream about eating every day for probably 80-90% of the year.
I’m sure many of our followers would love to know more about what a typical day of eating looks like for an olympian?
I’m a bit of a sucker for routine and so my eating habits haven’t changed since I was young. I’m a massive cereal fan and weetabix has been a staple in my diet since I was 16/17 years of age. But if I went through a typical training day it would look something similar to this.
- Breakfast: 4x weetabix, 2 pieces of toast, orange juice, greek yog and fruit
- Snack: Coffee, banana, protein shake or bar
- Lunch: scrambled eggs with bagels, avocado, apple, orange, snack a jacks,
- Snack: coffee, banana, bagel with jam / honey, protein shake or bar
- Dinner: Some sort of stir fry, curry, risotto, fajitas, sweet potatoes and lots of veg
- Snack: cup of tea, chocolate biscuit, 2 bowls of cereal, glass of milk
And lastly, can you take our followers through a day in the life of an olympian and sports coach?
Typical day might be a 1.5hr gym session in the morning, a team meeting in the early afternoon, and a pitch session lasting 2 hours. Finally to end the day I might have a coaching session lasting 2 hours.
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