Optimized Athlete is a

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

-based digital health company, specializing in performance consulting. The project was created in 2011 by athletes Sky Christopherson,

Tamara Christopherson Tamara Cheek ( Jenkins; born August 20, 1978) is an American sprint kayaker who competed in the early 2000s. At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, she was eliminated in the semifinals of the K-2 500 m event. She founded Vicaso. She also co-foun ...

, and

Adam Laurent Adam Laurent (born July 6, 1971) is an American former cyclist. He competed in the men's team pursuit at the 1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonl ...

, and the project supported the US women's cycling team to a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. The company continues to operate as a "firm engaged in using

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

, self quantification, and bioinformatics to improve human performance."

History

Founding

Optimized Athlete was co-founded by Sky Christopherson and his wife, Tamara Christopherson, early in 2012. The Christophersons put $20,000 into the endeavor to start, and the team also included another Olympic athlete and a veteran of

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

. Both Christophersons, who attended UC San Diego, were influenced by the university's research community. The company's supporters include Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. Sky Christopherson had previously used Dr. Topol's digital quantification strategies to win a World Record in the 35+ 200m

velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate Track tran ...

sprint in 2011.

2012 Olympics

In July 2012 ''

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikk ...

'' revealed that several health technology companies, including Optimized Athlete, have supplied Olympics athletes with devices intended to optimise their performance, in what

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

said some people were calling "the

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Olympics" and the "Data Olympics." The company helped the US cycling team (specifically the women's sprint cycling team) track their health with glucose monitors, a sleep monitor, and genetic reports on nutritional needs and muscular capacity. About using the method, Christopher stated, "When we arrived in Spain o consultwe met a S track cycling teamthat was basically underfunded and only had one coach, while comparatively their competition were well funded and had experts staffed full-time: sports physiologists, psychologists, video analysis, you name it. Without any of this, we had to figure out how to ‘boot-strap’ a performance plan. We started with a genetic test for each athlete to provide context for the tracking and intervention strategies. What unfolded was amazing." The women's team broke a national record within weeks before competing in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and went on to beat the favored

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) ...

in the semi-finals, culminating their run with a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. The company continues to operate as a "firm engaged in using genomics, self quantification, and bioinformatics to improve human performance."

Tools

The company uses surveys with programs such as InsideTracker, where a detailed online analysis offers nutritional recommendations based on biomarkers like glucose,

folic acid Folate, also known as vitamin B9 and folacin, is one of the B vitamins. Manufactured folic acid, which is converted into folate by the body, is used as a dietary supplement and in food fortification as it is more stable during processing and ...

and vitamin D. One other tool used is the

Dexcom DexCom, Inc. is a company that develops, manufactures, produces, and distributes continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems for diabetes management. It operates internationally with headquarters in San Diego, California, and has a manufacturing ...

continuous blood glucose tracking sensor, to help with diet. According to Sky Christopherson, "Something important to note about biometrics being adopted by my clients is that they’re not using these tools simply to improve performance – what they are actually doing is maximizing their baseline health, something we call ‘Health Performance’."

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://oathlete.com/
Optimized Athlete
on

(Official) Companies based in California