We need to talk about the people around athletes too

One of the reasons I'm so interested in this conversation is that RED-S awareness cannot sit entirely on the athlete.

Athletes are surrounded by people who influence how they train, recover and fuel.

Coaches.

Parents.

Physios.

Strength and conditioning coaches.

Doctors.

Dietitians.

Sports organisations.

Clubs.

And teammates.

But do all of these people understand RED-S?

A new study published in Sports in August 2026 gives us a pretty important reason to ask that question.

Researchers surveyed 101 coaches working in athletics and short-track speed skating in Russia, including coaches working with national- and international-level athletes.

Of the 99 coaches who answered the awareness question, only 39.4% said they had previously heard of RED-S.

That's less than half.

And the findings became even more interesting.

Among the 39 coaches who had heard of RED-S:

• Only 48.7% rated their confidence as moderate to very high.
• Coaches recognised an average of just 5.64 out of 12 potential RED-S consequences.
• Only 28.2% recognised at least 9 of the 12 consequences.

The researchers also found no statistically significant difference in prior awareness based on whether coaches worked with national- or international-level athletes or on coaching qualification.

The study has limitations — it was a relatively small, exploratory, cross-sectional sample from two sports and one country — so we shouldn't assume these figures represent every coach everywhere.

But the message is still important:

Being a coach doesn't automatically mean you have the knowledge to recognise RED-S.

And being around elite athletes doesn't automatically mean you understand it either.

If coaches don't know, how can athletes know?

Coaches are often some of the people who spend the most time with athletes.

They see training load.

They see performance.

They see fatigue.

They may notice changes in mood, recovery or motivation.

They can be in a position to encourage appropriate support and referral when something doesn't look right.

The authors of the study specifically highlight the potential value of targeted RED-S education for coaches, including understanding causes and consequences, recognising warning signs, communicating appropriately with athletes and knowing when to refer to qualified professionals.

That matters.

Because RED-S shouldn't be something an athlete only learns about once they're already struggling.

We need to change what we celebrate

Sport culture has a tendency to reward visible suffering.

The athlete who trains when exhausted.

The athlete who never takes a day off.

The athlete who races despite injury.

The athlete who eats the least.

The athlete who loses weight.

The athlete who can tolerate the most discomfort.

But none of those things automatically equal better performance.

And some can be warning signs that something isn't right.

We need to get better at separating commitment from self-neglect.

You can be incredibly committed to your sport and still take a rest day.

You can want to improve and still eat more.

You can be ambitious and prioritise recovery.

You can want to race more and still decide that your body needs a break.

Health and performance aren't opposites.

Health is part of performance.

And fuelling is part of that conversation

One of the simplest places we can start is by changing how we talk about food.

Fuelling shouldn't be something you earn by training.

It shouldn't be something you reduce because you've had a rest day.

And it shouldn't only matter on race day.

If your training load increases, your fuelling needs to support that increase.

If you're racing more frequently, you need to consider the demands of the entire training and recovery cycle.

That means thinking about:

Before training:
Are you starting sessions with enough energy?

During training:
Do longer or harder sessions require carbohydrate during exercise?

After training:
Are you actually replacing the energy you've used?

Between races:
Are you giving your body enough carbohydrate, protein, fluids and total energy to recover?

Across the week:
Are you eating enough to support training, racing, daily movement and normal physiological function?

For sustained endurance activity, a commonly used starting point is around 30–60g of carbohydrate per hour, depending on the duration and intensity of exercise and the individual athlete.

But fuelling during a race is only one small part of the picture.

Your race-day fuelling cannot compensate for consistently underfuelling the rest of the week.

Don't just count races — look at the whole load

This is why I keep coming back to the question:

How many races is too many?

There isn't one number.

Two marathons aren't the same as eight 5Ks.

A professional cyclist racing multiple stages isn't the same as a recreational cyclist doing a sportive every few months.

And a race isn't just the race.

It's the training beforehand.

The taper.

The travel.

The race.

The recovery.

The next training block.

And everything else happening in your life.

So instead of asking:

“How many races can I fit into my calendar?”

Ask:

“How many races can I properly recover from?”

Can you still train well?

Are you sleeping?

Are you recovering?

Are you eating enough?

Are you staying healthy?

Are you enjoying the sport?

Are you performing when you actually want to perform?

Those questions might tell you much more than the number of events in your calendar.

This is why we need Global RED-S Awareness Week

This conversation is exactly why we created Global RED-S Awareness Week.

From 16–22 November 2026, RED-Scue will be bringing athletes, coaches, parents, physios, dietitians and other people involved in sport together for a week focused on practical RED-S education.

The centre of the week will be Global RED-S Awareness Day on 21 November 2026.

It's an opportunity to bring the conversation beyond individual athletes and into the wider sporting community.

Because RED-S isn't just an athlete problem.

It's a coaching issue.

An education issue.

A sports medicine issue.

A nutrition issue.

A culture issue.

And ultimately, an athlete health issue.

Global RED-S Awareness Month

And while the main awareness week runs from 16–22 November, we're also using November as Global RED-S Awareness Month to keep the conversation going beyond one day or one week.

Because one Instagram post isn't going to change sporting culture.

One webinar isn't going to educate every coach.

And one awareness day isn't going to undo years of misinformation around food, training, weight, recovery and performance.

We need an ongoing conversation.

Throughout November, we'll be sharing education, athlete experiences, practical fuelling information and conversations with professionals working across sport.

The aim isn't to scare athletes away from training.

It's the opposite.

We want people to be able to train, compete and perform without believing that damaging their health is part of the deal.

Start here

You don't need to overhaul your entire training plan tomorrow.

You can start by asking a few simple questions:

Am I fuelling the training I'm doing?

Am I recovering between sessions?

Am I eating enough on rest days?

Am I constantly tired?

Am I repeatedly getting injured or ill?

Has my performance changed despite training more?

Have there been changes in my normal physiological function?

And if something doesn't feel right, don't simply assume you need to train harder.

Talk to someone qualified to help.

We can change what becomes normal

Sport is growing.

And that is something worth celebrating.

More people participating.

More opportunities.

More races.

More visibility.

More young people seeing athletes compete.

But growth shouldn't come at the expense of athlete health.

We need to stop treating exhaustion as a badge of honour.

Stop assuming injury is something athletes should simply push through.

Stop treating underfuelling as discipline.

And stop accepting physiological disruption as an unavoidable part of being serious about sport.

Because what happens at the top of sport doesn't stay at the top.

The standards we celebrate become the behaviours other athletes copy.

So let's make sure we're celebrating the right things.

Commitment.

Performance.

Recovery.

Fuelling.

Longevity.

And athletes being able to stay in the sport they love.

This November, start here.

Global RED-S Awareness Month
16–22 November 2026 — Global RED-S Awareness Week
21 November 2026 — Global RED-S Awareness Day

More information and the full programme will be shared by RED-Scue.

Because performance starts with fuelling.