Current European and Indoor champion,
as well as silver medallist at the world championships
'People expect athletes to eat a certain way. Everyone says: ‘You must be on a really strict diet.' But that’s really not the case. I’ve got salad and vegetables in my shopping trolley but there’s always some chocolate in there, too. Athletes eat normal food – they all love Nando’s, like everyone else. One thing the nutritionist did tell me, which I never realised, is how bad for you flapjacks are – they are really high in calories.'
Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Observer
Current World, Commonwealth and European 400m hurdles champion
'Eating right helps your capacity to train; the more recovered my body is, the better I perform. You wouldn't put the wrong fuel in a car and expect to get a quality performance out of it. If I eat badly I have poor concentration and I feel lethargic – and the stopwatch never lies.'
Photograph: Levon Biss for the Observer
Sarah Storey is a seven-time Paralympic champion. She won two golds in 2008 and has 12 world titles in cycling. In 2010 she became the first disabled cyclist to represent England at the Commonwealth games alongside able-bodied riders
'I can be in the saddle for six hours so what I eat is crucial. For an event like end-to-end, where you're riding 90 to 130 miles a day for nine days, the fuel isn't just for that day, it's also to make sure you're not in deficit the next morning. So I eat protein every three hours and have jam sandwiches passed out from the support vehicle.'
Photograph: Levon Biss for the Observer
Louis Smith took bronze in the pommel horse in 2008 – the first British gymnast to win an individual medal at the Olympics in 100 years. He won bronze at the world championship in 2011
'I've had some pretty funky foods over the years. I went to the Ukraine and ate sliced sheep's tongue, and in France they gave me sheep's testicles.
I make a good roast duck with plum sauce – I learnt that on Ready Steady Cook. I was up against sprinter Christian Malcolm, and I won.'
Photograph: Levon Biss for the Observer
10km open water swimmer
Keri-Ann Payne was the first Briton to secure her place for 2012 by winning the world championship 10km open water swim last summer. She won silver in Beijing
'At the 2007 world championships I got my feeding strategy wrong – and I paid for it. For my sport it’s what you eat two days before the competition that makes the difference – you have to carb load – and I didn’t. Eating a pile of rice or pasta isn’t as fun as it sounds and I didn’t really know what I was doing back then. I was leading for a long way but I ended up 11th.'
Photograph: Levon Biss for the Observer
