“Sport has always been a huge part of my life. So, I think any opportunity to give back to sport at any level is always something that I strive to do,” says Catherine George, who received a GetPRO Professional Grassroots Sports Nutrition Grant when the programme launched in 2024 in partnership between Danone and The Nutrition Society. As a former elite field hockey player and current PhD candidate, Cat has both an academic and first-person understanding of nutrition’s impact on athletic performance.

Her interest in nutrition came to the fore after two knee injuries sidelined her in the run up to the Tokyo Olympics. She went on a mission to understand how nutrition can play a role in recovery.  Even though she didn’t make it to Tokyo in 2021, she found a new career path.

Now, with the support of the GetPRO Grant, Cat has been able to bring her nutritional insights to the rowing community at Fulham Reach Boat Club (FRBC), providing guidance to teen and adult rowers on how they can use nutrition to help them meet their health and fitness goals. 

As an athlete, Cat intuitively views food as fuel and as a tool to optimise performance and recovery. During her master’s, she focussed on the significant gap in nutritional guidance for female elite athletes during pregnancy and postpartum, and this realisation reinforced her commitment to improving access to nutrition education not just for elite athletes but for athletes of all levels.

When Cat came across the GetPRO grant, she saw it as a perfect opportunity. She regularly would run past the rowing clubs along the river in West London with her then fiancé, Tom George, who won silver in pairs rowing at the 2024 Olympic games in Paris, and the idea was born to provide nutritional support to FRBC, located just minutes away from their home.

“It's a boat club that tries to do a lot for the community. They highlight what sport is all about and try and give opportunities to everybody,” says Cat.

Her proposal was well received by the club. “The Fulham Reach Boat Club said they always wanted to incorporate nutrition into their scope, but haven't necessarily had the means to do it,” Cat recalls. Working with the club, they scheduled workshops at times convenient to adult rowers and also young people who took part in the Fulham Reach Boat Clubs “Free Water Sports Week”, with bursary places available to children on free school meals. 

Tom agreed to pitch in and help with the workshops. Newly married at the beginning of 2025, their double-act combined an understanding of the unique needs of rowers and Cat’s nutritional expertise. 

Cat credits her supervisor and mentor Dr Fiona Lavelle at King’s College London with helping come up with a catchy name for Project MILKSHAKE. “It was a spin on the fact that smoothies were part of the nutrition workshops,” says Cat, and the acronym acts as a helpful reminder of the importance of “Meal preparation, Intake, Learning, and Knowledge: Sports nutrition for Health and Application of Knowledge for optimising Energy”.

The programme focusses on integrating nutrition education into the training programmes of both youth (16-18 years) and adult rowers through hands-on workshops that teach them not just what to eat, but how to prepare nutritious meals that fit into their busy schedules. The grant allowed Cat to conduct a series of these workshops addressing key topics such as meal planning, fuelling strategies, and recovery nutrition. Each session ended with an interactive quiz and a hands-on smoothie making activity, which participants fed back was their favourite part of the sessions!

Cat says that securing the grant was not only an opportunity to make a difference in the local rowing community, but it was also a valuable professional development experience for her career. Managing the entire grant process from application to execution provided her with hands-on experience in grant writing, project implementation, and impact assessment – skills she expects will be helpful as she progresses in her own career.

Through pre- and post-workshop surveys, Cat collected insights into participants’ nutritional habits and perceptions. For the youth rowers, results showed limited baseline knowledge across both sports and culinary nutrition but a strong interest in learning. 98% wanted to learn more about sports nutrition and 92% wanted to learn more about culinary nutrition.

Many of the FRBC members expressed being overwhelmed by the complexity of sports nutrition. The findings also highlighted the need for simple, accessible strategies that rowers could implement in their busy schedules. By breaking down complex nutritional concepts into practical steps, she’s helped athletes develop sustainable habits that could enhance both their training and overall wellbeing.

Odhrán Goulding, age 18, said the workshops had a real impact: “I feel like I'm a better athlete now. An important thing I took from the workshop was knowing how much protein to eat and when to take it after a session. I really see a difference, both in how I feel and how I am performing,” Odhrán said.    

Another key finding, especially with the adult rowers, was the demand for simplified, flexible learning formats. Whilst in-person workshops were valuable, adults with busy schedules requested shorter, more digestible content. Cat then produced simple, accessible materials, which have now been included in the boat club’s membership handbook to support ongoing learning beyond the workshops.

By focusing on small, manageable changes – such as preparing snacks in advance or incorporating easy-to-make recovery meals – Cat is aiming to make good nutrition more approachable.

“Nutrition can sometimes get overcomplicated,” Cat recognises. “So being able to take a step back and highlight the simple things that you can do every day will, over time, make big differences.”

The GetPRO Professional Grassroots Sports Nutrition grant in funded by Danone’s GetPRO Professional programme and hosted in proud partnership with The Nutrition Society. Find out more: https://www.getpro.co.uk/getproprofessional/grassroots-grants.html