ABSTRACT
Team sports essentially involve two groups of people competing for possession of a ball. At the elite level, they involve several other shared characteristics: huge popular appeal eliciting tribal or national fervor, and the elevation of the best players to the fame and fortune usually reserved for movie stars. The professionalism of the sport has created a range of new nutritional challenges for players, as well as promoted the development of the highly organized sports science/medicine support team dedicated to solving these challenges and developing optimal performance in players. This chapter will examine some of these challenges and solutions.
