Spotlight: Carbs vs Fat in Comrades Champions? / Sinner’s Loss is Tennis' gain?

Jun 11, 2025

This week features intriguing discussions on Beatrice Chebet's pursuit of the 5000m world record and the implications of Jannik Sinner’s recent French Open performance. The analysis questions whether Sinner's loss will benefit his career and tennis as a whole. A deep dive into the nutritional debate reveals that elite athletes still rely on carbohydrates, contradicting claims that fat can fuel their performance. The podcast also touches on the rise of paddle tennis and its engaging community vibe, highlighting its appeal across various skill levels.

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INSIGHT

Chebet's 5,000m Record Potential

Beatrice Chebet has the potential to break the 5,000m world record; she ran close with significant reserve.
Her smooth, compact running form and performance reserve strongly indicate the record is inevitable soon.

INSIGHT

Sinner's Loss: Passivity Not Choking

Yannick Sinner lost the French Open final likely due to passivity at key moments rather than choking.
Tennis players often become risk-averse near victory, which negatively impacts performance.

ADVICE

Recovery Strategy Post-Injury

Regain fitness after injury by training but start cautiously, focusing on volume with low intensity.
Physiological adaptations return faster than mechanical and skill-based elements after long breaks.

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Show notes

This week on The Spotlight, we put big claims, bold performances, and comeback stories under the microscope.

In Discourse Digest (00:00), we discuss why Beatrice Chebet’s near-world record 5000m is not a miss, just a delay. Then we shift to the French Open, where Carlos Alcaraz outlasted Jannik Sinner in a classic. Gareth asks whether Sinner’s loss might be exactly what tennis (and Sinner) needed, and how their rivalry and reputations will shape the sport’s next era.

Listener Lens (15:50) features a question from listener Simon, returning from an injury-enforced layoff. Ross offers guidance on regaining lost fitness, why retraining happens faster than we think (the 1:2 rule of thumb), and why doing less will eventually give you the right to do more.

Center Stage (22:34) is all about carbs, fat, and fuel—sparked by a tweet from Prof Tim Noakes after the Comrades Marathon. Having watched the race, Noakes claimed that “not a single lead athlete tried to ingest 90–120g/hour of carbohydrates,” and that they “know they don't need carbs to win Comrades” because “fat can provide essentially all the required energy.” We put those claims under the Spotlight, and checked with the elites. Turns out, they were targeting exactly those carb intakes. We explore the science and discover a huge capacity to increase fat oxidation as a function of diet, training and exercise intensity. But that doesn't mean carbs don’t matter - we dig into evidence that carbs improve performance, delay fatigue, and enhance recovery. The real problem? Extremes. Whether it’s high carb or no carb, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

And finally (53:44)—Padel and Pickleball are booming. Why are they so popular, and will they dethrone tennis as the world’s favourite racket sport?

Links

The article Gareth discusses about Sinner's loss being a win for tennis
Example of a study where retraining restores strength to pre-detraining levels in half the time taken to lose them (note this is a study on strength, but the principle remains)
Our Podcast interview with Louise Burke, where she explains everything you need to know about fats and carbs, and why fat underperforms as a fuel
The Podlogar study discussed on the show, where we don't burn all the ingested carbohydrates
Burke's race walker study, with fat oxidation rates three times higher after fat adaptation, but with reduced economy and impaired performance benefits
Volek's study on fat adapted distance runners, also showing huge fat oxidation capacity

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