Duke University cross country and track and field athlete Emily Cole, has some impressive stats both on and off the track–she has amassed over 105K followers on Instagram, along with an official blue checkmark by her name. That's almost as impressive as setting a school record in the 3000m steeplechase with a personal-best performance of 9:48.20 as a junior at the ACC Championships in 2022.
The Texas girl has come a long way since ending up in the hospital at 17 in a coma from hyponatremia–when your body overhydrates, causing sodium levels to drop dangerously low. That scary experience is the major inspiration behind her book, Player's Plate, a guide to sports nutrition and finding balance as an athlete. In it, she features elite athletes' personal nutrition journeys, registered dieticians' recommendations, and her own experiences. The goal was to create a fundamental guide for elite athletes in optimizing their nutrition while chasing their dreams.
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Before Player's Plate, Emily went viral with her TikTok video–searching for a formal date. The content creator took home the grand $10,000 prize from the Icon Source TikTok Challenge on January 10, 2022. Icon Source creates authentic athletic endorsements and enables student athletes to seize the power of their college NIL. Her social media following has rapidly grown since, and she's shifted her appetite to leverage her social media following and build her platform. Since her book's publication, she's committed to educating fellow college athletes on the importance of sports nutrition to fuel a successful career in their sport and in life beyond the game.
She balanced her virality and two-year writing process, all while still earning personal bests, All-Academic, All-America, and All-ACC First Team accolades at Duke University.
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Image Credit: Twitter
* Originally published on January 27, 2023, by Caroline Kurdej
