ACES@illinois | Spring 2018

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Fueling

win the

By Stephanie Henry

Paralympian—and FSHN grad—explores diet and athletic performance As a dietetics undergrad, Susannah Scaroni learned the importance of using food to fuel the body. And as a two-time Paralympian in wheelchair racing, she is personally aware of how nutrition can affect an athlete’s endurance and performance. But that connection is a lesson Scaroni (FSHN ’14) learned the hard way as a young wheelchair athlete. Now a graduate student in the Division of Nutritional Sciences (DNS), she is eager to share what she has learned with other athletes. At the age of 5, Scaroni was injured in a car crash. She was left paralyzed, losing both the use of and the feeling in her legs. It wasn’t until the third grade, though, she says, that she really realized she was different from her peers because of her wheelchair.

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