U.S. Olympians taking part in health and wellness study

After they've finished competing here in the Olympics, some Americans will be getting another measure of their health and fitness.

Some Olympians are taking part in a study conducted by Thorne Research and the Mayo Clinic, which will evaluate their overall health, identify deficiencies and give them an analysis of samples they submitted before coming to Rio.

Thorne Research has partnered with 10 national governing bodies, including USA Triathlon, USA Gymnastics, USA Rugby and US Rowing to provide medical content as well as to run the study on the athletes.

The partnerships allow athletes to get their individual information on their own health and wellness, which they can share with their physicians and use to get supplements Thorne Research is making available for purchase through the NGBs.

"The supplement category is one that can have a lot of question marks," said Chuck Menke, chief marketing officer of USA Triathlon, "so the reason we did a deal with Thorne is because there's a high degree of efficacy, they were fully vetted by the (U.S. Olympic Committee) over a years' long process."

Paul Jacobson, CEO of Thorne Research, said Olympians are part of the 48-person study being run by the Mayo Clinic. Menke said at least one triathlete is taking part, but because of privacy laws he does not know which of the six Olympians might have volunteered for the study.

Those that did provided samples that would allow researchers to study their health in three areas—blood, genetic and microbiome.

"The goal is to look at the aggregate data and see what we can learn about athletes from the data," said Jacobson.

Once completed, the study will also provide athletes with their individual data through a web portal and phone app from WellnessFX, a company owned by Thorne Research.

While the goal is long-term health and wellness rather than sports performance, the information could be useful should any of the athletes fall ill while competing internationally.

Based on the results, athletes can seek recommendations on nutrition, training methodologies and supplements.

Thorne Research and the Mayo Clinic will also provide educational materials on everything from how to treat pain naturally to specific issues of women's health or youth competitors.

"The content will generally be agnostic. It's a focus on training, nutrition, how you eat, how you sleep and supplements when relevant, but we're not here to hawk our products," said Jacobson.

"We will be building content for these people on the products that they choose."

The results of the athletes' bloodwork is already available, and the rest of the results are expected by the end of the year.

"What we're looking at is several things that are focused on prevention and wellness," said Jacobson.