Optimized Athlete

Optimized Athlete was co-founded by Sky Christopherson[1] and his wife, Tamara Christopherson, early in 2012.[2] The Christophersons put $20,000 into the endeavor to start,[3] and the team also included another Olympic athlete and a veteran of Silicon Valley.[4] Both Christophersons, who attended UC San Diego, were influenced by the university's research community. The company's supporters include Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute.[3] Sky Christopherson had previously used Dr. Topol's digital quantification strategies[5] to win a World Record in the 35+ 200m velodrome sprint in 2011.[1]

In July 2012 The Financial Times revealed that several health technology companies,[6][7] including Optimized Athlete, have supplied Olympics athletes with devices intended to optimise their performance,[6] in what CNN said some people were calling "the Twitter Olympics" and the "Data Olympics."[8][9]

The company helped the US cycling team (specifically the women's sprint cycling team[3]) track their health with glucose monitors, a sleep monitor, and genetic reports on nutritional needs and muscular capacity.[7][10]

About using the method, Christopher stated, "When we arrived in Spain [to consult] we met a [US track cycling team] that was basically underfunded and only had one coach, while comparatively their competition were well funded and had experts staffed full-time: sports physiologists, psychologists, video analysis, you name it. Without any of this, we had to figure out how to ‘boot-strap’ a performance plan. We started with a genetic test for each athlete to provide context for the tracking and intervention strategies. What unfolded was amazing."[1] The women's team broke a national record within weeks before competing in London[1] and went on to beat the favored Australians in the semi-finals, culminating their run with a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics.[11]

The company continues to operate as a "firm engaged in using genomics, self quantification, and bioinformatics to improve human performance."[1]

The company uses surveys with programs such as InsideTracker, where a detailed online analysis offers nutritional recommendations based on biomarkers like glucose, folic acid and vitamin D.[10] One other tool used is the Dexcom continuous blood glucose tracking sensor, to help with diet.[1] According to Sky Christopherson, "Something important to note about biometrics being adopted by my clients is that they’re not using these tools simply to improve performance – what they are actually doing is maximizing their baseline health, something we call ‘Health Performance’."[1]