Stockman Steaks Managing Director Steven Hines interviews Olympic Athlete Tori West.
Congratulations on making the Australian Olympic Team for Heptathlon at Paris 2024. We would love to know how you entered the sport and then graduated to Olympic level.
I started Athletics when I was just three. By high school I made the state high jump team. At 15, I was scouted by a coach who said I had a fast arm for Javelin and that I would be a national champion in a year.
One year later, I won the National Championships for the U18 Women’s Javelin. Being skilled at High Jump & Javelin was an odd mix and so my coach suggested I try heptathlons. In the beginning I didn’t do well, as I lacked confidence in myself.
After high school, I was a little lost in life. I tried boxing for a year and quickly became the Queensland state champion, retiring undefeated 4-0. I don't think boxing was for me, but I learned a lot in the process. After boxing, I decided to commit fully into heptathlons. I felt a calling to it, I guess.
By 21, I was seriously training for heptathlons and never looked back. The all-round athletic nature of the event and pursuit of progress, self-improvement and mastery of 7 disciplines is addictive.
Fun-fact, heptathlons are an evolution of the original Olympic sport (pentathlon) back in ancient Greek days. The heptathlon has a lot of history and is wildly under-rated. It's the Olympic event for the ultimate hybrid athletes.
We understand that Heptathlon is one of the most gruelling Olympic Sports with its 7 different disciplines. What does a typical training week look like for you?
Training varies through the year depending on when competitions are. I am currently in off-season training. This involves 4 track running sessions, 2 technical sessions, 3 gym sessions and 2-3 longer jogs every week. It's certainly tough. The track sessions are my favourite.
I do a lot of lactic threshold training on the track for the 200m and 800m. They are very tough sessions, but you always get a good 'runners high' after finishing. The basis for heptathlons is being running fit and strong. So, most of my current training is working on building my capacity for this.
What does your weekly diet consist of? How do you feel this meat-based diet helped you compete and assists with your recovery?
From 2020 to 2022 I had a bad run with injuries. I sat out of competing for almost 3 years and it was very frustrating. In 2023 I made some lifestyle changes (better sleep, managing stress and environment) and started adopting a more meat-based diet.
Before that, nutritionists focused on my diet purely based on calorie recommendations instead of focussing on good quality food. This could include an Up n Go as long as it hit the macros. However, I now say:
“You don’t want to put 91 fuel in a Ferrari”.
This previous diet led to my body continually breaking down.
Since making the change to a whole food, meat-based diet, I have completed 10 heptathlons in 2 years healthy and qualified for the Olympics with the best score by an Australian in 16 years. This is a huge feat considering the time I spent away from the sport and how hard the event is.
I wake up around 5.30am to 6.00am. I usually drink water, then black coffee. In the second phase of my female cycle, I have a high protein / fatty breakfast before coffee, which I have found makes a huge difference.
For breakfast, I eat 4 eggs cooked in butter and salt.
On a running day I will add honey to my eggs. In competition instead of having energy gels, I have little packets of honey if I need quick carbs.
For lunch, I either have one of your Scotch fillets or Porterhouse Sirloin steaks.
If I am time poor, I cook it in the air-fryer with salt and garlic and herb seasoning. If I have time, I cook it in beef tallow with garlic, rosemary and butter.
Alternatively for lunch, I enjoy the Stockman Steaks beef & liver mince with cut up onion and garlic and cooked on the pan with added salt. On a heavy training day, I might add carbs. Either a roast white potato or white rice with added milk and coconut oil. If I am hungry, I may add fruit for a snack – Bananas or Oranges or berries (Raspberries or blueberries)
For dinner, I eat meat only. Either 3 of your Lamb Midloin chops or 6 Lamb Cutlets. I cook both of them with rosemary and salt in the air-fryer.
I don’t eat after sunset, after 5.00pm. I go to sleep to 8.30pm at night.
I have never had to take a protein supplement in the 9 months leading up to the Olympics.
I believe the reasons for my success are multi-factorial but I would definitely say adopting a more meat-based diet has been a big performance enhancer. It's also a nutrition lifestyle I genuinely enjoy. I never feel like I'm on an 'athlete diet', I just eat very good food that I enjoy. I know what makes me feel good, so I try and stick to that pattern of eating.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding the lack of meat supplied at the Paris Olympic Games. What was your experience?
I was lucky and didn't come into the village until late in the program, so I wasn't impacted when they ran out of meat. When I arrived at the village, the meat options were limited and usually the good beef options ran out quickly, but there were other meat alternatives.
The major food sections included International Cuisine, French Cuisine and Asian Food. In the French section, there were beef options, however you had to get in early as it was the first choice of most athletes. If you were not quick, only turkey and fish were left. It was also hard to know the quality of meat or what sort of oils it was cooked in. I try to avoid all seed oils.
The Australian Olympic Team stepped up to help provide athletes better options by supplying some better breakfast and lunch options. They provided poke bowls with added meat. So, I ate breakfast & lunch in the Australian Headquarters which were in a special building just for Australia and avoided a food disaster. They also brought in professional baristas to make great coffee.
Finally, we also heard a lot about the cardboard mattresses at the games. Was it really as bad as we imagined back home?
Yes. The beds were very uncomfortable. It was a cardboard frame and the mattress was made from recycled fishing line. The Australian Olympic Committee did try to make this better by supplying us Mattress toppers, which did help. But still not the best place to sleep preparing for high performance at the most important event of an athlete's career.
Thank you for joining us Tori as a Stockman Steak’s sponsored athlete. We can’t wait to see how you perform next at the World Championships.
About Tori West
In January 2020, she won the heptathlon at the Australian combined events championships in Brisbane with a tally of 6028 points.
She was runner-up at the 2024 Australian Athletics Championships in April 2024.
She set a personal best score of 6245 to finish sixth at the Hypo Meeting in Götzis in May 2024.
She won silver at the 2024 Oceania Athletics Championships in Suva, Fiji in June 2024.
In July 2024, she was selected for the heptathlon at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She finished 20th, with 5848 points.
Tori West is the fifth greatest Australian female heptathlete of all-time.
Website toriwest.com.au
Instagram instagram.com/toriwest__
Tik Tok tiktok.com/@toriwest__
About the Interviewer
Steven Hines is one of the owners and co-founders of Stockman Steaks. His family has been in the meat business for over 5 decades and 3 generations. He has a passion for eating great quality meat and researching the health benefits behind it.
