Duke Track and Field Star to Publish Her First Book, “The Player’s Plate”
The implementation of name, image, and likeness (NIL) is a massive shift in collegiate athletics, and athletes like Duke University's Emily Cole are trailblazers of the movement. Cole, the author of the soon-to-be-released "The Player's Plate," is believed to be the first collegiate athlete to publish a book using NIL rules.
Cole's inspiration for "The Player's Plate" resulted from a COVID-19 gap semester and her growing passion for sports nutrition that developed from a health scare.
In high school, while training for the state championship, Cole developed Hyponatremia, a condition that occurs when sodium concentration in the blood is unusually low. Because of this condition, she spent the entirety of that championship weekend in a self-induced coma.
"When I went into my coma, the most confusing part was that I appeared to be at the peak of health and fitness. I was eating super clean and running great. And yet, it was this same diet of too much water and not enough sodium that caused me to nearly lose my life. This is why it's so important for me to help redefine the term "healthy" and make sure the next generation of athletes understand their needs are much more complex than they realize," said Cole.
"The inspiration for the book was realizing that there's this big misconception in the world of health and fitness and sports nutrition that it's all about dedication, going harder, eating cleaner, doing the best you can, and being stressed. When that's not what it's about."
Cole continues, "It's more about finding a sustainable way to fuel yourself with healthy whole foods while still enjoying the foods that you love, honoring your cravings, and not letting your food control your life."
Throughout the book, Cole features the stories of elite athletes, and she dedicates each chapter to one individual and one core sports nutrition concept.
In the first chapter, Cole interviews Maddie Alm, an elite distance runner for Team Boss in Boulder, Colorado. Alm is a registered dietitian and the founder of Fueling Forward. The chapter focuses on the importance of utilizing a registered dietician who is protected by schooling, research, and education.
The book also features April Ross, a three-time Olympic medalist for Team USA in sand volleyball who recently won a gold medal during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Given that her sport reveals so much of an athlete's body, it is a natural fit that her chapter focuses on body image, societal pressures, and mental health.
One of the final chapters features Jesse Thomas, a two-time Ironman champion who ran at Stanford University. His chapter is titled "Aim for B+" and discusses his struggle in college with restrictive eating and bulimia.
As to how NIL impacts her book, Cole said, "There's no way that I would have gotten this amount of publicity to the book without the name, image, and likeness laws. I'm extremely grateful."
She elaborated, "NIL allowed me to speak much more about my Duke experience in the book and not have to try and dance around the subject. Being a Duke track and field athlete is a huge part of my life. Not being able to talk about my experiences at Duke would have limited my ability to relate to the reader and share my own experiences and struggles with nutrition."
The Player's Plate is available for ebook preorder HERE and will be released in its entirety on Tuesday, October 4. You can follow Emily Cole on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.