It doesn’t take a science or health major to know that hydration is important. But if for some reason this fact has eluded you, news flash — water is essential, especially for athletes.
However, when it comes to hydrating during athletic events, there are more options than just water for the athletes. Most of them like to keep things consistent when they play their sport, and everyone has their own flavor preferences. The question is which sports drinks do different athletes prefer and why?
While there are plenty of competitors in the market, athletes tend to side with one of the “Big Three” drinks for hydration during games and practices — Gatorade, Powerade and, of course, water.
It is important to start by acknowledging that the U is a Coke-sponsored school, and because of that, Powerade is more readily accessible and provided during athletic events. The ease of obtaining Powerade may play a role in the preference of some Ute athletes, but this is not a survey to turn in for a stats class project. Rather, the goal is to find out what the athletes’ preferences are.
When talking sports drinks, is there anywhere to start other than Gatorade? It’s the original sports drink, and it has come a long way since its early pickle juice days. Remember when we all learned about that in elementary school? Our minds were blown, and we questioned if all those delicious flavors we drank contained pickle juice or not.
Well, they didn’t. In fact, Gatorade has a variety of flavors that have absolutely nothing to do with pickle juice. This wide selection is where Gatorade has the edge over the other two drinks.
Heather Bowen is an outfielder for the softball team at Utah, and Gatorade is her beverage of choice during games.
“Cool Blue Gatorade,” Bowen said. “It’s my favorite by a long shot too … I’m not really a big fan of water. I like to have taste in my drinks. Gatorade also has more flavors to choose from than Powerade.”
Powerade almost has an underdog feel to it. Gatorade is the golden child in sports drinks, while Powerade has played catch-up since its origin.
Interestingly enough, the ingredients in the two drinks are extremely similar. The carbohydrate content, vitamins and electrolytes all have similar levels in both Gatorade and Powerade, while the latter has slightly higher levels of sugar.
There’s minimal evidence to show that one drink is better than the other, and it simply comes down to personal preference.
But what about all-natural water? You know, the fluid that costs significantly less than the popular sports drinks? Despite the high availability and low costs, water is tasteless and doesn’t offer the performance benefits that other sports drinks can.
So the question becomes, is there still a place in sports for water to be the drink of choice? For Utah softball captain, Hannah Flippen, there certainly is.
“Gatorade is just too thick,” Flippen said. “I like to have water, but it can’t be super cold — just regular room temperature is fine.”
When asked what her feelings were about flavored water, Flippen said she hasn’t had Propel, a popular water flavoring, since she was about 10 years old.
Water hydrates just fine, and it doesn’t leave those ridiculous red mustache marks on your mouth after you drink it. You can kiss that postgame date goodbye if you’re sporting those marks after drinking a Gatorade or Powerade.
At the end of the day, the choice of hydration during an activity probably doesn’t have any impact on the type of performance an athlete has that day. However, if there was this kind of evidence, I’m sure ESPN would have already put up a stat chart comparing batting averages of players who drink Gatorade with players who don’t, you know, “important” stuff.
But until that point, just allow yourself to sit back, relax and let your taste buds decide for you.
@brock_jensen02