ABBOTT PARK, Ill., April 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today it is teaming up with Eliud Kipchoge, who is considered the world's fastest marathon runner, and the NN Running Team to support their athletic performance training program. Kipchoge and three NN Running Team members are training with Abbott's Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor to monitor their glucose levels to help them achieve optimal athletic performance. The NN Mission Marathon, a qualifying race for the Olympic Games, in Enschede, the Netherlands on April 18, will be the first time Kipchoge and the NN Running Team will use Abbott's biosensor in a competitive marathon.

"Using Abbott's Libre Sense has transformed my training program. I am learning how my glucose levels relate to my running performance and have already started to see how quickly small adjustments can make a big difference," said Eliud Kipchoge, the world's fastest marathon runner. "I am honored to work on this project, which hopefully will help athletes around the world to better understand the relationship between nutrition and performance to help them improve."

Kipchoge is celebrated as the greatest marathon runner in history as a three-time Olympic medal winner and the first person in history to run a marathon in under two hours. To maintain elite performance, Kipchoge and the NN Running Team continually seek to innovate across all aspects of their training program, evaluating everything from race planning, nutrition and hydration to clothing and footwear. As the first product of its kind, Abbott's biosensor empowers the runners to tap into real-time molecular data to monitor their glucose levels and help them design personalized nutrition plans.

"We've utilized our breakthrough sensing technology to help world-class athletes like Eliud and everyday athletes alike live up to their optimal potential," said Duncan Williams, divisional vice president, Biosensor Technology, Abbott. "Libre Sense will help make glucose monitoring commonplace in athletic performance training and enable athletes to fuel their peak performance."

Abbott's Libre Sense, CE Marked in September 2020, is an over-the-counter product made available in Europe that is designed to provide continuous glucose monitoring via a mobile appⁱⁱⁱ and wrist readers^iv to athletes. Athletes wear the small round biosensor (approximately the size of a two Euro coin) on the back of their upper arm. Worn for up to 14 days, the biosensor provides real-time glucose values through a mobile app developed by Supersapiens, a sports technology company focused on improving athletic performance. Abbott's biosensor and Supersapiens app are designed to help athletes understand the efficacy of their nutrition choices in training and competition.

Abbott is providing Kipchoge and the NN Running Team members with Abbott's biosensors for training, as well as collaborating to develop personalized insights into their athletic performance. Kipchoge and the NN Running Team will provide key learnings, share their experiences and educate athletes worldwide to better understand the link between nutrition and performance.

To prepare for the NN Mission Marathon, their last competitive marathon before the Olympic Games, Eliud and the NN Running Team have been training in Kenya using Libre Sense for the past month.

"After training with Abbott's biosensor, we've been able to quickly develop new insights into high-performance, endurance training nutrition and hydration. For example, we are exploring a shift in timing of pre-race and race-time carbohydrate fueling to net maximum benefits," said Valentijn Trouw, performance director of NN Running Team and Global Sports Communications. "Abbott's biosensor enables us to build personalized nutrition plans based on glucose data in order to deliver peak athletic performance and a competitive advantage. The NN Mission Marathon will be an excellent opportunity to show how important glucose insights can make a real difference in performance."

To see Kipchoge and the NN Running Teams training sessions in Kenya with the Abbott biosensor, click here.

About Abbott Libre Sense Glucose Sport System
The Abbott Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor is intended for athletes (aged 16+ years) to measure glucose. Athletes are defined as individuals who perform exercise and train with the purpose of improving fueling and performance. The biosensor allows athletes to correlate their glucose levels and their athletic performance. The biosensor is not intended for use in the diagnosis, treatment, or monitoring of a disease.

The product is available across eight European countries: Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

For more information about Abbott's biosensor, visit LibreSense.com. For more information about the app, visit Supersapiens.com.

About Abbott
Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 109,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/abbott-/, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews and @AbbottGlobal.

ⁱ Data on file, Abbott Diabetes Care. Data based on the number of users worldwide for the FreeStyle Libre system compared to the number of users for other leading personal use, sensor-based glucose monitoring systems.
ⁱⁱ The biosensor is the world's first continuous glucose biosensor specifically designed for athletes; data on file, Abbott.
ⁱⁱⁱ Biosensor is designed to work with compatible partner mobile apps.
^iv The biosensor is designed to automatically stream glucose data every minute, via Bluetooth^® wireless technology, and it is designed to work with compatible mobile apps and wrist readers (wrist readers are currently in development).

SOURCE Abbott