PhD Scientific Days 2021

CL_I_P: Clinical Medicine I. Posters

The effect of COVID-19 on the Olympic preparation of National Swim Team Hungary

Text of the abstract

Introduction: The Olympic preparation of elite athletes is highly influenced by the COVID and post-COVID syndrome, moreover the training conditions became more difficult by the viral situation. Complex screening of athletes is essential for successful and safe sports.
Aims: Our goal is to repeat the 2019 year sports cardiology screening of the Olympic Swim Team 3 months before the Olympics, and to compare the results of COVID and non-COVID athletes.
Methods: As part of an extended screening: patient history, resting ECG, laboratory tests, body composition analysis, echocardiography, cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) were performed. In 2021, all swimmers underwent a pulmonary examination. To compare their performance, we used FINA points calculated from the time results of the National Championships.
Results: From April 2019, we examined 46 adult elite swimmers (24±4 years, male=25, 54%). Of these, 10 swimmers had PCR-confirmed COVID infection, while 4 swimmers had positive antibody test. Iron deficiency was verified in 50% and vitamin D deficiency was detected in 64% of swimmers who underwent COVID infection and in 53% and in 50% of non-COVID swimmers. No pathological abnormalities were found during resting ECG and ultrasound examinations. During CPET there was no difference in the performance of COVID (male VO2 max 55±4 vs. 56.5±5 ml/kg/min, p=0.53; female VO2 max 54.6±4 vs. 56±5.5 ml/kg/min, p=0.86) and non-COVID athletes (male VO2 max 56.7±5 vs. 55.5±4.5 ml/kg/min, p=0.50; female 49.6±3 vs. 50.7±2.6 ml/kg/min, p=0.47) between 2019 and 2021. Pulmonary examination verified asthma in 37%. When comparing the time results of swimming in the National Championships at 2019 and 2021, 54.8% of the athletes showed an improvement (p=0.75).
Conclusion: The Olympic preparation of the Hungarian National Swim Team was not hindered by COVID infection. According to the time results of the National Championship, the COVID pandemic did not impair the effectiveness of the preparation.
Funding: The research was supported by the ÚNKP-20-3-I-SE-42, ÚNKP-20-4-II-SE-21 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.

University and Doctoral School

Semmelweis University, Doctoral School of Theoretical and Translational Medicine