Gábor A Fülöp, Álmos Gógl, Bálint Lakatos, Nóra Sydó, Emese Csulak, Bianka Mester, Szabolcs Tóth, Árpád Petrov, Vivien Klaudia Nagy, Gergo Merkely, Béla Merkely
{"title":"Swimming competitions in the era of COVID-19: Lessons from successfully hosting the International Swimming League.","authors":"Gábor A Fülöp, Álmos Gógl, Bálint Lakatos, Nóra Sydó, Emese Csulak, Bianka Mester, Szabolcs Tóth, Árpád Petrov, Vivien Klaudia Nagy, Gergo Merkely, Béla Merkely","doi":"10.1556/2060.2022.00153","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Organization of mass sport events in the COVID-19 era is utterly complicated. Containments measures, required to avoid a virus outbreak, force athletes to compete under circumstances they never experienced before, most likely having a deleterious effect on their performance.</p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>We aimed to design a so-called athlete-friendly bubble system for the International Swimming League 2020 event, which is strict enough to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak, but still provides a supportive environment for the athletes.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>To avoid the feeling of imprisonment, athletes were permitted to spend a certain amount of time in the parks surrounding the hotels. Such alleviations were possible to apply with strict adherence to the hygienic and social distancing protocols and regular COVID-19 testing. Evaluation of every COVID-19 positive case was key, and if prolonged PCR positivity or false positive PCR result was identified, the unnecessary quarantine was planned to be lifted. Return to play protocol (RTP) was planned, in case of a COVID-19 infection of an athlete inside the bubble. To test, if the athlete-friendly system provided a supportive environment, we evaluated athlete performance.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>11,480 PCR tests were performed for 1,421 individuals. 63 COVID-19 positive cases were detected, of which 5 turned out to be clinically insignificant, either because of prolonged PCR positivity or because of a false positive result. 93.1% of the positive cases were detected in the local crew, while no athlete got infected inside the bubble, as the two infected athletes were tested positive upon arrival. RTP was provided for two athletes. 85% of the athletes showed improvement during the bubble and 8 world records were broken.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The applied protocol proved to be effective, as no athlete got infected inside the bubble, moreover, the athlete-friendly system supported the athletes to improve their performance.</p>","PeriodicalId":20058,"journal":{"name":"Physiology international","volume":"109 4","pages":"511-523"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Physiology international","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2060.2022.00153","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PHYSIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Organization of mass sport events in the COVID-19 era is utterly complicated. Containments measures, required to avoid a virus outbreak, force athletes to compete under circumstances they never experienced before, most likely having a deleterious effect on their performance.
Purpose: We aimed to design a so-called athlete-friendly bubble system for the International Swimming League 2020 event, which is strict enough to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak, but still provides a supportive environment for the athletes.
Methods: To avoid the feeling of imprisonment, athletes were permitted to spend a certain amount of time in the parks surrounding the hotels. Such alleviations were possible to apply with strict adherence to the hygienic and social distancing protocols and regular COVID-19 testing. Evaluation of every COVID-19 positive case was key, and if prolonged PCR positivity or false positive PCR result was identified, the unnecessary quarantine was planned to be lifted. Return to play protocol (RTP) was planned, in case of a COVID-19 infection of an athlete inside the bubble. To test, if the athlete-friendly system provided a supportive environment, we evaluated athlete performance.
Results: 11,480 PCR tests were performed for 1,421 individuals. 63 COVID-19 positive cases were detected, of which 5 turned out to be clinically insignificant, either because of prolonged PCR positivity or because of a false positive result. 93.1% of the positive cases were detected in the local crew, while no athlete got infected inside the bubble, as the two infected athletes were tested positive upon arrival. RTP was provided for two athletes. 85% of the athletes showed improvement during the bubble and 8 world records were broken.
Conclusion: The applied protocol proved to be effective, as no athlete got infected inside the bubble, moreover, the athlete-friendly system supported the athletes to improve their performance.
期刊介绍：
The journal provides a forum for important new research papers written by eminent scientists on experimental medical sciences. Papers reporting on both original work and review articles in the fields of basic and clinical physiology, pathophysiology (from the subcellular organization level up to the oranizmic one), as well as related disciplines, including history of physiological sciences, are accepted.
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号
