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Svendsen et al 2015 Final accepted version SJMSS 23-02-2015 (1).pdf (335.19 kB)

Effect of an intense period of competition on race performance and self-reported illness in elite cross-country skiers.

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posted on 2015-03-12, 11:49 authored by Michael Gleeson, Ida Svendsen, Thomas A. Haugen, Espen Tonnessen
Aim: To determine whether participating in a cross-country skiing stage race (TDS) affects subsequent illness incidence, training and race performance. Methods: Self-reported training and illness data from 44 male and female elite cross-country skiers were included. In total, 125 years’ of data was collected (2-3 seasons per athlete). Illness incidence, training load and performance in international competitions were calculated for athletes who did and did not participate in TDS. Results: 48% of athletes reported becoming ill during or in the days immediately after taking part in TDS, vs. 16% of athletes who did not participate. In both groups, illness incidence was somewhat lower for female athletes. For male athletes, race performance was significantly worse for 6 weeks following TDS vs. 6 weeks before TDS. Furthermore, while female athletes who participated in TDS performed relatively better than controls in Olympics/World Championships, male athletes who participated in TDS typically performed worse in subsequent major championships. Conclusion: Participating in TDS appears to result in ~3-fold increase in risk of illness in this period. Male athletes appear more prone to illness and also see a drop in race performance following TDS, possibly linked to differences in training load before and after the event.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports

Citation

GLEESON, M. ... et al., 2015. Effect of an intense period of competition on race performance and self-reported illness in elite cross-country skiers. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 25(6), pp.846-853.

Publisher

© John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

This is the peer reviewed version of the article which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sms.12452 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.

ISSN

0905-7188

eISSN

1600-0838)

Language

  • en

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