Swimming competitions in the era of COVID-19: Lessons from successfully hosting the International Swimming League.

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.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Preparation for the Tokyo Olympics: A Comprehensive Performance Assessment of Top Swimmers.

BACKGROUND: The Olympic preparation of athletes has been highly influenced by COVID and post-COVID syndrome. As the complex screening of athletes is essential for safe and successful sports, we aimed to repeat the 2019-year sports cardiology screening of the Olympic Swim Team before the Olympics and to compare the results of COVID and non-COVID athletes. METHODS: Patient history, electrocardiogram, laboratory tests, body composition analysis, echocardiography, cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) were performed. We used time-ranking points to compare swimming performance. RESULTS: From April 2019, we examined 46 elite swimmers (24 ± 4 years). Fourteen swimmers had COVID infection; all cases were mild. 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) vs. 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. When comparing the time results of the National Championships, 54.8% of the athletes showed an improvement (p = 0.75). CONCLUSIONS: COVID infection with short-term detraining did not affect the performance of well-trained swimmers. According to our results, the COVID pandemic did not impair the effectiveness of the preparation for the Tokyo Olympics.