The journey so far : professional sport during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND : The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted community and professional sports. Throughout this time, sports organisations collaborated closely with the WHO, host national governments and their public health authorities. The common goals were to assess risk and to implement risk reduction measures to facilitate a stepwise return to sport, thus realising the physical and mental health benefits of sport for the participants, as well as the safe resumption of competitive events despite active SARS-CoV-2 transmission in many countries.https://bmjopensem.bmj.comSports Medicin

Beyond the medals: a cross-sectional study exploring retired elite female athletes\u27 health.

OBJECTIVES: Little is known about the impact of elite sport participation on long-term athlete health. We aimed to: (1) describe musculoskeletal, mental health, reproductive/endocrine and cardiovascular characteristics in retired elite female athletes and compare to the general population and (2) explore athletes\u27 perceptions of their elite sport participation and its impact on health. METHODS: A 136-item online questionnaire was disseminated to Canadian elite female rowing and rugby athletes \u3e18 years old, \u3e2 years retired from elite competition. Matched general population data were obtained from Statistics Canada when available. RESULTS: Seventy-four (24% response rate) athletes (average age 45 (±9) years; retired 15 (±9) years) completed the questionnaire (30 rowing, 44 rugby athletes). During their career, 63 athletes (85%) experienced a hip/groin, knee, foot/ankle injury, or low back pain, with 42 (67%) reporting ongoing symptoms. Athletes 35-54 years reported worse knee symptoms and quality of life compared with the general population (symptom: p=0.197; d=1.15 [0.66, 1.63]; quality of life: p=0.312 d=1.03 [0.54, 1.51]) while other hip, knee and foot/ankle outcome scores were similar. Retired athletes had lower odds of anxiety (OR=0.155 [95% CI0.062 to 0.384]), greater lifetime/ever odds of amenorrhea (OR=6.10 [95%CI 2.67 to 13.96]) and gave birth when older (p CONCLUSION: These novel insights can inform future preventative efforts to promote positive elite sport-related outcomes for current, former and future female athletes