2023-07-24 14:32:55
July 24, 2023
The Covid-19 is still circulating and can affect the performance of athletes. Thus, it is a light but very present health protocol that has been put in place on the Tour de France. Objective ? Avoid the spread of a virus but above all protect the careers of athletes. Explanations.
Last May, a surprise guest disrupted the Tour of Italy: the Covid-19, which forced about fifteen runners to retire, including the Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel, then leader of the race. Cautious, the organization of the Tour de France had opted for a strict health protocol, the Covid-19 fortunately did not come to play the spoilsport.
Why such precautions? So as not to relive the hecatomb of the last Giro… and to preserve the health and long-term performance of the riders. Last December, the British quadruple winner of the Tour de France Chris Froome, infected during the Tour 2022, explained at length in a video published on his YouTube channel how much the disease had put him ” flat “ and affected his health for long weeks, particularly on the cardiovascular level.
And he wouldn’t be the only one: “From people I’ve spoken to in the peloton, a lot of guys are really struggling with the aftereffects two or three months later – fatigue, feeling like they don’t have the same energy level, weird heart rate readings as well”. To explain the poor performance of Slovak sprinter Peter Sagan in 2022, the hypothesis of a long Covid has for example been put forward.
Smooth recovery
What do scientists say about this? At the height of the pandemic, several works were carried out with different teams, practicing various sports (volleyball, basketball, football, rugby, etc.). As in the general population, these studies, conducted on small samples, have observed cases of more or less symptomatic athletes, with more or less long-term sequelae. Practicing their sport at a high level still seemed to have a protective effect against severe forms of Covid. And the possible consequences on the performance of athletes were generally only transitory.
One of the most comprehensive works on the subject to date remains a meta-analysis including 43 studies, published in August 2022 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. In total, data concerning more than 11,000 top athletes were analyzed. They showed that“about 94% of them had mild symptoms or had no acute symptoms”but that in the long term, 8% of athletes have persistent symptoms (fatigue, chest pain, etc.) that can affect their performance.
On the other hand, even if it has been observed in several professional athletes, “The available data did not confirm a causal relationship between Covid-19 and myocardial damage”, say the researchers. However, after an infection, for athletes and amateurs alike, recovery must be smooth, in order to avoid any risk of complications.
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