COVID-19 and elite sport: Cardiovascular implications and return-to-play 2022 Faghy et al

Abstract

Curtailing elite sports during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was necessary to prevent widespread viral transmission. Now that elite sport and international competitions have been largely restored, there is still a need to devise appropriate screening and management pathways for athletes with a history of, or current, COVID-19 infection. These approaches should support the decision-making process of coaches, sports medicine practitioners and the athlete about the suitability to return to training and competition activities. In the absence of longitudinal data sets from athlete populations, the incidence of developing prolonged and debilitating symptoms (i.e., Long COVID) that affects a return to training and competition remains a challenge to sports and exercise scientists, sports medicine practitioners and clinical groups. As the world attempts to adjust toward ‘living with COVID-19’ the very nature of elite and international sporting competition poses a risk to athlete welfare that must be screened for and managed with bespoke protocols that consider the cardiovascular implications for performance.

Open access, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033062022001359

 

Unfortunately, no mention of PEM. They also seem to downplay the effect of long Covid on previously healthy people:

In context, they balance this with anecdotes of sidelined athletes and a call for more research, but I still think this sentence is unjustified.

Also, no mention of PEM. Most of the paper is about myocarditis.