Changes in Upper-Body Muscular Strength and Power in Paralympic Swimmers: Effects of Training Confinement during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Are Dryland Strength and Power Measurements Associated with Swimming Performance? Preliminary Results on Elite Paralympic Swimmers

This study aimed to identify the relationship between dryland tests and swimming performance in elite Paralympic swimmers. Fifteen competitive swimmers (age: 27.4 ± 5.4 years, height: 1.70 ± 6.8 m, body mass: 67.9 ± 9.2 kg; 9 males, 6 females) performed a lat pull-down and a bench press incremental load test to determine maximum power (Pmax), the strength corresponding to maximum power (F@Pmax), and the barbell velocity corresponding to maximum power (V@Pmax) from the force-velocity and power-velocity profiles. These outcomes were also normalized by the athlete's body mass. Swimming performance was carried out from the best result in a 100 m freestyle race registered during an international competition. Lat pull-down F@Pmax was significantly associated with 100 m freestyle chronometric time (ρ = -0.56, p < 0.05), and lat pull-down V@Pmax presented a relationship with mean swimming velocity (ρ = 0.71, p < 0.01). Similarly, bench press F@Pmax and the normalized F@Pmax were significantly related to the mean swimming velocity (ρ = -0.51, ρ = -0.62, p < 0.05). Stepwise multiple regression showed that lat pull-down V@Pmax, bench press normF@Pmax, and V@Pmax accounted for 40.6%, 42.3%, and 65.8% (p < 0.05) of the mean swimming velocity variance. These preliminary results highlighted that simple dryland tests, although with a moderate relationship, are significantly associated with 100 m freestyle swimming performance in elite Paralympic swimmers.

Pandemic-specific coping, anxiety, and depression across multiple waves of COVID-19 in elite athletes with disabilities

Objectives

Competitive athletes have faced many of the same mental health challenges experienced by the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the current study was to examine the extent to which pandemic-specific coping predicted anxiety and depression over and above general coping styles in elite athletes with disabilities across multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Participants were 91 athletes (60 men and 31 women) in the Polish Paralympic Preparation Program before the 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympic Games and 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympic Games. The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations and an open-ended item asking participants to describe coping resources they had used to overcome stressful situations caused by the pandemic were administered in April 2021, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was administered in April, July, and November of 2021.

Results

General coping styles were not significantly associated with pandemic-specific coping, anxiety, or depression in the July and November 2021 assessments. Pandemic-specific coping was related prospectively to both anxiety and depression across the July and November 2021 assessments when controlling for age, gender, general coping styles, and April 2021 anxiety and depression, respectively.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that elite athletes with disabilities may cope with pandemic-related stress differently from how they cope with stress in general and that pandemic-specific coping may be relevant to mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This information may be useful in the development of interventions to assist elite athletes with disabilities cope with pandemics and other atypical stressors.

Impact of Prolonged Cessation of Organized Team Training Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Body Composition of Japanese Elite Female Wheelchair Basketball Athletes

Studies on the effects of training confinement on athletes with physical impairments are limited. Hence, in this retrospective cohort study, we aimed to investigate the impact of prolonged cessation of organized team training due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on the body composition of elite female Japanese basketball athletes. Fourteen female wheelchair basketball athletes (aged ≥20 years) were enrolled. The primary outcomes were lean and adipose indices measured using whole-body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. The impact of prolonged organized team training cessation on body composition was investigated by comparing the body composition at baseline and post-training confinement. A reduced whole-body lean mass (p = 0.038) and percent lean mass (p = 0.022), as well as an increased percent body fat (p = 0.035), were observed after the confinement period. The regional analysis revealed reduced percent lean and increased percent fat masses in the trunk (p = 0.015 and p = 0.026, respectively) and upper limbs (p = 0.036 and p = 0.048, respectively). In conclusion, prolonged organized team training cessation reduced lean mass and increased body fat percentage, primarily in the trunk and upper limbs. Individualized training programs targeting these body regions should be implemented to improve body composition and physical conditions in athletes during and after prolonged cessation of organized team training.

A Bibliometrics-Enhanced, PAGER-Compliant Scoping Review of the Literature on Paralympic Powerlifting: Insights for Practices and Future Research

Paralympic powerlifting (PP), formerly known as "International Paralympic Committee" (IPC) powerlifting, is the format of powerlifting adapted for athletes with disabilities, and it differs from the version for able-bodied athletes in that it consists of bench press only. According to the mandate of the IPC, PP athletes should be enabled to achieve sporting excellence. As such, rigorous evidence is needed. However, to the best of our knowledge, there exists no systematic assessment of the body of scholarly evidence in the field of PP. Therefore, the present study was conducted to fill in this gap of knowledge, by conducting a scoping review of the literature enhanced by a bibliometrics analysis and by mining two major scholarly databases (MEDLINE via PubMed and Scopus). The aim was to provide a review/summary of the findings to date to help practitioners and athletes. Thirty-seven studies were retained in the present study. These covered the following thematic areas: (i) warm-up strategies (n = 2); (ii) aspects of training (n = 2); (iii) physiological aspects and responses (n = 2); (iv) psychological aspects and responses (n = 2); (v) biomechanics of bench press (n = 8); (vi) recovery strategy (n = 5); (vii) impact of the disability and type of disability (n = 4); (viii) epidemiology of PP (n = 6); and (ix) new analytical/statistical approaches for kinematics assessments, internal load monitoring, and predictions of mechanical outputs in strength exercises and in PP (n = 6). Bibliometrics analysis of the PP-related scientific output revealed that, despite having already become a paralympic sports discipline in 1984, only in the last few years, PP has been attracting a lot of interest from the community of researchers, with the first scholarly contribution dating back to 2012, and with more than one-third of the scientific output being published this year (2022). As such, this scholarly discipline is quite recent and young. Moreover, the community dealing with this topic is poorly interconnected, with most authors contributing to just one article, and with one single author being a hub node of the author network. Distributions of the number of articles and the authors/co-authors were found to be highly asymmetrical, indicating that this research is still in its infancy and has great room as well as great potential to grow. Reflecting this, many research topics are also overlooked and underdeveloped, with the currently available evidence being based on a few studies.

A tale of two stories: COVID-19 and disability. A critical scoping review of the literature on the effects of the pandemic among athletes with disabilities and para-athletes

The still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted athletes, and, in particular, para-athletes and athletes with disabilities. However, there is no scholarly appraisal on this topic. Therefore, a critical scoping review of the literature was conducted. We were able to retrieve sixteen relevant studies. The sample size ranged from 4 to 183. Most studies were observational, cross-sectional, and questionnaire-based surveys, two studies were interventional, and two were longitudinal. One study was a technical feasibility study. Almost all studies were conducted as single-country studies, with the exception of one multi-country investigation. Five major topics/themes could be identified: namely, 1) impact of COVID-19-induced confinement on training and lifestyles in athletes with disabilities/para-athletes; 2) impact of COVID-19-induced confinement on mental health in athletes with disabilities/para-athletes; 3) impact of COVID-19-induced confinement on performance outcomes in athletes with disabilities/para-athletes; 4) risk of contracting COVID-19 among athletes with disabilities/para-athletes; and, finally, 5) impact of COVID-19 infection on athletes with disabilities/para-athletes. The scholarly literature assessed was highly heterogeneous, with contrasting findings, and various methodological limitations. Based on our considerations, we recommend that standardized, reliable tools should be utilized and new, specific questionnaires should be created, tested for reliability, and validated. High-quality, multi-center, cross-countries, longitudinal surveys should be conducted to overcome current shortcomings. Involving all relevant actors and stakeholders, including various national and international Paralympic Committees, as a few studies have done, is fundamental: community-led, participatory research can help identify gaps in the current knowledge about sports-related practices among the population of athletes with disabilities during an unprecedented period of measures undertaken that have significantly affected everyday life. Moreover, this could advance the field, by capturing the needs of para-athletes and athletes with disabilities and enabling the design of a truly "disability-inclusive response" to COVID-19 and similar future conditions/situations. Furthermore, follow-up studies on COVID-19-infected para-athletes and athletes with disabilities should be conducted. Evidence of long-term effects of COVID-19 is available only for able-bodied athletes, for whom cardiorespiratory residual alterations and mental health issues a long time after COVID-19 have been described.