Of Michael Phelps a Mireia Belmonteof Chris Froome a Miguel Indurainof Paula Radcliffe a Mo Farah. A star who has overcome an illness is an example of overcoming, but… What happens if many athletes have gone through exactly the same thing? This year, a macro study by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) concluded that one in five athletes suffers from asthma. Exactly 21%, a high percentage. The figure also increases if endurance athletes are isolated (25%), multiplies among swimmers (39%) and reaches maximums with skiers from Nordic countries (79%).
The symptoms of asthma – shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, cough… – are contrary to exercise, more so to competition, but there are more and more champions who suffer from it. Because? Decades ago, the increase in athletes diagnosed with asthma was considered an open door to doping and cheating. Today it is not like that.
“Those are bar comments, from people who are outside the professional world,” he proclaims. Franchek Drobnicspecialist in Sports Medicine, former head of research at the High Performance Center (CAR) of Sant Cugat and expert in the field.
«Exercise-induced asthma has been studied since Maimonides, in the 12th century, imagine if it is known, although it is true that there are more and more cases. This is due to several factors: the diagnosis has been perfected, allergies due to pollution have skyrocketed, the number of elite athletes has increased and the intensity of competitions has grown,” explains Drobnic, who defines the ailment: “It is a technopathy, a pathology of the professional. The respiratory system complains about the continued effort to which it is subjected. There’s no way around it, it’s practically part of the sport. “Most cyclists, for example, already know that they are going to have bronchial hyperactivity, which does not mean asthma, although it manifests itself the same.”
Due to the nature of their specialties, endurance athletes are the ones who suffer the most respiratory problems, but… Why are there so many cases among swimmers and, above all, among skiers? The answer is in the air. Swimmers’ lungs suffer from chlorine, which cleans the water and pollutes the environment, as happens to ice hockey players with the gases that maintain the rink. And skiers’ lungs simply suffer from the cold.