Athletes with asthma tend to do better at the Winter Olympics
Filed under: News, Sports, Olympics
From cross-country skiing to speed skating, the Winter Olympics is full of breathless feats of endurance. And for a large number of Olympic athletes, the breathlessness isn’t just over who will win the next medal—it’s from asthma. But if you think the condition could hold Olympians back, think again: Athletes with asthma are more likely to win medals than their competitors.
Up to one in four winter Olympians have asthma, a condition that constricts the airways and makes it difficult to breathe normally. That’s no surprise to John Dickinson, a professor at the University of Kent’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences. He’s studied asthma in elite competitors for years and says that the number of athletes with the condition can skew even higher in endurance sports: up to 70 percent in swimmers and 50 percent in cross-country skiers.