COVID-19 May Quietly Cut Athletes’ Endurance Long After Recovery from Even Mild Infection
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Jul 03, 2026 1 hour, 4 minutes ago
Medical News: Even after recovering from what appeared to be a mild COVID-19 infection, many athletes may not be performing at the same level as before, according to a new systematic review and meta-analysis conducted by researchers from the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland. The research team included scientists from the 3rd Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology and the First Department of Cardiology at the Medical University of Warsaw, who analyzed evidence from multiple studies to determine how COVID-19 affects physical fitness in athletes.
A large new analysis suggests COVID-19 may reduce endurance and breathing performance in athletes even after
apparent recovery
COVID-19 Leaves a Lasting Mark on Performance
The researchers reviewed data from 12 studies involving 1,595 recreational and competitive athletes who had laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. They focused on cardiorespiratory fitness, which reflects how efficiently the heart, lungs, and muscles work together during exercise.
The analysis found that athletes who had recovered from COVID-19 generally showed lower maximum oxygen uptake, known as VO2max. This measurement is widely regarded as the gold standard for evaluating endurance and aerobic fitness. Lower VO2max means the body is less efficient at delivering oxygen to working muscles, making intense exercise feel more difficult and reducing overall performance.
Athletes who had COVID-19 also demonstrated reduced maximum ventilation, meaning their lungs moved less air during peak exercise. However, the infection did not significantly affect maximum heart rate, suggesting that breathing capacity rather than heart rate may be the more important limiting factor after infection.
The Decline Was Not Equal for Everyone
One of the most interesting findings was that recreational athletes appeared to experience greater reductions in fitness than elite competitive athletes. Researchers believe this could be because elite athletes often have superior physical conditioning, structured rehabilitation, and closer medical monitoring.
The analysis also showed stronger evidence of declining fitness when athletes were compared with their own pre-COVID performance rather than with healthy athletes who had never been infected. This suggests that even if recovered athletes appear healthy compared with others, they may still have lost part of their previous athletic capacity.
Another notable finding was that athletes who experienced symptoms during COVID-19 tended to show larger drops in aerobic fitness than those with mild or no symptoms. In several studies, reduced exercise capacity was still measurable more than one month after infection, indicating that recovery of physical performance may take longer than many athletes expect.
Why Does COVID-19 Affect Endurance?
In the middle of this
Medical News report, it is important to understand that COVID-19 can affect several body systems involved in exercise. Previous research ha
s shown that the virus may trigger inflammation, temporarily weaken lung function, reduce respiratory muscle strength, injure blood vessels, and occasionally affect the heart.
Together, these changes can limit the body's ability to transport oxygen during intense activity. The reduced ventilation seen in this analysis supports the idea that lingering respiratory effects may play an important role in limiting athletic performance even after the infection itself has resolved.
Researchers Urge Careful Return to Sport
The researchers emphasized that athletes should not assume they have fully recovered simply because symptoms have disappeared. Instead, fitness testing and individualized medical evaluation may help determine when it is safe to return to full training and competition.
The investigators also cautioned that many of the available studies had methodological limitations, including relatively small participant numbers and varying study quality. In addition, temporary reductions in training during illness could have contributed to some of the observed decline, making it difficult to separate the effects of the virus itself from the effects of reduced physical activity.
Conclusion
The findings suggest that COVID-19 can leave measurable effects on athletic endurance even after recovery, particularly by reducing the body's ability to use oxygen efficiently and limiting breathing performance during intense exercise. Although the overall certainty of the evidence remains low because many of the included studies had important limitations, the results highlight the importance of individualized assessment before athletes resume high-intensity training. Careful monitoring may help reduce the risk of returning to competition before cardiorespiratory fitness has fully recovered.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed Journal of Clinical Medicine.
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/15/13/5133
For the latest COVID-19 news, keep on logging to Thailand
Medical News.
Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/long-covid
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